The Vatican has since set up 'ordinariates,' structures similar to dioceses, in Britain and the U.S. In 2009, Benedict decreed that Anglicans who leave their Church, many because they feel it has become too liberal, can find a home in Catholicism in a parallel hierarchy that allows them to keep some of their traditions. Some Churches that have allowed gay marriage, women priests, gay clergy and gay bishops have been losing members to Catholicism, and the Vatican has taken steps to facilitate their conversion. Gay marriage is legal in a number of European countries, including Spain and the Netherlands. The Roman Catholic Church, which has some 1.3billion members worldwide, teaches that while homosexual tendencies are not sinful, homosexual acts are, and that children should grow up in a traditional family with a mother and a father. Bishops Conference, said such a policy could 'precipitate a national conflict between church and state of enormous proportions'.

In that letter Dolan, who holds the powerful post of president of the U.S. 'Policies which undermine the family threaten human dignity and the future of humanity itself'