The Right Rev. Richard Pain, former Anglican bishop of Monmouth in Wales will be received into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church.
Newsroom(14/06/2023 19:30, Gaudium Press) The Right Rev. Richard Pain, former Anglican bishop of Monmouth in Wales, will be received into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church and serve as a priest with the Anglican Ordinariate. The Anglican Ordinariate was established by former Pope Benedict XVI in 2011 and allows former Anglican priests and bishops to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church while retaining certain Anglican traditions.
Pain will join the Catholic Church on July 2 at St. Basil and St. Gwladys in Rogerstone, Wales, becoming the first Welsh Anglican bishop to convert to Catholicism through the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. Monsignor Keith Newton, the ordinary of the ordinariate, expressed delight at Bishop Pain’s decision and emphasized his long and distinguished ministry in the Church in Wales.
The ordinariate functions like a diocese and has its own eucharistic liturgy that incorporates elements of the Book of Common Prayer. It allows married Anglican priests and bishops to become Catholic priests. Pain, who has been married for over 40 years, will continue his ministry as a married priest in the Catholic Church.
Pain cited the Benedictine understanding of obedience and discernment as significant in his personal formation and ultimate conversion to Catholicism. He expressed gratitude for his experience as an Anglican and stated that the call to Catholicism felt both natural and spiritual. He acknowledged the challenge of starting afresh and emphasized his role as a learner and disciple.
Since its establishment, the Anglican ordinariate has seen the conversion of at least 15 Anglican bishops, including four in 2021. One notable convert from 2021 was the Right Rev. Michael Nazir-Ali, a prominent member of the Anglican hierarchy who was considered a potential future archbishop of Canterbury.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from CNA
