A recent report found that more than one third of clergy ordained in England and Wales for the last three decades (1992-2024) are former Anglican clergy. The report explores this staggering statistic of the journey from the Anglican priesthood to, not only the Catholic Church, but the Catholic priesthood.
“Convert Clergy in the Catholic Church in Britain” is a research project funded by the St. Barnabas Society. The society is a charity in Great Britain and Ireland that “exists to provide pastoral and financial help on behalf of the whole Catholic community to former clergy and religious of other Christian denominations and other world faiths, who are resident in Great Britain and Ireland, and who have been led by faith and conscience into the full communion of the Catholic Church.”
Given the number of Anglican priests that have sought this path to the Catholic priesthood, the Barnabas Society has had no shortage of work to do.
By the numbers
Some 700 former clergy and religious from the Anglican Church (Church of England, Church in Wales, or Scottish Episcopal Church) have come into the Catholic Church since 1992. The research shows that this number includes 16 former Anglican bishops.
Almost 500 (491) former Anglican clergy were ordained to the Catholic clergy during this time, which included five permanent deacons and 486 priests. This number is 35% of total Catholic priestly ordinations during this same time period.
In 2009, Benedict XVI wrote Anglicanorum Coetibus, the apostolic constitution establishing "ordinariates" for former Anglicans who wanted full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of their prayer and heritage.
According to the report, 115 of the total became priests for the UK ordinariate, two for the North American ordinariate, and 1 for the Australian.
Crossing the Tiber to the Catholic Church
These are clearly significant statistics, but why is this only becoming well-known now?
The report addresses this question, saying that before the internet became prevalent, converts may not have been aware of others pursuing a similar path. In addition, the report considers that the Anglican Church would not have been eager to advertise their priests leaving and the Catholic Church may not have wanted people to think they were leaning into “triumphalism.”
In the introduction to the report, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, frames these conversions as “not so much a turning away or rejection of their rich and precious Anglican heritage but an experience of an imperative to move into the full visible communion of the Catholic Church, in union with the See of Peter.”
These conversions did not appear to be a homogeneous experience; each person contacted for the report had their own journey.
The report mentioned that leaving the Anglican Communion was often an “individual matter between the clergy and their bishops” and joining the Catholic Church was often “a low-key affair at a parish level.”
Those interviewed mentioned any number of ways that they came to embrace Catholicism. The thing that most of these conversions had in common is that they weren’t short. The report mentions a time of years or even decades where the Anglican priest found himself in a state of what they called “ecclesial unease.”
This "unease" could take many forms, including a feeling that perhaps they ought to be a Catholic, or that they might become Catholic eventually, or that they definitely will after retirement or some other particular milestone. Alternatively, it could be thinking that they would convert if the Church of England does X, or once the children are off at university, or when a resolutely anti-Catholic mother or father has died.
Ordination to the priesthood
Britain has 29 dioceses, and their protocols for addressing the would-be ordination of converts are not identical. For former Anglican clergy seeking to become ordained in the Catholic Church that means that their path to ordination was unique.
Men discerning the Catholic priesthood could discern the diocesan priesthood or the Ordinariates.
Either way, the transition was not always easy, especially for married Anglican clergy with families to support. Yet, despite the obstacles, nearly 500 men made the choice to join the Catholic faith, enriching it with their service, faith, and heritage.
