The British media had billed the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Nov. 21 meeting with Pope Benedict XVI as a showdown, but the reality was quite different and resulted in a firm reaffirmation and consolidation of the official dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion.
 
“I was very happy with the outcome of the meeting; it was as good as I could have hoped,” Archbishop Rowan Williams told journalists at the Anglican Centre in Rome after his audience with the pope. “I was very glad to hear the pope repeat his commitment to the continuing process of official dialogue between our two churches as churches.”
 
He revealed, moreover, that Pope Benedict was “extremely enthusiastic” about Phase III of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC). Archbishop Williams was pleased too because he had been able to talk frankly with the pope about Anglicanorum Coetibus, the Apostolic Constitution that the Vatican previewed on Oct. 20 and released on Nov. 9. He said their conversation lasted “just over half an hour.”
 
In a statement issued after the two leaders’ private conversation in the pope’s library, the Vatican said their discussions had focused on “recent events affecting relations” between the two communions and noted “the shared will to continue and consolidate the ecumenical relationship between Catholics and Anglicans.”
 
The Vatican statement added that they had also talked about “how, over the coming days, the commission entrusted with preparing the third phase of the international theological dialogue between the parties (ARCIC) is due to meet.”
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