SW News: Former Anglican Bishop Richard Pain will officially become a member of the Catholic Church on July 2. Rev. Pain, who served as the bishop of Monmouth diocese in Wales from 2013 to 2019, will be received into the full communion of the Catholic Church by Monsignor Keith Newton, Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.

The ceremony will take place at St Basil & St Gwladys Catholic Church in Newport. “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, Pain said, adding that “The Ordinariate, through the vision of Pope Benedict, provides a generous pathway to walk a pilgrim way and I ask for your prayers.” Monsignor Newton expressed delight over Pain’s decision. “He will be the first bishop from the Anglican Church in Wales to be received into the Ordinariate since its creation in 2011,” Newton noted.

Born in 1956, his formation for the Anglican priesthood was at St Michael's College in Llandaff. Prior to his appointment as bishop, Pain served as Archdeacon of Monmouth for a few years. The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham was established in 2011 by Pope Benedict XVI to help Anglicans seeking full communion with the Catholic Church. Recent years have seen the conversion of many prominent Anglican leaders to Catholicism, including the conversion of the former Anglican Bishop of Rochester the Most Rev. Michael Nazir-Ali.