Next week’s visit to Turkey will be interesting enough, but this week holds its own newsworthy items. Tomorrow, the pope will visit the Academy of St. Cecilia in Rome, and will, we hope, make some typically harmonious remarks on music.

Then, this week, beginning today, actually, Anglican Archbishop Rowan WIlliams in Rome, through Sunday. The meeting with the Pope on Wednesday is what’s got everyone’s attention, but there will be more to his visit, both with Catholic and Anglican audiences.

First, the Anglicans:

In addition to a number of private meetings in the Vatican, Williams will also take part in the celebrations marking 40 years since the founding of the Anglican Centre in Rome in 1966. Williams will lead worship for Rome’s Anglican congregations and deliver two keynote lectures – ‘St Benedict and the Future of Europe’ and ‘Secularity, Freedom and Faith’ – and meet with the Sant’ Egidio Community.

Williams will be accompanied by his wife, Jane Williams. The delegation will also include Archbishop Peter Carnley, co-chair of the Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC); Bishop David Beetge, co-chair of the International Anglican Roman Catholic Commission on Unity and Mission (IARCCUM); and Bishop John Flack, the Archbishop’s Representative to the Holy See.

And:

Dr Rowan Williams will begin his five-day visit to Rome with a lecture at the Benedictine University of Sant’ Anslemo, which will be followed by a dinner, hosted by President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity Cardinal Walter Kasper.

The rest of the visit will involved meetings with different departments in the Vatican, before taking part in evening prayer with Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor on the Friday at the Anglican Centre in Rome.

The visit ends on Sunday with a Eucharist in the Dominican Basilica of Santa Sabrina to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the founding of the Anglican Centre.

A more helpful schedule, just transmitted by VIS:

Archbishop Williams, who will be accompanied by his wife and son, will head an eight-strong delegation. The visit is taking place 40 years after the meeting between Pope Paul VI and Archbishop Michael Ramsey – from March 22 to 24, 1966 – and aims "to express the importance the Anglican Communion attributes to relations with the Catholic Church and to the theological dialogue that began with the creation, announced during Paul VI’s meeting with Archbishop Ramsey, of the Anglican – Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC)."

The central moment of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s visit will be his private meeting with the Holy Father on Thursday November 23. After that meeting, the Pope and the archbishop will each deliver an address, and a joint declaration will be signed in the presence of the members of the Anglican delegation and of the Catholic representatives who accompanied the archbishop to Rome, headed by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, archbishop of Westminster.

After the audience, Benedict XVI and Archbishop Williams, will go to the Vatican’s "Redemptoris Mater" Chapel where they will pray together.

On November 22, the Anglican archbishop and Cardinal Walter Kasper, prefect of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, will visit the Sistine Chapel where they will pray together and recollect the meeting there 40 years earlier between Paul VI and Archbishop Michael Ramsey.

On November 24, the Roman church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva will be the setting for an ecumenical celebration of Vespers.

During the course of the visit, Archbishop Williams and Cardinal Kasper will examine the current state of Catholic-Anglican relations, the planning and content of a new cycle of dialogue in the ARCIC following its most recent publication "Mary, Grace and Hope in Christ" in May 2005, the work of the International Anglican – Roman Commission for Unity and Mission (IARCCUM) established in 2000, and the ecumenical situation in general."

The visit will also serve as an opportunity to continue the informal talks, an annual initiative for the giving and receiving of information, coordination of initiatives, and dialogue and exchange.

The archbishop’s visit also coincides with the 40th anniversary of the foundation of Rome’s Anglican Center, which undertakes various initiatives to favor reciprocal understanding among Catholics and Anglicans. The current director of the Anglican Center is Bishop John Flack, representative of the Anglican communion to the Holy See.

On the afternoon of Sunday, November 26, prior to his departure, Archbishop Williams will preside at an Anglican liturgy in the Basilica of Santa Sabina on Rome’s Aventine Hill.