By Deborah Gyapong

CORNWALL (CCN) -- The Primate of the Catholic Church in Canada welcomed news of a special canonical structure for Anglicans wishing to join the Church, but the Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada predicted tensions will emerge.

"It seems to be a very good news to facilitate the integration of people who are interested in joining the Catholic Church," said Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Archbishop of Quebec in an interview October 20. He described the Holy See's offer as respectful of the culture and traditions of Anglicans that is positive and enriching for the Catholic Church.

"As an event, that's extraordinary," the cardinal said. Though Pope Benedict XVI has approved an Apostolic Constitution, the final document has not yet been released.

Canada's Catholic bishops received notice on the eve of the Vatican's historic news October 20. Coincidentally, that morning the Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC), Archbishop Fred Hiltz, was scheduled to address the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) annual plenary.

Hiltz did not discuss the announcement in his prepared remarks. Instead he spoke of ongoing ecumenical efforts between the ACC and Canada's Catholic bishops.

In another historic gesture that morning, Hiltz invited Canada's Catholic bishops to meet jointly with Anglican bishops. He praised the areas of common ground that Catholics and Anglicans have found in their ecumenical work.

Later that day in an interview with Salt and Light TV and CCN he said had been "unaware this document was coming. I'm not sure any people from this conference were."

But Hiltz said he was not surprised, because he knew that some groups of Anglicans had approached the Holy See and "been in conversations for some time."

It has been a painful experience both for those Anglicans who were issues unable to remain over issues around human sexuality and for those who remained, he said.

"Essentially when they leave, we will see that as the breaking of communion," he said. The fact that "another communion takes them under their wing" could mean "some tensions will emerge."

Some worldwide reaction has described the Vatican's offer to disaffected Anglicans as "poaching," but Hiltz did not go that far.

The Bishop and Metropolitan of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada (ACCC), which is part of the worldwide Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC), one of the largest groups likely to be affected by the Vatican's provision, said he was overjoyed by the news.

Though the TAC was not mentioned specifically at the October 20 Vatican news conference, ACCC Bishop Peter Wilkinson said in a phone interview from Victoria October 21 that he believes their formal request to come into full sacramental communion with the Holy See was the catalyst for announcement.

Wilkinson predicted the Vatican's move could help spur on the much more important efforts at Catholic and Orthodox unity. "This is part of the realignment of Christendom," Wilkinson said.

"Pope Benedict continually amazes me," said the bishop, who had a private correspondence with the Pope when, as Cardinal Ratzinger, he served as CDF prefect. "Not only is he a genius and a holy man, but he can do something new, something that has not been done before. I hope that we can live up to expectations on how Anglicans can fulfill their role in the Universal Church."

Wilkinson praised the work of CDF Prefect Cardinal William Levada and Archbishop Augustine Di Noia, secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments. As the former CDF undersecretary, Di Noia stick-handled the TAC file.

"They've had the onerous job of working out a structure that is available worldwide," Wilkinson said, noting the CDF had to accommodate the TAC as well requests from around the world from other disaffected Anglican groups. "They have to get it right the first time."

In October 2007, Wilkinson accompanied TAC Primate Archbishop John Hepworth and retired ACCC Bishop Robert Mercer in hand-delivering the request letter to the CDF. They brought with them a copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church that TAC bishops had signed on the altar of the church in the United Kingdom where they held their last College of Bishops.

In an October 20 statement, Hepworth praised Pope Benedict's "great goodness" and pointed out he has "dedicated his pontificate to the cause of unity."

He said the announcement "more than matches the dreams we dared to include in our petition of two years ago. It more than matches our prayers. In those two years, we have become very conscious of the prayers of our friends in the Catholic Church. Perhaps their prayers dared to ask even more than ours."

The TAC has been in informal talks with the Vatican for two decades leading up to yesterday's announcement. Wilkinson and other TAC priests and bishops broke away from the Anglican Communion more than 30 years ago over the ordination of women. They have said they saw the changing of Holy Orders, a God-ordained sacrament, as a break with tradition in both the Catholic and Orthodox churches that would seriously hamper Christ's command for unity in the Body of Christ.

Wilkinson said Anglicans who wished to remain faithful to Catholic faith and morals within the Anglican Communion were "not welcome . . . It was a case of conform or get out. This happened all over the world, not just in Canada."

Catholic Christians are not sectarian, he said, so home has always been communion with the Bishop of Rome, as declared in the 1977 Affirmation of St. Louis, the TAC's foundational document. The TAC has about 300,000 to 400,000 members worldwide.

Hiltz, however, stressed the importance of staying at the table and praised the transparency with which the Anglican Communion has dealt with difficult issues concerning human sexuality. "We don't accomplish anything when we walk away," he said.

One of the key stumbling blocks for Canterbury Anglicans and the Catholic Church, however, is an understanding of the role of the Pope and the juridical nature of his ministry.

Hiltz said the language in ARCIC documents sees the Petrine ministry as a universal "primacy of love" that concentrates on the churches working together in the serving of their mission. Anglicans are comfortable with that, he said. "I think we would be challenged by notions of juridical authority." The Anglican Communion, however, is in the brink of schism over same-sex blessings, and the ordination of an active homosexual as bishop. Though the North American churches already have allowed women bishops, a move to do so in England has further complicated matters.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has no juridical authority, only an authority of influence. Hiltz said he did not know how flexible Pope Benedict XVI is concerning the Petrine ministry, noting it has huge implications as well for the pursuit of unity with Orthodox churches.

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Wilkinson said he has no problem with the Pope's juridical authority.

"Good grief, what has been suffered because we do not have authority," he said of the Canterbury Communion. The TAC bishops' college has authority to both teach and discipline, he said, adding: "The Petrine ministry is what the pope is. He is Peter to the world, just as the individual bishop is Peter to his diocese. When the bishops are united with the Holy Father and teach in concert with him, that's the Church functioning as it should."

Anglicans who have more recently left over disagreements on homosexuality are not likely to flock to the Catholic Church as they come from the more evangelical side of the communion and do not see Holy Orders or Apostolic Succession or the role of the priest in the Eucharist in the same way as those from the Anglo-Catholic tradition.

Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast is among several Catholic bishops who have developed relationships with ACCC bishops in Canada.

"I am pleased that the members of the TAC will be able to find an answer to their hopes and prayers," Prendergast said in an e-mail October 21. "My relations with Bishop [Carl] Reid over the past two years and his metropolitan Bishop Peter Wilkinson at events affirming life and socially have been most cordial and I look forward to the elaboration of future ties, whatever shape these may take."

The archbishop added: "The prayers of many for the reunion of separated Christians are being heard in surprising ways and in this I rejoice."

-- Courtesy of Canadian Catholic News. Please do not reprint without permission.

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October 29/2009