Dame Sarah Mullally, the first woman to lead the Church of England, met Pope Leo at the Apostolic Palace today and told the pontiff he would receive a “warm welcome” if he were to visit the UK
The Archbishop of Canterbury risked the wrath of Donald Trump after praising Pope Leo for speaking out against injustice.
Dame Sarah Mullally, the first woman to lead the Church of England, met Pope Leo at the Apostolic Palace today and told the pontiff he would receive a “warm welcome” if he were to visit the UK. In an address following a private discussion between the two religious leaders, she said they were united in prayer for justice and for “peace in our world”.
It follows the Pope’s warning earlier this month that the world is being “ravaged by a handful of tyrants” as he criticised the cost of war during a visit to Cameroon. It sparked a backlash from the US President, who accused the Pope of being “weak on crime and terrible for foreign policy”. Dame Sarah said: “Your Holiness, you have spoken powerfully about the many injustices in our world today, but you have spoken even more powerfully about hope.”
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Pope Leo had voiced concerns over Trump’s threat that “a whole civilisation will die” if Iran did not agree to US demands to end the war and open the Strait of Hormuz, a threat which was averted after the two sides agreed to a ceasefire. The pontiff said he would continue to “speak out loudly against war” and promote peace.
Dame Sarah said the Pope’s message “reminded us that despite our sufferings, people long for life in all its fullness and countless people are working each day for this vision of the common good”. She also told him that King Charles III had “valued his recent visit”, after the two men prayed together in October.
The symbolic moment was the first time a British monarch had prayed at a public service with the head of the Catholic Church since the Reformation. Dame Sarah told the Pope: “Please be assured of a warm welcome from the Church of England should you honour the United Kingdom with a visit.”
Pope Leo, the first American-born man to lead the Catholic Church, has recently returned from a trip to Africa, where he visited four nations. His pilgrimage was “full of life and joy”, the Archbishop said. Today Pope Leo also called for Anglicans and Catholics to work to overcome differences, as he welcomed Dame Sarah.
While she made history as first woman to hold the high office of Archbishop of Canterbury in its 1,400-year history, the Catholic Church does not allow women to be ordained priests. The Church of England first ordained women priests in 1994 and Dame Sarah had already made history by becoming the first woman to hold the role of Bishop of London.
The pontiff referenced the first formal ecumenical statement between the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches, which was signed in Rome in 1966 between then-Archbishop of Canterbury Michael Ramsey and Pope Paul VI. Pope Leo told Dame Sarah: “Certainly this ecumenical journey has been complex. While much progress has been made on some historically divisive issues, new problems have arisen in recent decades, rendering the pathway to full communion more difficult to discern.”
He did not set out which specific issues he was referring to, but echoed the words of his predecessor, the late Pope Francis, who told the Anglican Communion in 2024 that “it would be a scandal if, due to our divisions, we did not fulfil our common vocation to make Christ known”.
Pope Leo said: “For my part, I add that it would also be a scandal if we did not continue to work towards overcoming our differences, no matter how intractable they may appear.” He said the “suffering world greatly needs the peace of Christ” and that the “divisions among Christians weakens our capacity to be effective bearers of that peace”.
