Anglican Bishop Monsignor Jonathan Goodhall, following a long period of prayer, has converted to the Catholic Church.

Newsroom (13/09/2021 23:06, Gaudium Press) Archbishop Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, has announced that Bishop Jonathan Goodall, Anglican Bishop of Ebbsfleet, has converted to Catholicism.

“I have decided, after a long period of prayer, to leave my responsibility as Bishop of Ebbsfleet to be received into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church,” explained the newly converted Archbishop.

Bishop Goodhall, 60, is married and the father of two children, but has not yet made known whether or not he intends to exercise ministry within the Catholic Church. “I made that decision (to convert) in response to the Lord’s call.”

He further confided, “That period (of conversion) was one of the most difficult periods of my life.” Goodhall was Bishop of Ebbsfleet for eight years, where he served as Provincial Visitor. Between 2005 and 2012 he was Chaplain and Secretary to Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

History of conversions

Goodhall is the second bishop of Ebbsfleet to convert to Catholicism: in 2010, Andrew Burnham left Anglicanism to enter into communion with the Catholic Church; Church of England (Anglican) Bishops Keith Newton and John Broadhurst have also converted to Catholicism.

In 1993, Bishop Emeritus of London Graham Leonard converted to Catholicism, and another famous conversion occurred in 2009 when Gavin Ashenden, former Honorary Chaplain to the Queen, also left the Anglican Church.

The most famous case of conversion remains that of St. John Neumann, canonized in 2019. St. John Neumann was responsible for a revival of the Catholic Church in England. (FM)

With files from the National Catholic Register.

Compiled by Sandra Chisholm