CV NEWS FEED // A former Anglican bishop from Wales will enter the Catholic Church in July within the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, an institution created by Pope Benedict XVI in 2011 for Anglican converts.
The Right Rev. Richard Pain was ordained as an Anglican priest in 1986 and was elected as a bishop in 2013. During his time in the Anglican church, he assisted in vocations discernment and clerical training. He and his wife, Juliet, also raised two sons during that time. He retired from his episcopal position in 2019 and felt God’s call to join the Catholic Church.
He will come into full communion with the Church on July 2 as the first bishop from the Welsh Anglican Church to join the ordinariate.
The Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, which functions very similarly to a traditional diocese, was founded in 2011 in order to support Anglican converts. The ordinariate allows priests, bishops, and laity to retain some Anglican traditions while still being in full communion with the pope, thus exemplifying Vatican II’s vision for ecumenical diversity within the Church.
The ordinariate has a similar but unique Eucharistic liturgy, incorporates elements from the Book of Common Prayer that are in accordance with Catholic teachings, and allows Anglican priests and bishops who are already married to become clergy in the Catholic Church.
The Personal Ordinariate has three branches: Our Lady of Walsingham in the United Kingdom, as well as ordinariates in North America and Australia. The American Ordinariate, known as the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, is based in Houston, Texas, and contains 40 different parishes across the United States and Canada, each of which is in doctrinal union with Rome.
The ordinariates are intended to be places of welcome for those who “have discerned they are truly Catholic in what they believe and desire full membership in the Catholic Church.”
Monsignor Keith Newton, Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, will receive Richard Pain into the Church next month.
“Richard has a long and distinguished ministry in the Church in Wales,” he said. “He has many gifts which he will continue to use to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people of Wales.”
Pain said that he is looking forward to his reception as a Catholic in the ordinariate:
Having retired from episcopal ministry three years ago, I have had time to reflect on the retiree’s perennial question- what next? The process of discernment continues throughout life and is constantly shaped by context but more importantly by the whisper of God’s voice… I have much to be grateful for the experience gained over a lifetime as an Anglican. Yet the call to Catholicism seems natural and spiritual at the same time. To start afresh will be a welcome challenge and I come – as we all do – as a learner and a disciple. The Ordinariate, through the vision of Pope Benedict, provides a generous pathway to walk a pilgrim way and I ask for your prayers.
