A recent report highlights an unexpected phenomenon: Anglican clergy conversions to the Catholic Church are increasing, and re-ordinations are a significant boost at a time when priestly vocations are scarce in an Anglo-Saxon world hit hard by secularization.
Is the Thames becoming a tributary of the Tiber?
One might be tempted to think so in light of the report published on November 20, 2025, by the St. Barnabas Society, entitled "Convert Clergy in the Catholic Church in Britain."
This 24-page document, co-authored by sociologist of religion Stephen Bullivant, professor at St. Mary's University London, provides a comprehensive overview of more than three decades of ecclesiastical "migrations."
Based on the archives of Bishop John Broadhurst, a former Anglican “bishop” ordained a Catholic priest (Anglican ordinations being invalid), and on interviews with 36 converts, the report reveals that nearly 700 clergy and religious from various Anglican denominations in England, Wales, and Scotland have chosen to join the Roman Catholic Church since 1992.
Among them, 491 were ordained in the Catholic Church – 486 as priests and 5 as deacons. This influx, far from being an isolated phenomenon, represents approximately one-third of Catholic priestly ordinations in England and Wales during the same period. This trend is part of a history marked by decisive turning points.
It all began in 1992, when the Church of England (Anglican) voted to ordain women to the priesthood, sending shockwaves through Anglicans committed to the apostolic tradition.
This decision triggered a first massive wave: nearly 160 clergy conversions in 1994 alone, more than double the number in previous years.
The converts, often from rather traditional Anglican parishes, saw this measure as an insurmountable break with the patristic heritage: "For many, the ordination of women invalidates Eucharistic consecration," the report notes, highlighting how this doctrinal unease led hundreds of pastors to seek refuge in the Catholic communion.
A second wave occurred in 2011 under Benedict XVI.
During his pastoral visit to Great Britain in 2010, he promulgated the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus, creating personal ordinariates in communion with Rome to welcome Anglicans, allowing them to preserve certain traditions - liturgy, music.
In 2011, there were more than 80 receptions, and nearly 40 in 2012. The Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham became a haven for these “pilgrims of the Tiber.”
To this day, the flow has not diminished. The report emphasizes a “stable continuity”: annually, up to 11 Anglican clerics join the Catholic Church, and as many are ordained.
From 2015 to 2024, former Anglicans accounted for 9% of diocesan ordinations in England and Wales. Including ordinariates, this percentage rises to 35% for the period 1992-2024.
This welcome influx partially offsets the overall decline in Catholic vocations in the United Kingdom, which have been falling in recent decades: “It is a major source of Catholic vocations, far more important than one might imagine,” states Stephen Bullivant, who is concerned about a possible “pastoral vacuum” in the future: converts from the early years are approaching retirement: “A large wave of departures could very well hit all at once,” the report warns.
The reasons for these conversions often transcend mere doctrinal disagreements. While the ordination of women remains the primary motive for conversion - exacerbated by persistent divisions within the Anglican Communion - converts emphasize a deeper aspiration: visible unity with the See of Peter.
Cardinal Vincent Nichols, president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, expresses this in the report's preface: "the story of many of those who have come into the full communion of the Catholic Church - not so much a turning away or rejection of their rich and precious Anglican heritage but as experience of an imperative to move into the full visible communion of the Catholic Church, in union with the See of Peter.”
The testimonies gathered in the report confirm this explanation.
The report does not, however, gloss over some setbacks: of the 700 clergy and religious who converted, 35 returned to Anglicanism, including five of the 491 ordained Catholics.
Only one opted for Orthodoxy. But despite this, the overall assessment remains largely positive and demonstrates that true ecumenism, which bears fruit, is practiced by a Church proudly displaying the banner of her teaching and Tradition.