By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS Staff Journalist Reaction to the Vatican’s surprise move to open the doors of the Church to disaffected Anglicans is causing a range of emotions from joy and relief to consternation and confusion. According to London’s Telegraph, the head of the badly fractured 77 million-strong Anglican Communion, Dr. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, tried to appear upbeat in a joint press conference yesterday with his Catholic counterpart, Archbishop Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster. ''It has no negative impact on the relations of the communion as a whole or to the Roman Catholic church as a whole,'' he said during the conference. In a joint statement, the two said the Vatican decision ''brings an end to a period of uncertainty'' for those Anglicans wishing to join the Catholic Church. However, Damian Thompson, Blogs Editor of the Telegraph, saw the letter Dr. Williams sent to bishops of the Anglican community in which he sounded “humiliated” and “furious” that the Vatican “sprang the plans to welcome ex-Anglicans on him ‘at a very late stage.’” In the letter, Dr. Williams said, “I am sorry that there has been no opportunity to alert you earlier to this; I was informed of the planned announcement at a very late stage, and we await the text of the Apostolic Constitution itself and its code of practice in the coming weeks. But I thought I should let you know the main points of the response I am making in our local English context– in full consultation with Roman Catholic bishops in England and Wales – in the hope of avoiding any confusion or misrepresentation.” According to the New York Times, Dr. Williams' representative in Rome, the Very Rev. David Richardson, called the Vatican's decision ''surprising'' because, in the past, the Church welcomed individual Anglicans without creating “parallel structures” for entire groups of converts. This time, however, the Vatican issued an Apostolic Constitution that will allow Anglican converts to enter full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of their spirituality and liturgy. Under the terms of the Apostolic Constitution, "pastoral oversight and guidance will be provided for groups of former Anglicans through a Personal Ordinariate, whose Ordinary will usually be appointed from among former Anglican clergy." The Ordinariate will function much like those established around the world for military personnel and their dependents.   ''The two questions I would want to ask are 'why this and why now,''' Richardson told The Associated Press. ''Why the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has decided to embrace that particular method remains unclear to me.'' He was also confused about the Vatican's target audience - Anglicans who already left the Communion, or current members. Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) said it covered both. The Anglican Church, aka the Church of England, was founded in 1534 when Pope Clement VII refused to grant King Henry VIII  a marriage annulment. The worldwide communion began bleeding members in 1992 when it sanctioned the ordination of women in 1990. Another serious rift occurred in 2003 when the U.S. Episcopal Church consecrated the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.  As a result, traditional Anglicans have been breaking away and forming their own communions, with many expressing interest in entering the Catholic Church. In the U.S. at least four conservative dioceses and dozens of individual Episcopal parishes have voted to leave the national denomination since 2003, with many affiliating themselves instead with like-minded Anglican leaders in Africa and elsewhere. It remains to be seen how many of these disaffected members will now opt to enter the Church. Bishop Christopher Epting, deputy for Ecumenical and Interreligious relations for the U.S. Episcopal Church issued a statement acknowledging the Vatican’s move, saying it plans to “continue to explore the full implications of this in our ecumenical relations.”  Should they decide to enter the Church, the U.S. bishops are prepared to welcome them with open arms. Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said the American church "stands ready to collaborate" with the Vatican in implementing the new provisions. One of America's most famous Anglican converts, Fr. George Rutler, called the Vatican's move a "dramatic put down of liberal Anglicanism and a total repudiation of the ordination of women, homosexual marriage and the general neglect of doctrine in Anglicanism." Many traditional Anglicans around the world agree, and are reacting with joy to the announcement. “It has been the frequently expressed hope and fervent desire of Anglican Catholics to be enabled, by some means, to enter into full communion with the See of Peter whilst retaining in its integrity every aspect of their Anglican inheritance which is not at variance with the teaching of the Catholic Church,” said John Fulham of Forward in Faith, a group representing traditional Anglicans in the UK,  Australia, and the US. ”We rejoice that the Holy Father intends now to set up structures within the Church which respond to this heartfelt longing. Forward in Faith has always been committed to seeking unity in truth and so warmly welcomes these initiatives as a decisive moment in the history of the Catholic Movement in the Church of England. Ut unum sint!" In England, a Conservative Party lawmaker Ann Widdecombe, who left the Church of England because of its policies for the Catholic Church, welcomed the Vatican's announcement. ''I'm delighted if it does become easier, because when we had the last big exodus in 1992 over the ordination of women, the Catholic Church was not ready,'' she said in London. ''There were enormous discrepancies up and down the country, and the direction from the Vatican came late in the day.'' As the Telegraph’s Damian Thompson wrote, “(T)his is clearly a historic gesture by Pope Benedict which will encourage thousands of disaffected Anglicans to become Roman Catholics.” © All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly®/Women of Grace®  http://www.womenofgrace.com