The Catholic Church plan "reflects a really bold determination by Rome to seize the moment and do what it can to reach out to those who share its stance on women priests and homosexuality," said Ian Markham, dean of the Virginia Theological Seminary, an Episcopal seminary in Alexandria. "It is very, very bold and very interesting."

In establishing the new structure, Pope Benedict XVI is responding to "many requests" from individual Anglicans and Anglican groups -- including "20 to 30 bishops," said Cardinal William Levada, the Vatican's chief doctrinal official, according to the Catholic News Service.

Under the system, the Catholic Church will create "personal ordinariates"-- separate units within Catholic churches headed by former Anglican priests or bishops. While married Anglican priests would be permitted, married bishops would not because they are not in keeping with Catholic tradition.

These former Anglicans would be considered theologically Catholic but with their own traditions, such as use of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer.

The plan is not without precedent. The Catholic Church has long permitted married Anglican priests to join, but only under certain conditions. For centuries, the church has had a similar arrangement with Eastern rite Catholics, who maintain their own traditions.

Between 100 and 200 of the 7,000 Episcopal congregations have broken away in a dispute over the 2003 ordination of Gene Robinson, a gay man, as bishop of New Hampshire, as well as over female clergy and the church's definition of salvation. Many allied themselves with conservative Anglican primates in such countries as Nigeria and Uganda.

Conservative Anglican leaders in the United States say the impact will be greater in England than it is here.

"The British papers are saying it's the biggest thing since Henry VIII, and in some ways it is for them," said Rev. Martyn Minns of Fairfax City, leader of a group of conservative congregations that broke three years ago from the Episcopal Church. "Over there, you have bishops, congregations, even whole diocese that may shift. Here in the U.S., we've already faced the division and what came out of it was the Anglican alternative...What the pope said affirms what I'm doing, but doesn't mean I'm going to become Catholic."

But other conservative Anglican leaders, including those with strong Catholic leanings, said Tuesday that they are unlikely to join the Catholic Church.

Bishop Jack Iker of Fort Worth, Texas, for instance, led one of the founding diocese in the umbrella group of breakaway conservatives and has strong ties to the Catholic Church.

But on Tuesday, spokesman Suzanne Gill said that "while it's true he's an Anglo Catholic bishop with many friends in the Catholic church, we don't have any plans to convert into the Catholic church."

Nonetheless, the Vatican's move could strain the sometimes delicate alliances within the breakaway conservative churches, Markham said. One camp sees Anglicanism as a version of Catholic theology, while the other group is more evangelical and suspicious of Catholicism.

"This offer by Rome could peel off some of those Anglo-Catholics," he said. "I think some of them will be tempted to go."

END