ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY MEETS POPE

The current Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, is one man who could teach the Irish church leaders a thing or two about prevarication and obfuscation. He is held up to almost daily ridicule and contempt by both Christians and non-Christians for his apparent unwillingness or inability to be clear about virtually anything. Dr Williams is, however, fairly clear in his desire for closer ties with the Church of Rome, and, in line with the Rome-ward trend developed by some of his predecessors, he met with Pope Benedict XVI on 23 November 2006. Both men acknowledged that there were 'serious obstacles' on the path to closer ties between Catholics and Anglicans, reflecting tensions over Anglicans' blessings of same-sex unions and steps to ordain female bishops. However, the leaders of the two churches, in a joint statement after 25 minutes of private talks, said they were committing themselves to continuing dialogue. It will be interesting to see if an invitation is now extended to the Pope to visit Britain. Such an invitation has already been extended by the English and Welsh Roman Catholic bishops and by Tony Blair.