There wasn’t much information in the official communique after Pope Benedict and Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams met at the Vatican on Saturday. The terse text mentioned “cordial discussions” about challenges facing Christians, the need to cooperate and their intention to continue bilateral theological dialogue. The only reference to the issue of the day, Benedict’s offer to take alienated Anglicans into the Catholic Church, was mentioned in passing as “recent events affecting relations between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion.” Hmm, pretty thin pickings”¦.
The Pravda-like opaqueness of the communique (read it here) prompted me to zoom in on the photographs we got from the Vatican daily L’Osservatore Romano for any other clues there.
These photos aren’t so bad, but a lot I have seen lead me to believe that the press are obsessed with getting accentuating shots of Rowan’s eyebrows.
What struck me about the first photo was the disproportionately large desk clock to the Pope’s right, facing him, and the fact the meeting was limited to 20 minutes.
This is about like reading tea leaves.
Twenty minutes? Gee, isn’t that about the same amount of time +++Rowan allowed for his meeting with the seven orthodox TEC bishops who flew over from the States in September?
You had better believe that time is always given for meetings which are deemed worthy of investing time in. After all, how many heavy weight, globally impacting (make that “shattering”) topics can you cover in 20 minutes? The importance (or lack thereof) of this meeting for the Pope should be obvious to all, nonetheless, +++Rowan. Then again . . . !
As for “joint statements,” even political adversaries will join together for a brief kumbaya moment. The fact that there was no such statement following this meeting speaks for itself.
Twenty minutes is hello, I hope you are well, and goodbye. Nothing substantive can be discussed, and not one expects anything at all. I wouldn’t even bother going to Italy at all for twenty minutes and a couple of speeches.
I beg to differ, Sr. Priest. ;^) The Pope was afforded a unique opportunity to hear from +++Rowan’s own mouth a bunch of pleadings and rationalizations which sound very similar to those previously issued to the A.C. by KJS. Let’s face it, TEC and C.E. institutional interests are very similar, if not ultimately identical.
On the other hand, whether he realized it or not, +++Rowan just affirmed the Pope’s understanding as to “why” a pastoral offer to intervene for Anglicans as was necessary in the first place.
Oh, and +++Rowan’s citations for “the great milestones and advances in Anglican/R.C. relations over the past four decades?” Sad to say, none of them have occurred under his watch. To the contrary, “regression” is probably a much better expression for what we’ve seen in that relationship since he took the reigns as ABC.
An opaque communique resulted from a meeting between the Pope and the ABC? Really? Surely you’re joking?
Seriously, since the news release was no doubt written well before the actual meeting one wouldn’t expect much beyond “they got together and had a nice chat”.
One can infer from the 20 minute duration, the Pope allowed ++Rowan to make a brief courtesy call, gave him a nice gold cross as a souvenir and sent him on his way with a pat on the head. Rowan wanted this meeting much more than Benedict.
I love the 4th photo in the article with the 2 standing side by side
Whose expression says “This is so cool! Look who I’m standing next to!”?
Whose expression says “Let’s get this photo op over with and get this guy out of here so I can get on to something important.”?
Well, even if this meeting only lasted for 20 minutes, their previous meeting at the Vatican lasted for two hours. But things have gone downhill in the AC since then…
David Handy+