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Vatican City — <\/span> Archbishop of Canterbury<\/a>Sarah Mullally arrived at the Vatican on Monday for an audience with Pope Leo XIV, her first trip abroad since being installed as the first female leader of the Church of England and Spiritual leader of millions of Anglicans<\/a> Worldwide.<\/p>\n Mullally, whose appointment has divided the already divided Anglican Communion, arrived early to meet Leo in his library. Afterwards, they were to visit the Urban VIII Chapel inside the Apostolic Palace, for what the Vatican said would be a “moment of prayer”.<\/p>\n Mullally is on a four-day pilgrimage to Rome, including a visit to the main Pontifical Basilica, where he prayed at the tombs of Sts Peter and Paul and met with top Vatican officials.<\/p>\n Lambeth Palace says his visit is “designed to strengthen Anglican-Roman Catholic relations through prayer, personal encounter and formal theological dialogue. It aims to deepen the bonds of communion, reaffirm shared witness and encourage ongoing cooperation at both global and local levels.”<\/p>\n Anglicans broke from Rome in 1534, when the English King Henry VIII was refused permission to annul the marriage. Despite formal theological dialogue that began in the 1960s, major differences remain, particularly over the Church of England’s decision to ordain women. The Roman Catholic Church reserves the priesthood for men.<\/p>\n The first female Anglican priest was ordained in 1994. first female bishop<\/a> In 2015, and now Mullally as the first Archbishop of Canterbury.<\/p>\n However his appointment has divided the Anglican Communion, which has 100 million members in 165 countries. deeply divided<\/a> On issues such as the role of women and the treatment of LGBTQ+ people. Many in England and other Western countries hailed his appointment as a historic achievement breaking the colored glass ceiling.<\/p>\n But the communion’s largest and fastest-growing churches in Africa belong to a conservative group called the Global Anglican Future Conference, or Gafcon, which has sharply criticized his appointment and threatened an eventual break. In the US, the conservative Anglican Church in North America broke away from the more liberal American and Canadian Episcopal Churches and signed the Gafcon statement opposing Mullally’s appointment.<\/p>\n Leo and Mullally have already exchanged good wishes, with Leo congratulating her on her installation last month but acknowledging she was taking over at “challenging” times and differences still divide the Anglican and Catholic churches.<\/p>\n “We also know that worldwide travel has not always been smooth,” Leo wrote. Leo wrote, “Despite much progress, our immediate predecessors, Pope Francis and Archbishop Justin Welby, clearly recognized that new circumstances have presented new disagreements between us.”<\/p>\n