The Anglican Church has experienced a historic moment: Sarah Mullally, a former oncology nurse, has become the first woman appointed primate, that is, the new Archbishop of Canterbury and head of Anglican Church worldwide.
Pope Leo XIV, as the head of the Catholic Church, addressed a message to the new head of the Anglican Church. In it, the pontiff acknowledges that the ecumenical path—the union between Christians, Catholics and Anglicans—has not always been easy.
Despite much progress, our immediate predecessors, Pope Francis and Archbishop Justin Welby, acknowledged frankly that “new circumstances have presented new disagreements among us.
However, Pope Leo XIV also emphasized that which united both churches and which is stronger than all their differences: baptism.
For my part, I firmly believe that we need to continue to dialogue in truth and love, for it is only in truth and love that we come to know together the grace, mercy and peace of God
Since the year 2000, tensions have been rising within Anglicanism: the most recent being the election of a woman as the spiritual leader of the Church. Certain regions of the African continent consider this a “doctrinal drift,” and it may become yet another source of division.
