Acta Apostolicae Sedis - Commentarium Officiale942

human sexuality-already clearly stated in the ARCIC document "Life in

Christ"-by the ordination of openly homosexual clergy and the blessing of

homosexual partnerships. At the same time, as the Anglican Communion

faces these new and difficult challenges, the Catholic Church remains

fully committed to continuing ecumenical engagement with the Anglican

Communion, particularly through the efforts of the Pontifical Council for

the Promotion of Christian Unity.

In the meantime, many individual Anglicans have entered into full com-

munion with the Catholic Church. Sometimes there have been groups of

Anglicans who have entered while preserving some "corporate" structure.

Examples of this include, the Anglican diocese of Amritsar in India, and

some individual parishes in the United States which maintained an Anglican

identity when entering the Catholic Church under a "pastoral provision"

adopted by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and approved

by Pope John Paul II in 1982. In these cases, the Catholic Church has fre-

quently dispensed from the requirement of celibacy to allow those married

Anglican clergy who desire to continue ministerial service as Catholic priests

to be ordained in the Catholic Church.

In the light of these developments, the Personal Ordinariates established

by the Apostolic Constitution can be seen as another step toward the realiza-

tion the aspiration for full, visible union in the Church of Christ, one of the

principal goals of the ecumenical movement.

From the Vatican, October 20th, 2009.