The Agence France-Presse (AFP) website reports today (March 7, 2012) that the Archbishop of Canterbury will pray together with Pope Benedict XVI in a rare gesture of unity on Saturday, March 10, despite simmering resentment over the Catholic Church's move to recruit Anglicans.
Anglican leader Rowan Williams and the pope will celebrate vespers together in the monastery of San Gregorio al Celio near the Colosseum in Rome, and a stone Celtic cross brought from Canterbury will be put up in the church.
There have been tensions following Benedict's move in 2009 to set up special structures in Britain and the United States to allow disgruntled conservative Anglican clergymen and faithful to join the Roman Catholic Church.
Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the prayers -- as well as two joint performances by the choirs of Westminster Abbey and the Vatican -- are "a sign of moving together along the same path."
