Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams has come under fire from some members of his own church over his remarks today at Lourdes.
According to some of his co-religionists, the leader of the global Anglican Communion acted like a “papal puppet” during his historic visit to the Catholic shrine in southwestern France.
Archbishop Williams’s visit came only ten days after Pope Benedict XVI’s pilgrimage to Lourdes marking the 150th anniversary of the apparitions of the Virgin Mary to St. Bernadette Soubirous.
Speaking at an ecumenical service led by Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, Archbishop Williams used Catholic terminology in describing Mary’s encounter with St. Bernadette.