An Anglican-Catholic joint preparatory commission for dialogue between the two Churches has now been set up, in keeping with the common declaration made in Rome by Pope Paul and the Archbishop of Canterbury last March: in this the Pope and the Archbishop said they intended to inaugurate a serious dialogue covering not merely theological matters such as scripture, tradition and liturgy but also matters of practical difficulty felt on either side.

Pope Paul VI today received the archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Michael Ramsey, for the first official meeting between the heads of the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches since the 16th century.

Several hours before the historic meeting in the Vatican, three Protestant demonstrators from Britain heckled the archbishop at a Holy Communion service in the All Saints Anglican church in Rome.

The three, two of them Baptist ministers, stood up at the completion of Ramsey’s sermon and exposed aprons emblazoned, “Archbishop a Traitor to Protestant Britain.”