Separated or not

'Twas the sixteenth century when a disgruntled Henry VIII, King of England officially broke ties with the Church of Rome and established the Church of England, the mother Church of the Anglican communion.

In many respects, there are still great similarities between the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion to this day. In fact, dialogue between leaders of the two faith traditions have been going on in a formal way for so long that there are two official bodies established to facilitate the process (The Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission, otherwise know as ARCIC; and the International Anglican Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission, or IARCCUM).

Sadly, since the official establishment of the Church of England, and their consequent break with the Roman Catholic Church, we (members of the respective faith tradition) have not been considered as being in full communion one with the other, however, many efforts through the years have been expended with the aim of bringing us back into union with each other.

More recently, there has been (shall we say) more than a little anxt among some of the members of the Anglican Communion about the direction their Church is taking, specifically with regard to decisions about ordination and the choice of it's leadership. There must be a fair amount of this going on, and a significant number of those affected have made their voices heard in various fora, including sending communications to Rome, and asking for some path to be cleared for them to 'come back' to the Roman Catholic faith.

This morning, in a press conference conducted in the Vatican, His Eminence, Joseph Cardinal Levada, Prefect for the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith announced the creation of Personal Ordinariates for Anglicans entering the Catholic Church. Personal Ordinariates are canonical structures which will from now on provide an avenue for groups of Anglican clergy and faithful to enter into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church.

In the coming weeks, it is expected that His Holiness, Benedict XVI will publish an Apostolic Constitution on the subject, providing even more clarification about the procedures to be followed.

In addition to the announcement of the forthcoming Apostolic Constituion, a joint statement on the subject was published today by the Archbishop of Westminster and the Archbishop of Canterbury. In it, they acknowledged that

The announcement of this Apostolic Constitution brings to an end a
period of uncertainty for such groups who have nurtured hopes of new ways of
embracing unity with the Catholic Church. It will now be up to those who have
made requests to the Holy See to respond to the Apostolic
Constitution.