In the final act of an official relationship that's come to be marked by an exceptional degree of mutual respect, even personal closeness, for the first time a Vatican Synod was addressed earlier today by the archbishop of Canterbury as – on the eve of his retirement as head of the Anglican Communion – Rowan Williams took to the dais on the invitation of the Pope.
Slated to be present for tomorrow morning's outdoor Mass marking the 50th anniversary of the opening of Vatican II, Williams' turn in the Aula came after a private audience with the pontiff, billed by the Holy See as a "farewell visit."
After a turbulent decade-long tenure, the English primate will stand down come year's end to take up a teaching post at Cambridge. In a statement last week, the Crown Nominations Commission charged with designating his successor indicated that it was deadlocked on a choice.
Since Benedict's election, the two theologians have come to forge a bond between the chairs of Peter and Augustine of a kind unseen since the days of Paul VI and Archbishop Michael Ramsey, to whom the late pontiff famously gave the ring off his finger at the end of their first encounter in 1966. That the current Vatican-Lambeth relationship has remained solid amid historic tension-points on the part of both churches – the Pope's 2009 invitation for Anglican groups to enter the Catholic fold, and the specter of women bishops in the Church of England – has made the duo's warm rapport all the more evident.
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