In this Sunday's reading from the Book of Jeremiah, the exiled remnant of Israel is given hope that the Lord "will gather them from the ends of the world" so that "they shall return as an immense throng." While not predicting such a dramatic response, the Vatican Tuesday announced that disaffected Anglicans would be allowed to join the Roman Catholic Church within distinctive "personal ordinariates" led by former Anglican prelates and maintaining many Anglican spiritual and liturgical traditions.

The Vatican's surprise announcement signaled a significant moment in relations between two churches that parted ways during the Reformation of the 16th century over theological issues and the primacy of the pope. Some observers saw the move as a bold invitation to traditionalist Anglicans--many of whom disagree with practices such as the ordination of women, openly gay clergy, and the blessing of same-sex unions--to convert en masse to Roman Catholicism.

Catholic and Anglican leaders sought on Tuesday to present the move as a joint effort to aid those seeking conversion. But it appeared that the Vatican had engineered the policy on its own, presenting it as a fait accompli to the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, archbishop of Canterbury and the spiritual head of the Anglican Communion, only in recent weeks.

The decision created a formal structure to streamline conversions that had previously been evaluated case by case. The Vatican said that it would release details in coming weeks, but that generally speaking former Anglican prelates chosen by the Catholic Church would oversee Anglicans, including entire parishes or even dioceses seeking to convert.

Currently married Anglican priests and seminarians can become ordained Catholic priests--much the same way that Eastern rite priests who are in communion with Rome are allowed to be married. Married Anglicans, though, cannot become Catholic bishops.

Cardinal William J. Levada, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, acknowledged at Tuesday's news conference that accepting large numbers of married Anglican priests while forbidding Catholic priests to marry could pose problems for some Catholics. But he argued that the circumstances differed. "The unity of the church does not require a uniformity that ignores cultural diversity, as the history of Christianity shows," he said.

Source: Articles by Rachel Donadio and Laurie Goodstein for the New York Times,
Nicole Winfield for the Associated Press, and Jeff Israely for TIME