ITALY: Archbishop of Canterbury delivers address at a Willebrands Symposium in Rome

November 19, 2009 [Lambeth Palace] Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams delivered an address in Rome on Nov. 19 as the guest of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. The address formed part of a symposium being held at the Gregorian University to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Cardinal Willebrands, the first president of the council.

Williams offered an overview of the decades-long dialogue between the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church and briefly referred to the recent announcement of an Apostolic Constitution that outlines provisions to accept groups of former Anglicans who wish to enter into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church.

While in Rome, Williams is scheduled to meet with Pope Benedict XVI for the first time since the Apostolic Constitution was released.

In his address at the Gregorian University, Williams said that the constitution "shows some marks of the recognition that diversity of ethos does not in itself compromise the unity of the Catholic Church, even within the bounds of the historic Western patriarchate. But it should be obvious that it does not seek to do what we have been sketching: it does not build in any formal recognition of existing ministries or units of oversight or methods of independent decision-making, but remains at the level of spiritual and liturgical culture, as we might say. As such, it is an imaginative pastoral response to the needs of some; but it does not break any fresh ecclesiological ground. It remains to be seen whether the flexibility suggested in the constitution might ever lead to something less like a 'chaplaincy' and more like a church gathered around a bishop."

The full text of the lecture is available here.

» Respond to this article