Pope Benedict XVI, I mean. After all, he shook hands with a clergywoman!
Pope Benedict XVI publicly shook hands with a clergywoman for the first time in a historic gesture ahead of a service at Westminster Abbey.
The Pope joined Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams for the highly-symbolic ecumenical service.
In what marked the first visit by any pope to the Abbey, the pontiff was presented to the Rev Dr Jane Hedges, canon steward of Westminster Abbey.
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The introduction of women bishops in the Church of England, which moved a step closer this summer, has been opposed by the Vatican as a ''break with apostolic tradition'' and a ''further obstacle'' to any efforts at dialogue between the two churches.
To add to the tensions, in July the Vatican listed the attempted ordination of a woman, just as sexual abuse of a child by a priest, as one of the gravest crimes for the Catholic Church.
Emphasis is mine. And so is the righteous anger one should feel when reading that bolded sentence.