Pope Leo and new Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally met for the first time on Monday, in a symbolic encounter at the Vatican in which the leaders of the long-separated Catholic Church and Church of England exchanged gifts and prayed together.
Mullally, the first woman to serve as spiritual leader of the world’s 85 million Anglicans, was welcomed by Leo, the first US leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, into his formal office at the Vatican’s ornate apostolic palace.
The two, who lead Christian denominations that split from each other in acrimony in 1534, met privately before going together to a 17th century chapel where they recited prayers in unison.
“The world needed this message at this time – thank you,” the archbishop said. “It reminded us that despite our sufferings, people long for life in all its fullness, and countless people are working each day for this vision of the common good.”
Leo told Mullally that progress had been made in drawing the Catholic Church and Church of England together but lamented that “new problems have arisen in recent decades”, without specifying those problems.
