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About 2,000 Canadian members of a breakaway Anglican group and a small group of U.S. Anglican dissidents said in March that they have accepted the offer made by Pope Benedict XVI last October that permits disaffected congregations to defect to Rome while keeping many Anglican traditions, including married priests. The agreement will allow members of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada, which claims about 40 churches, to keep its own bishops. A similar move said to affect about 100 U.S. churches was approved in Orlando, Florida, by the Anglican Church in America.

American victims of clerical sexual abuse protested at the Vatican after a New York Times article detailed letters and documents suggesting that Pope Benedict XVI, before becoming pope, personally mishandled the case of a Wisconsin priest who molested up to 200 deaf boys more than 35 years ago.