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The newly appointed leader of the world’s Anglicans, Bishop Justin Welby, has acknowledged Catholic influences in his spiritual life and social thinking.
Bishop Welby, a former oil executive who gave up a six-figure salary to become an Anglican priest, will succeed Archbishop Rowan Williams as Archbishop of Canterbury.
During a news conference at Lambeth Palace in London, Bishop Welby said he has been influenced by both Benedictine and Ignatian spirituality and his spiritual director is a Benedictine monk.
A press release from the Church of England said he has “frequently said that the Roman Catholic approach to Christian social teaching, beginning with the encyclical of Leo XIII’s, Rerum Novarum, up to Pope Benedict XVI’s Caritas Veritate, has greatly influenced his social thinking.”
Bishop Welby, 56, is a father of five. He gave up his oil industry in 1989 to study for the Anglican priesthood and was named bishop of Durham in June 2011.
Archbishop Bernard Longley, Catholic Archbishop of Birmingham, and co-chairman of ARCIC Three (the Anglican Roman-Catholic International Commission), said he was delighted by Bishop Welby’s appointment.
“In Bishop Welby it will be good to have a strong ally in the work of evangelisation that lies ahead of all the churches, especially during the Year of Faith when the Catholic Church is seeking an evangelisation that is ‘new in its ardour, methods and expression’.
“Bishop Welby’s long experience of business and commerce suggests that he understands the contemporary context for the task of evangelising our culture,” Archbishop Longley said.
“With my fellow co-chairman of ARCIC Three, Archbishop David Moxon (Archbishop of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia), I look forward to the steer that Bishop Welby will bring to Anglican-Roman Catholic relations.”
Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, told Vatican Radio he hopes to attend Bishop’s Welby’s enthronement in March and that he will be inviting the new archbishop to Rome for an audience with Pope Benedict XVI.
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Image: The Telegraph
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