Pope to meet Archbishop of Canterbury

The Vatican announced last night that Pope Benedict XVI will meet with the Archbishop of Canterbury next month in the leaders' first encounter since the Catholic church moved to make it easier for disenchanted Anglicans to convert to Catholicism.

Vatican spokesman, the Reverend Federico Lombardi, said in a telephone interview this evening that Archbishop Rowan Williams was already due to visit Rome for ceremonies at a pon-tifical university to honour a late cardinal who worked for Christian unity.

Taking advantage of the archbishop's presence in Rome, Pope Benedict will receive Archbishop Williams on Novem-ber 21 at the Vatican.

The Vatican's recent move to ease Anglican conversions came as some Anglicans are upset by their church's allowing openly gay clergy and blessing same-sex unions.