Next November will be a key month for the dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Church. In mid November, in Leeds, for the first time since the “Church of England” was established by Henry VIII in the sixteenth century, all the Catholic bishops of England and Wales will meet their Anglican colleagues sitting in the “Chamber of Bishops”, in Parliament. For four years, the meeting was prepared by the Catholic Primate of England and Wales, Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, and by the leader of the Anglican communion, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. In a recent interview with the English Catholic weekly magazine “The Universe”, Cardinal Murphy O’Connor said that on the one hand the ordination of woman pastors and woman bishops was a new barrier on the way to ecumenism, but on the other hand, important steps were taken by the two Churches through the agreements concerning the Eucharist, the sacerdotal ministry, and justification by faith. Those agreements put an end to the theological disputes of the Reformation. The Catholic Primate explained that the two Churches have collaborated and will go on collaborating on subjects such as assisted suicide. A meeting between Rowan Williams and Benedict XVI is also scheduled in November.
