Vatican City, VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo and the newly installed Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, met for the first time on Monday in Vatican City.
The meeting at the Vatican brought together the leaders of the Catholic Church and the Church of England, two denominations that have remained officially separated since the acrimonious split of 1534.
Archbishop Mullally, the first woman to lead the world’s 85 million Anglicans, was received by Pope Leo—the first leader of the United States to head the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics—in his formal office within the ornate Apostolic Palace.
Okay News reports that the two leaders held a private discussion before proceeding to a 17th-century chapel, where they recited prayers in unison, a gesture of unity amidst ongoing theological differences.
During her formal remarks, Mullally praised Pope Leo for his “forceful speaking style” recently displayed during his four-nation Africa tour, where he denounced war and despotism. This specific rhetoric has notably attracted criticism from U.S. President Donald Trump. Leo, while acknowledging progress in Catholic-Anglican relations, noted that “new problems have arisen in recent decades,” likely referencing the ordination of women and other modern doctrinal shifts, yet he urged both churches to proclaim Christ together regardless of these challenges.
The Archbishop’s visit to Rome follows her historic installation in March, a move that received mixed reactions across the global Anglican Communion, particularly within conservative provinces in Africa and Asia.
