The Archbishop of Canterbury made a historic visit to the Vatican on Monday for an audience with Pope Leo XIV, marking her first foreign engagement since becoming the first woman leader of the Church of England and spiritual head of millions of Anglicans worldwide.
Sarah Mullally, whose appointment has caused divisions within the already fractured Anglican Communion, arrived early for her meeting with Pope Leo in his private library.
The pair were scheduled to proceed to the Urban VIII Chapel within the Apostolic Palace for what the Vatican described as a “moment of prayer.”
This audience forms part of a four-day pilgrimage to Rome, during which she has visited major pontifical basilicas, prayed at the tombs of Saints Peter and Paul, and engaged with senior Vatican officials.
Lambeth Palace stated the visit aims “to strengthen Anglican–Roman Catholic relations through prayer, personal encounter, and formal theological dialogue”.
It added the visit “aims to deepen bonds of communion, affirm a shared witness, and encourage ongoing collaboration at both global and local levels”.
The Anglican Church famously separated from Rome in 1534 following King Henry VIII’s request for a marriage annulment. Despite formal theological discussions commencing in the 1960s, significant differences persist, particularly concerning the Church of England’s decision to ordain women.
The Roman Catholic Church maintains its tradition of reserving the priesthood exclusively for men. The first female Anglican priests were ordained in 1994, followed by its first female bishop in 2015, culminating in Mullally’s groundbreaking role as the first Archbishop of Canterbury.
Her appointment though has split the Anglican Communion, whose 100 million members in 165 countries are deeply divided over issues such as the role of women and the treatment of LGBTQ+ people. Many in England and other Western countries hailed her appointment as a historic breaking of a stained-glass ceiling.
But the communion’s largest and fastest-growing churches in Africa belong to a conservative group called the Global Anglican Future Conference, or Gafcon, which has sharply criticized her appointment and threatened a final break. In the U.S., the conservative Anglican Church in North America formed in a break from the more liberal U.S. and Canadian Episcopal churches and has signed onto the Gafcon statement opposing Mullally’s appointment.
Leo congratulates Mullally on appointment
Leo and Mullally have already exchanged greetings, with Leo congratulating her on her installation last month but acknowledging she was taking over at a “challenging” time and that differences still divide the Anglican and Catholic churches.
“We also know that the ecumenical journey has not always been smooth,” Leo wrote. “Despite much progress, our immediate predecessors, Pope Francis and Archbishop Justin Welby, acknowledged frankly that new circumstances have presented new disagreements among us,” Leo wrote.
He nevertheless vowed to continue dialogue, and in October Leo welcomed King Charles III and Queen Camilla to the Vatican, where they prayed in the Sistine Chapel. Charles is the titular head of the Church of England.
That event, Oct. 25, marked the first time since the Reformation that the heads of the two Christian churches had prayed together.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the first formal ecumenical statement between the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches, signed in 1966 at St. Paul’s Outside the Walls basilica by Archbishop Michael Ramsey and Pope Paul VI.
Mullally for her part has expressed solidarity with Leo’s peace message, after the American-born pope was harshly criticized by President Donald Trump for his calls for peace in Iran.
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