The Archbishop of Canterbury is expected to meet Pope Francis in Rome in early October.
The meeting will be the third time the leader of the Church of England and the head of the Catholic Church have come together and comes at a time of particularly strong relations between the two Churches.
The trip has not been officially announced but a spokesman from Lambeth Palace did not deny the meeting would take place. He told Christian Today: “We haven’t made an announcement about his [Justin Welby’s] travel in the next few months.”
Reuters – The Archbishop of Canterbury and Pope Francis in their first meeting at the Vatican in 2013.
The pair are set to celebrate evening prayer together on October 5 in the Basilica of San Gregorio al Celio and then hold private talks the next day, according to Catholic News Agency.
In February the first Catholic service for 450 years was celebrated in Hampton Court chapel in London where Henry VIII used to worship. In May 2015 Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster and head of the Catholic Church in the UK, prayed for unity alongside Justin Welby at a leadership conference held by the evangelical West London church, Holy Trinity Brompton.
Welby was again joined by Nichols for a live video stream via Facebook where the pair discussed unity between the churches.
“Cardinal Vincent and I spend quite a lot of time meeting and we do so quite regularly,” Welby said to introduce the discussion.
Nichols said the initiative “goes to demonstrate the level of our cooperation and partnership.”
The San Gregorio al Celio church in Rome holds particular significance for Anglicans as it is said to be the place from which St Augustine of Canterbury was sent to evangelise Britain in 597AD. If the meeting goes ahead it will be the fourth time a Pope and an Archbishop of Canterbury have met in this particular basilica in Rome.
Pope Francis has already met Welby twice in the Vatican, the first time on June 14, 2013 and the second on June 16, 2014.
