/guid/9202a8c04000641f8000000000ce44f7 rename

The Catholic Church in England and Wales is part of the worldwide Catholic Church in full communion...

The Catholic Church in England and Wales is part of the worldwide Catholic Church in full communion with the Pope, who is currently Pope Benedict XVI. According to church tradition, it traces its origins to the original Christian community founded by Jesus, with its traditions first established by the Twelve Apostles and maintained through unbroken Apostolic Succession and its formal history dates from the early days of Christianity in the Western Roman Empire. In 597, the first authoritative papal mission, establishing a direct link from the Kingdom of Kent to Rome and to the Benedictine form of monasticism, was carried into effect by Augustine of Canterbury. England officially adhered to the Western (Catholic) Church for over a thousand years; but in 1534, during the reign of Henry VIII, the Catholic Church in England was separated from the broader Catholic Church, and a new ecclesial entity, the Church of England, was created with Henry as its head. Under his son, Edward VI, the Church of England became more influenced by the European Protestant movement but it rejoined the Roman Catholic Church during the reign of Queen Mary I in 1555. The two Statutes of Repeal to make the