Vatican Ready To Greet Dr. Ramsey

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31016, 23 March 1966, Page 19

Vatican Ready To Greet Dr. Ramsey

(N.Z.P.A. Reuter —Copyright

ROME, March 22.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Michael Ramsey, will arrive in Rome today to discuss with Pope Paul steps towards the eventual union of the world’s 500 million Roman Catholics and 45 million Anglicans.

A qualified source said the main outcome of the three-day visit was likely to be the establishment of a mixed Roman Cath-olic-Anglican commission to work out ways of preparing the union of the two churches after four centuries of schism.

Bishop Jan Willebrands, Dutch-born secretary of the Vatican Christian Unity Secretariat, will welcome Dr. Ramsey in the Pope’s name when he arrives by air from London.

Issues expected to be discussed in this context are the Roman Catholic dogma of the supremacy and infallibility of the Pope, and the Vatican’s attitude In seeking converts. The Archbishop is also expected to discuss with the Pope the implications of the minor relaxations announced by the Vatican on Friday in the strict regulations governing marriages of Roman Catholics with those of other faiths.

Dr. Ramsey is accompanied by Bishop Ralph Dean, of Canada, executive officer of the Anglican Communion, and

Dr. John Moorman, Bishop of Ripon, senior Anglican observer at the Vatican Ecumenical Council. The first of the Archbishop's three meetings with the Pope will take place tomorrow. The two church leaders will also

hold a joint prayer service and issue a common declaration.

In the first official talks ever held by a Pope and an Archbishop of Canterbury, the two will seek ways of healing the rift which has existed between the two churches since 1531. This was the year in which England's King Henry VIII, was refused a Papal annulment of the first of his six marriage and took over the leadership of the Church in England. Pope Paul has called his talks with Dr. Ramsey a “beginning towards union." Pope’s Plans Pope Paul was understood to have personally worked out many of the details of his Anglican visitor's stay. The visit to Rome in 1960 of Dr. Ramsay's predecessor. Dr. Geoffrey Fisher, also was marked by cordiality but at the time Vatican officials emphasised the private nature of the Archbishop’s call on the late Pope John XXIII. By contrast, the first official meeting between Dr. Ramsay and the Pope will take place in the Vatican’s imposing Sistine Chapel under the Michelangelo frescoes of the Last Judgment. An Anglican priest or bishop is not recognised by the Roman Catholic Church as a priest or bishop. Anglicans and Roman Catholics have the sacrament of bantism in common but are

opposed on the meaning of the Eucharist, which is the heart of the Roman Catholic Mass. In Roman Catholic belief, the bread and wine of the Eucharist are truly flesh and blood of Christ. For Anglicans, the ceremony is symbolic. Dr. Ramsay himself has said he does not expect Christian unity in his lifetime. Roman Catholic leaders have said much the same. A Signal The hope at the Vatican is that the outcome will be closer mutual understanding, friendliness, clarification of practical ways ties can be improved and differences lessened, and a signal to Roman Catholics and Anglicans everywhere to emphasise what they have in common rather than what divides them.