Religion: The Christian Summit

Nothing like it had happened since Martin Luther called the Roman Catholic Church “the Devil’s nest” and a “den of thieves.” The Most Rev. Geoffrey Francis Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury and primate of the Church of England, announced last week that on his way home from a tour of the Middle East he intends to stop off in Rome and pay a courtesy call on Pope John XXIII.

The news generated a small whirlwind of sanguine speculation—especially in Italy, where it broke on All Saints’ Day, when the Vatican’s offices and its newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, were closed. Rome’s Giornale d’ltalia hailed the meeting as “the Christian summit”; Il Messaggero called it a “sign of Christian reconciliation on the plane of common spiritual defense.” The Vatican quickly slapped down such exuberance; L’Osservatore Romano brushed off the news with a small box.

Nice to Call. In Britain the reaction was mixed. “Be glad,” trumpeted the tabloid Daily Sketch, while the Church of England newspaper warned against “blurring” of the “precise dogmatic cleavage” between the two churches. The Rev. Howard Stanley, secretary of the Congregational Union, said that Congregationalists would wish the Archbishop well; but the moderator of the Church of Scotland, the Rev. John Burleigh, sniffed that it was “nice of the Archbishop to call on the Pope, but I hope only pleasantries will be exchanged.”

Actually, the proposed visit is more than a mere courtesy call and less than a first step in rapprochement. Last August the ecumenical-minded Pope permitted a Catholic observer to attend the meeting of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches in St. Andrews, Scotland, and it is said to have been through him, Dutch, round-faced Msgr. J.G.M. Willebrands, that the meeting between the Pope and the Archbishop was arranged. Last month Roman Catholic Archbishop John C. Heenan of Liverpool, a member of the forthcoming Ecumenical Council’s Secretariat for Christian Unity, reported that Pope John had recently expressed “great affection for the Anglicans.” And Dr. Fisher, in the Canterbury diocesan leaflet, praised the new secretariat as “full of godly promise.”

Significant Trivia. Dr. Fisher will arrive in Rome about Dec. 1, after a ten-day trip that will include visits to Greek Orthodox Patriarch Benediktos in Jerusalem and Greek Orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras in Istanbul. The Archbishop of Canterbury plans to stay at Rome’s stately Villa della Camilluccia, residence of Britain’s Minister to the Holy See. To avoid any awkward moments, the Pope is expected to receive the Archbishop standing, instead of with the customary seated extension of his ring to be kissed. Except for an interpreter, the two bishops will be alone. What they talk about may be trivialities, Dr. Fisher admitted last week, but, he added, “Talking trivialities is in itself a portent of great significance. The pleasantries may be pleasantries about profundities.”