Pope Benedict has invited the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, to address the world Synod of Bishops on the new evangelisation in October, reports The Catholic Herald from the Catholic News Service.
The news emerged after the two leaders met and prayed together at the Church of St Gregory on the Caelian Hill in Rome, from which Pope Gregory the Great sent St Augustine of Canterbury and his fellow monks to evangelise England in 597.
Dr Williams told Vatican Radio: "I'm being invited to give some theological reflections on the nature of mission, the nature of evangelisation, and I'm extremely honoured to be invited to do this."
"I hope that it's a sign that we can work together on evangelisation in Europe," the archbishop said.
"It's disastrous if any one church tries to go it alone here and tries to assume that it and it alone has the key", because reviving the Christian faith in Europe requires as many and "as deep resources as we can find".