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| Shift in style as outsiders Justin Welby and Pope Francis get together | Shift in style as outsiders Justin Welby and Pope Francis get together |
| (4 months later) | |
| Justin Welby's meeting with Pope Francis this week is a routine way to get to know someone he must work with and is little different from his meetings with media tycoons and politicians, but it marks a distinct shift in style and emphasis from that of his predecessor, Rowan Williams, and Pope Benedict. | Justin Welby's meeting with Pope Francis this week is a routine way to get to know someone he must work with and is little different from his meetings with media tycoons and politicians, but it marks a distinct shift in style and emphasis from that of his predecessor, Rowan Williams, and Pope Benedict. |
| Welby and Francis came to their jobs as outsiders. Both have close links with fairly independent and powerful organisations within their respective churches – Francis is the first Jesuit pope and Welby is the first archbishop of Canterbury from the charismatic evangelical organisation HTB. | Welby and Francis came to their jobs as outsiders. Both have close links with fairly independent and powerful organisations within their respective churches – Francis is the first Jesuit pope and Welby is the first archbishop of Canterbury from the charismatic evangelical organisation HTB. |
| The Jesuits are older, more accomplished and more likely to survive the century. The same goes for their churches. | The Jesuits are older, more accomplished and more likely to survive the century. The same goes for their churches. |
| Neither has a reputation for flamboyance but Francis has done more to capture the public's imagination with gestures of humility and common humanity, perhaps because he had more pomp to shed. | Neither has a reputation for flamboyance but Francis has done more to capture the public's imagination with gestures of humility and common humanity, perhaps because he had more pomp to shed. |
| By travelling on foot and paying his hotel bill, the pope appears to have made a more dramatic renunciation of privilege than the archbishop, though Welby has turned up for a newspaper interview with holes in his shoes and wearing clothes bought from Oxfam. | By travelling on foot and paying his hotel bill, the pope appears to have made a more dramatic renunciation of privilege than the archbishop, though Welby has turned up for a newspaper interview with holes in his shoes and wearing clothes bought from Oxfam. |
| But Welby has made a much clearer and more decisive start at clearing up the problem his predecessors left him: the ordination of women as bishops. Although he talks sincerely of trust and reconciliation, the measures he has proposed leave far fewer institutional safeguards to their opponents than had been available earlier. To some extent this reflects the mood of the wider church, which is overwhelmingly in favour of female bishops. But it also shows a willingness to reach and stick to decisions – something Williams never managed. | But Welby has made a much clearer and more decisive start at clearing up the problem his predecessors left him: the ordination of women as bishops. Although he talks sincerely of trust and reconciliation, the measures he has proposed leave far fewer institutional safeguards to their opponents than had been available earlier. To some extent this reflects the mood of the wider church, which is overwhelmingly in favour of female bishops. But it also shows a willingness to reach and stick to decisions – something Williams never managed. |
| Francis is still feeling his way towards reforming the Vatican bureaucracy. The Vatileaks scandals, which led to the jailing of the former pope's butler for passing stolen papers to Italian journalists, exposed a nest of backbiting and financial corruption. The subsequent investigation, whose secret conclusions are said to have prompted Pope Benedict's decision to retire, added accounts of homosexual networks to the mix. | Francis is still feeling his way towards reforming the Vatican bureaucracy. The Vatileaks scandals, which led to the jailing of the former pope's butler for passing stolen papers to Italian journalists, exposed a nest of backbiting and financial corruption. The subsequent investigation, whose secret conclusions are said to have prompted Pope Benedict's decision to retire, added accounts of homosexual networks to the mix. |
| Both share a conviction that the Christian world's centre of gravity is moving southwards. Francis is Argentinian and Welby has been an oil executive and a priest in Nigeria. | Both share a conviction that the Christian world's centre of gravity is moving southwards. Francis is Argentinian and Welby has been an oil executive and a priest in Nigeria. |
| Yet Francis is committed to holding together as a disciplined body a global church spanning both north and south. Welby has already resigned himself to the fact that the important-sounding Anglican Communion is not a church like the Roman Catholic – and cannot become one – but a federation whose strength lies in links between parishes and bishops. | Yet Francis is committed to holding together as a disciplined body a global church spanning both north and south. Welby has already resigned himself to the fact that the important-sounding Anglican Communion is not a church like the Roman Catholic – and cannot become one – but a federation whose strength lies in links between parishes and bishops. |
| The fact his spiritual director is a Catholic Benedictine is probably a good sign of how he sees the churches working together: locally, spiritually and personally, not as organisations. | The fact his spiritual director is a Catholic Benedictine is probably a good sign of how he sees the churches working together: locally, spiritually and personally, not as organisations. |
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