The Clerical Whispers website reports today (February 14, 2012) that the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams -- who heads the Anglican Church -- will meet with Pope Benedict XVI next month in Rome.
Loss of support for the Anglican Church in recent years by a plethora of its worshipers -- due primarily to its acceptance of gay clergy and women priests -- resulted in Pope Benedict's decision in 2009 to ease the process by which Anglicans could convert to Catholicism. Pope Benedict's ruling also allows married Anglican priests to become Catholic priests.
The Anglican Church broke away from the Catholic Church in 1534 when King Henry VIII could not convince Pope Clement VII to grant him an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.
Benedict and Williams are expected to pray together at the Church of San Gregorio al Celio, located in front of the Palatine Hill -- once the residential neighborhood of ancient Roman rulers.
