The Catholic News Agency reported that significant numbers of Anglican clergy in the UK have converted to Catholicism since 1992. According to the report, “Convert Clergy in the Catholic Church in Britain,” released by the St Barnabas Society last Thursday, some 700 Anglican clergy and religious were received into the Roman Church from 1992 to 2024, a number which includes 16 former Anglican bishops, and makes up approximately a third of all Catholic priests ordained in England and Wales over that time.
“The numbers are much larger than most people would imagine”, said co-author Stephen Bullivant, Professor of theology and the sociology of religion at St. Mary’s Catholic University in London.
700 clergy converts over 32 years (ie to 2024) equates to only some 22 per year. In fact the majority came over in one of two “big waves” – firstly the Church of England general synod vote in 1992, which enabled women to be ordained priest, and secondly the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Britain in 2010, which allowed “personal ordinariates for those Anglican faithful who desire to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church in a corporate manner.” This is very clear from a graph on p9 of the report, which shows upwards of 200 of the 700 converted in the aftermath of 1992, double those going over in 2010.
See the news article in Catholic News Agency here. Read the report here.