Word: vatican
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Tucked in the archive section of the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams' website, a visitor can find a video of the soft-spoken Anglican leader reflecting on his momentous 2006 visit to the Vatican. Williams had come to meet Pope Benedict XVI to mark the 40th anniversary of the opening of Catholic-Anglican dialogue after five centuries of hostilities between the two churches. The video opens with images of a bustling St. Peter's Square, and Williams' wistful voiceover: "There's undoubtedly something about Rome...
...Williams' mood is unlikely to be as upbeat when he meets with Pope Benedict on Saturday, just a month after the Vatican's surprise announcement outlining historic new procedures designed to help disaffected conservative Anglicans enter the Roman Catholic fold. Both Anglicans and Catholics are now awaiting the first details of exactly how the Vatican will bring in would-be Anglican converts, groups or parishes. "This announcement from Rome is incredibly messy," says Rev. Jo Bailey Wells, who heads the Anglican Studies department at Duke University Divinity School. "It's confused and confusing." (See pictures of President Obama meeting Pope...
...secret negotiations between the Vatican's top doctrinal officials and traditionalist Anglicans took place behind the back of Williams, who is the spiritual leader of Anglicanism (though without the universal authority that the Pope holds in Catholicism) and a longtime proponent of gently moving the two faiths closer together through patient ecumenical dialogue. "They've pulled a fast one over on him," Wells says of Williams. "It makes a laughing stock of those pushing for greater dialogue, who have made great strides in the past 30 years." (See pictures of the path of Pope Benedict...
...Vatican sources say Williams' Saturday morning papal audience, which was scheduled long before the latest move from Rome, is now expected to be kept brief and mostly hidden from the media. Wells is sure the Archbishop of Canterbury will address the tensions created by the Pope's new policy, "but he will be very gracious, as he always...
...most recent public statements. In late September, O'Malley was named to the Pontifical Council for the Family, a minor and expected appointment, but also a reminder that the Boston Cardinal has friends in high places. "From the point of view of doctrine, Benedict has absolute firmness," says a Vatican insider. "But he does not want to see it play out in a confrontational...