Pope sets up US structure for disaffected Anglicans

VATICAN CITY—Pope Benedict XVI has founded the first structure in the United States to encompass disaffected Episcopalian Anglicans who wish to join the Roman Catholic Church, the Vatican told AFP on Monday.

Based in Houston, Texas, the “Ordinariat” – the equivalent of a nationwide diocese – will be led by 59-year-old Jeffery N. Steenson, a father of three who left his post as Episcopal bishop and converted to become a Catholic priest in 2009.

The Episcopal Church is the official American branch of the Anglican Communion in the US. Converts who join the new diocese, called “The Chair of St. Peter,” will be full Catholics and will owe allegiance to the pope.

Informed sources estimate that initially around 100 priests and 2,000 faithful – out of the 2.3 million Episcopalians in the United States – will make the switch to the Catholic Church.

Married priests will be exempt from the Catholic requirement of celibacy, but single priests who convert will not then be allowed to marry.

At the end of 2009, Benedict XVI authorized Anglicans who opposed the direction Anglicanism was taking – particularly on topics such as homosexuality and the ordination of women – to convert to Catholicism.

The first Ordinariat, set up in Britain, has already attracted 60 priests and over 1,000 faithful.

The initiative has aggravated tensions between the two Churches.

The Anglicans split from Rome in 1534 after Pope Clement VII refused to grant King Henry VIII a divorce, and they accuse the Vatican of unwillingness for dialogue.

During a trip to Britain in 2010, Benedict XVI said that the two communities were “no longer rivals.”

The Vatican has said that in welcoming converts, it is just responding to demand from disaffected Anglicans.

Other “Ordinariats” may be set up in the future in Australia and Canada.