Anglican traditionalist leader: reports of personal prelature are premature

February 27, 2009

The leader of the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) has confirmed that his group, which claims the allegiance of 400,000 conservative Anglican faithful, is looking for "a communal and ecclesial way of being Anglican Catholics in communion with the Holy See." But Archbishop John Helpworth discounted reports that the Vatican will soon grant the TAC the status of a personal prelature within the Catholic Church. The Anglican prelate said that his group had been engaged in talks with Vatican officials, and discussed the form of an ecclesial solution. He pointed out that personal prelatures and apostolic administration are "vehicles for specific groups to coalesce around their own episcopate for a particular pastoral reason," and might apply to the situation facing the TAC. However, the archbishop emphasized that the TAC had no particular expectations; the group had made its petition to Rome, he said, and was now prayerfully waiting for a response.

 

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Further information:

• Primate clarifies aspects of several reports on TAC-Holy See initiative (The Messenger Journal)
• Anglican leader 'optimistically waiting' for Vatican acceptance (CWN, Jan 30)