Well, we were never going to re-join the Catholic Church in any case. With that in mind, the discussions to patch up differences had been going on for decades, apparently with pretty good results.
Frank Griswold was actually the head Communion delegate to the ARCIC. The Catholic Church cut off the ARCIC talks following the Gene Robinson debacle, and they mentioned Frank Griswold by name. Further, they have declined to take part in the follow-on to ARCIC unless and until the Communion does something about the ECUSA (and Canada).
The Orthodox churches have done the same thing.
Given the desire of all parties (with the exception of Griswold and his elves, apparently) to restore as much unity as possible in the universal church, it puts a lot of pressure on the Primates to do something about the ECUSA.
And again: once we have a distinction in ecumenical relations between "communion" entities, and Frank Griswold's ECUSA, then the mantle of legitimacy switches rather dramatically.
This isn't just speculation, either: Cardinal Ratzinger's letter to the Plano Conference last year made it clear that the Catholic Church is ready to recognize "communion entities" in preference to the nominal ECUSA.
Agreed. Although, some of the more Anglo-Catholic perhaps would, the property issues in the U.S. would make even that difficult.
once we have a distinction in ecumenical relations between "communion" entities, and Frank Griswold's ECUSA, then the mantle of legitimacy switches rather dramatically.
Yes. Frank's brand of Affirming Catholicism sounds an awful lot like the modernists the Roman Church has quite enough of already, thank you very much. Once the more orthodox elements are broken away into recognizable bodies of their own, and provided they leave the priestesses behind (AMIA is of 2 minds about this question it seems to me), the talks will be much more fruitful.