Rome, Italy, Jan 29, 2009 / 15:52 pm
In a move that could help bring hundreds of thousands of Anglicans into the Catholic Church, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) has recommended that the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) be given a personal prelature if talks between the TAC and the Vatican succeed.
An announcement could be made after Easter this year, according to the northwest Australian Catholic newspaper The Record. Pope Benedict XVI reportedly has taken a personal interest in the matter and has linked the effort at ecclesial union to the Year of St. Paul.
In 2007 the TAC, a global community of about 400,000 members, began to seek full corporate and sacramental communion with the Catholic Church. Its members had split from the Anglican Communion over theological and moral issues such as the ordination of women priests and the episcopal consecrations of women and active homosexuals.
In October 2008 it is believed that the CDF decided not to recommend the creation of an Anglican rite within the Catholic Church similar to the Eastern Catholic Churches.