The Vatican has announced that the Catholic Church will accept groups of Anglicans who are opposed to the acceptance of female priests and homosexual bishops.

Pope Benedict XVI said Anglicans worldwide can adopt corporate reunion with the Roman Catholic Church while retaining many of their traditions.

The Pope offered these groups to have their own married priests, parishes and bishops and said they would be free to preserve their liturgical traditions by liberal Catholic bishops who are unsympathetic to their conservative stance.

The offered terms ease the formal conversion structure and allow married Anglican priests to remain married after they convert to Catholicism.

The entirely new Church structure surprised many as it was unveiled simultaneously in the Vatican and in London.

The issue is considered as a step forward in building closer ties with Anglicans who, like conservative Catholics, reject the idea of female and homosexual priests.

NAT/SC/AKM