Pope Leo XIV has assured Archbishop Sarah Mullally, the 106th archbishop of Canterbury and the first female to lead the Church of England, of his prayers and invoked “grace, mercy, and peace … in truth and love.”
The pope’s remarks came in a message to the archbishop a day after her installation ceremony took place March 25 in a packed Canterbury Cathedral.
The message was delivered March 26 in Canterbury Cathedral at the conclusion of a common prayer service presided over by Archbishop Mullally and the pope’s envoy, Cardinal Kurt Koch, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, with Cardinals Timothy Radcliffe, a Dominican theologian, and Vincent Nichols of Westminster present, along other Vatican officials.
During her installation, in her first sermon as the leader of the Anglican Communion, Archbishop Mullally said, “As I look back over my life – at the teenage Sarah, who put her faith in God and made a commitment to follow Jesus – I could never have imagined the future that lay ahead, and certainly not the ministry to which I am now called.”
She warned against overlooking victims harmed by “the failures of those in our own Christian Churches and communities,” the BBC reported.
Among 2,000 guests gathered at Canterbury Cathedral for the ceremony, the Prince and Princess of Wales were present.
Anglicans claim 1,400 years of history because they identify the Church of England not as a new entity created during the 16th-century Reformation, but as the continuation of the Church established in England by a Catholic saint – Saint Augustine of Canterbury – in A.D. 597. Saint Augustine is considered the first archbishop of Canterbury, and all previous 105 archbishops have been men. Women were allowed to become priests in the Church of England in 1994.
During the celebration, the kneeler used was the same one used in the 1982 encounter between Saint John Paul II and Archbishop Robert Runcie of Canterbury, Vatican News said. The pope and the Anglican archbishop used the kneeler in Canterbury Cathedral together on May 29, 1982, to symbolize reconciliation and unity between the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion.
St. John Paul’s historic six-day visit was the first by a reigning pope to Britain.
In his message to Archbishop Mullally, Pope Leo stressed the Anglican leader is commencing global duties “at a challenging moment in the history of the Anglican family.”
“I know that the office for which you have been chosen is a weighty one,” Pope Leo said. He recalled moments of close dialogue and also difficulties in Catholic-Anglican relations.
First, the pope remembered a historic meeting between Saint Paul VI and Archbishop Michael Ramsey of Canterbury, when, exactly 60 years ago, they “committed Catholics and Anglicans to ‘a new stage in the development of fraternal relations, based upon Christian charity,’” Pope Leo said, citing a Joint Declaration of March 24, 1966.
“That fresh chapter of respectful openness has borne much fruit over the past six decades and continues to this day,” the pope said, citing initiated “theological dialogue” and saying the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, or ARCIC, “has contributed enormously to a growth in mutual understanding since its creation.”
At the same time, Pope Leo reminded Archbishop Mullaly that the “ecumenical journey has not always been smooth.”
“Despite much progress, our immediate predecessors, Pope Francis and Archbishop Justin Welby, acknowledged frankly that ‘new circumstances have presented new disagreements among us.’” Nevertheless, “we have continued to walk together,” because differences “cannot prevent us from recognizing one another as brothers and sisters in Christ by reason of our common baptism,” Pope Leo said, citing a joint Catholic-Anglican declaration of Oct. 5, 2016.
“For my part,” Pope Leo wrote to Archbishop Mullally, “I firmly believe that we need to continue to dialogue in truth and love.”
Encouraging unity “which Christians seek,” is “never an end in itself,” he stressed, “but is directed toward the proclamation of Christ, in order that, as the Lord Jesus himself prayed, ‘the world may believe.’”
Calling Archbishop Mullally a “dear sister,” the pope concluded: “I invoke upon you the blessings of Almighty God as you take up your high responsibilities. The Holy Spirit come down upon you and make you fruitful in the Lord’s service.”
