Rowan Williams becomes first ever Anglican leader to accept visions of Virgin Mary as fact

From the Daily Telegraph. Imagine a protestant who can actually say "I believe in Miracles". (Gotta love Errol Brown's hat)

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, was yesterday branded a ‘papal puppet’ after he became the first leader of the Church of England to accept visions of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes as historical fact.

He asserted that 18 visions of Our Lady allegedly experienced by Bernadette Soubirous in 1858 were true.

His words shocked millions of Protestants worldwide because they not only signified a break with Protestant teaching on the Virgin Mary but also Dr Williams’s personal acceptance of the Catholic doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, which is explicitly linked to the apparitions.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1060951/Rowan-Williams-Anglican-leader-accept-visions-Virgin-Mary-fact.html

Why is Rowan Williams going to Lourdes?

Comment on The ABC going to the Roman Catholic shrine from the London Telegraph

They will probably want to know what I want to know. Does Dr Williams believe that Our Lady actually appeared to Bernadette? If so, then in one respect he has moved closer to Roman Catholicism than any Archbishop of Canterbury since the Reformation.

For Lourdes, in south-west France, is the quintessential Roman Catholic Marian shrine, unlike Walsingham, a medieval shrine in Norfolk rediscovered by Anglicans. Whereas the apparitions of Walsingham have a semi-mythical quality, those at Lourdes are believed by most Catholics to be historical events, as are the healing miracles recognised by the Church.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/damian_thompson/blog/2008/09/19/why_is_rowan_williams_going_to_lourdes