Sarah Mullally in Rome, a closely watched meeting between Anglicans and the Vatican

On Saturday, Sarah Mullally arrived in Rome for a four-day visit, and this is no mere official trip. Installed a month ago as Archbishop of Canterbury, the 63-year-old former nurse becomes the first woman to hold the highest spiritual office in the Church of England, and her first trip abroad takes her straight to the heart of Catholicism. On Monday morning, she is to be received by Pope Leo XIV, a meeting eagerly anticipated in religious circles as a discreet but clear signal about the state of relations between the two Churches.

Because history still weighs heavily. The meeting comes sixty years after the 1966 encounter between Michael Ramsey and Paul VI, a pivotal moment since the break with Catholicism under Henry VIII in the 16th century. Since then, the dialogue has warmed, without erasing disagreements, and 2016 further highlighted tensions, particularly surrounding the ordination of women. The Church of England has allowed women bishops since 2014, a development that continues to cause internal division, while Rome reiterates its rejection of a female priesthood and maintains priestly celibacy, except for a few exceptions related to Anglican conversions.

A handshake, but differences remain.

In the corridors, some are already hoping for more than just a photo. Catholic women's rights activists want to believe that the presence of a sitting archbishop facing the Pope can shift the status quo, and one of them, Sylvaine Landrivon, sums up the idea with a striking phrase: "Women, who represent half of God's people, have the same abilities as men." In Rome, however, the expectation is for a restrained, controlled visit, as Sarah Mullally does not want to be drawn into the agenda of another Church, especially since her own Anglican Communion is already experiencing significant tensions between conservatives and progressives over the liturgy and same-sex marriage.

Nevertheless, the two leaders share genuine common ground, issues that resonate with both the faithful and the skeptics: immigration, poverty, war, the environment, and passing on the faith to younger generations. Both institutions also bear the same burden: the scandals of sexual abuse and accusations of cover-ups, which erode trust and demand clearer communication. Six months after King Charles III prayed alongside a pope, this new meeting at the Vatican seeks less a revolutionary upheaval than the continuation of a fragile yet tenacious thread: that of a "reconciled, fraternal, and united Christian community," as envisioned by Leo XIV, with the next step already on everyone's mind.