The Vatican has said that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams and Pope Benedict XVI have agreed to "consolidate" the relationship between their two churches following their "cordial" meeting in Rome yesterday.
The short statement from the Vatican said they had discussed the "recent events affecting relations between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion" and reiterated "the shared will to continue and to consolidate the ecumenical relationship between Catholics and Anglicans".
However, a spokeswoman for Lambeth Palace said after the meeting: "Obviously the Archbishop expressed concern at the [decree announcing the special arrangements] and the way it happened. The Pope listened in a friendly spirit."
The statement from Lambeth Palace would suggest that the meeting was the most tense between a pontiff and primate since the two churches initiated direct, high-level contacts in the 1960s.
Furthermore, the meeting was just 20 minutes in duration and made no provision for press correspondents to witness the opening and closing phases of the talks, which is a break with custom.
In an interview with Vatican Radio after the meeting, Archbishop Williams implied that his concern was with the Vatican’s apparent lack of consultation.
He said he wanted to “express some of the concerns about the way in which the announcement of the [decree] had been handled and received, because clearly many Anglicans, myself included, felt that it put us in an awkward position for a time”.
He added that it was not so much the “content so much as some of the messages that were given out. So I needed to share with the pope some of those concerns, and I think those were expressed and heard in a very friendly spirit.”
Earlier this week, Dr Williams dismissed the Pope's recent invitation for disaffected Anglicans to join the Roman Catholic Church as a mere "pastoral response".
He played down the significance of the "Apostolic Constitution" unveiled by the Vatican last month, which allows Church of England clergy and worshippers to enter into full Catholic communion while preserving parts of their Anglican heritage.
The announcement followed threats by Anglican traditionalists to leave the church over issues such as the consecration of women bishops and gay priests.
