TAC: Traditionalist waiting for Vatican ruling

June 5, 2008
by George Conger in

An announcement on the Vatican’s relationship with the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) may be made following the July 16-Aug 3 Lambeth Conference, sources in Rome tell The Church of England Newspaper.

Leaders of TAC, home to over 400,000 Anglo-Catholics who have left the Episcopal and Anglican churches over the past thirty years, have been in talks with the Vatican over creating an Anglican-rite enclave under the authority of the Bishop of Rome.

While the curia under Pope John Paul II had opposed attempts to bring Anglicans en masse into the Roman Catholic fold, under Benedict XVI the Vatican appears to have adopted a different line. Anglicans wishing to be received into the Catholic Church are welcome to do so, as individuals, rather than as part of a larger ecclesial body. The talks between TAC and Vatican, however, have focused on allowing whole groups to enter the Catholic Church while maintaining their own orders and liturgy....

...The Rt. Rev. David Moyer, former president of Forward in Faith USA and a Bishop in TAC, also declined comment on the negotiations with Rome, stating only that “We in the TAC are on our knees for something positive to happen. We remain very hopeful.”

The Bishop of Fort Worth, the Rt. Rev. Jack Iker—who is currently in Rome on study leave—told The Church of England Newspaper “conversations with TAC - and others - have taken place at high levels in the Vatican and that it is thought that the Pope is sympathetic to the dilemma of traditionalists in the Anglican way.” the rest