Will Anglicans support the Archbishop of Canterbury if he decides that the Anglican church should return to the Roman Catholic church?

Substantive -- albeit asymmetric -- communion already exists between that portion of the Catholic Church that is in communion with Rome, and that portion of the Catholic Church which is in communion with Canterbury. We accept, for example, the validity of Catholic Orders -- naturally, because our own orders are Catholic. We accept the validity of Catholic Sacraments -- again, because our own sacraments are Catholic. We accept Catholics at our altars, and welcome them to share with us in the Lord's Supper -- because we ourselves are Catholic. How much more union should we wish for?

Well, to be frank, we could wish that the communion be reciprocal. But Vatican documents, such as the relatively recent Dominus Iesus, have been explicit that that portion of the Catholic Church which is in communion with Rome will not consider communion with any portion of the Catholic Church that doesn't submit to the authority of the Bishop of Rome. And we are very clear and committed to the Tradition that the authority of Bishops is final and independent. We respect highly the office of the Archbishop of Canterbury, but he is not (despite what you regularly read in the secular press, not known for its accuracy on spiritual matters) "the spiritual leader of 77 million Anglicans world wide". Primates and Archbishops in the Anglican communion exercise leadership, and some administrative authority (they chair synods, summon councils or courts, and so on) but they do not exercise *authority* over other Bishops. We rely on the authority of God, conscience, individual Bishops -- and on our often slow and clumsy attempts to find consensus.

The Anglican Church cannot "return to the Roman Catholic Church" because it never left the *Roman* Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church came into existence as a separate distinction with the mutual and shameful excommunications of Bishops in communion with either Rome or Canterbury sundered the Catholic Church. Anglicans have repented of those ancient excommunications, and consider them null.

The Archbishop of Canterbury could submit to the authority of the Bishop of Rome, but that would only bring *him* (and presumably those priests who are in obedience to him) into communion with Rome. It would not restore the catholicity of the Catholic Church, because the remaining umpteen Anglican bishops would still, independently or through our awkward and slow consensus-building process, have all to decide that they too choose to abandon their Traditional independence. The probability of that is remote in the extreme.

At least as remote as the Bishop of Rome's abandoning his insistence on our Bishops subordinating their independence to his claimed authority.