VATICAN CITY — The Vatican has made it easier for Anglicans to join the Catholic Church, responding to the disillusionment of some Anglicans over the election of openly gay bishops and the blessing of same-sex unions.
Pope Benedict XVI approved a new church provision that will allow Anglicans to convert while maintaining many of their distinctive spiritual and liturgical traditions, Cardinal William Levada, the Vatican’s chief doctrinal official, told a news conference Tuesday.
In the past, such exemptions had only been granted in a few cases in certain countries. The new church provision is designed to allow Anglicans around the world to access a new church structure if they want to convert.
The decision immediately raised questions about how the new provision would be received within the 77-million-strong Anglican Communion, the global Anglican church, which has been on the verge of a schism over divisions within its membership about women bishops, gay bishops and gay unions.
The new Catholic Church structures, called Personal Ordinariates, will be units of faithful established within local Catholic churches, headed by former Anglican prelates who will provide spiritual care for Anglicans who wish to be Catholic.
They would most closely resemble Catholic military ordinariates, special units of the church established in most countries to provide spiritual care for the members of the armed forces and their dependents.
“Those Anglicans who have approached the Holy See have made clear their desire for full, visible unity in the one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church,” Levada said. “At the same time, they have told us of the importance of their Anglican traditions of spirituality and worship for their faith journey.”
The new canonical structure is a response to the many requests that have come to the Vatican over the years from Anglicans who have become increasingly disillusioned with the progressive bent of the Anglican Communion.
The divisions in the Anglican Communion have prompted its spiritual head, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, to suggest that in order to avoid a schism, the Anglican Communion may have to accept a “two-track” system in which churches can hold different opinions about gay clergy and same-sex unions.