I believe Blair's conversion is just tip of the iceberg of some Roman overtures within the Anglo communities. The Catholic Church under Cardinal Ratzinger and now Pope Benedict has launched a quiet 'offensive' to encourage ecumenism while attempting to garner more converts. I personally feel that within this century, the Church of England may be greatly reduced in numbers and possibly even reunited with the Roman See.
Firstly there are greater number of Catholic Churchgoers than Anglican Churchgoers in England. This shows the growing influence of Catholicism within the heart of Anglicanism.
Catholic churchgoers now outnumber Anglicans for the first time since the Reformation partly due to the massive migration from Catholic countries, according to new research.
Church of England services are no longer Britain's most popular form of worship and have been overtaken by Catholic mass, a study by the organisation Christian Research has found.
The large number of EU nationals from Eastern Europe who have immigrated to the UK in recent years have swelled the numbers attending masses across the country.
Estimates for church attendances in 2006, based on previous years' figures, reveal 861,800 Catholics attended services every Sunday compared with 852,500 Anglican worshippers
Secondly, the overtures to frustrated Anglo Catholics and Traditionalist Anglicans have begun to bear fruits.
Three Church of Ireland parishes have asked to be received into full communion with the Catholic Church, The Irish Catholic newspaper reports this week. The decision would pave the way for over 400,000 Anglicans to become Catholic.
The parishes, located in the counties Down, Tyrone and Laois, are members of the traditional rite of the Church of Ireland. The rite emerged in 1991 after the House of Bishops of the Church of Ireland decided to start ordaining women. Traditionalist Anglicans rejected this decision as a "defiance of both Scripture and Tradition."
A plenary meeting of the Traditional Anglican Communion, the umbrella organization for traditionalist parishes, decided to petition Rome to be received into full communion with the Holy See. While only a few hundred Anglicans in Ireland will be affected if an agreement is reached, the Traditional Anglican Communion itself has over 400,000 members who could all join the Catholic Church.
According to a statement from the Traditional Anglican Communion, "the bishops and vicars-general unanimously agreed to the text of a letter to the See of Rome seeking full, corporate, sacramental union."
Hence while official Anglican-Catholic ties are governed by Pope Leo XII Apostolic Curae (which nullified Anglican orders) and historic hostilities, there is a quiet offensive going on to reach out to the more Catholic part of the Anglican Communion.
