IN THE WEST, EVEN PROTESTANT PRIESTS ARE SWITCHING TO THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

The push factor is the spiritual vacuum in the Protestant ecosystem and the pull factor is the promise of a clear and firm belief system in the Catholic church.

- By P.K.Balachandran

Studies indicate a surge in the conversion of people from the Anglican and other Protestant churches to the Catholic church in the UK and the US. The converts are mainly young people but there is also a growing number of ordained Anglican priests among them.

Anglican priests desiring conversion are using a new facility in the Catholic church to retain their priesthood and marriages after joining the Catholic clergy.

Accretions by the Catholic church signify a growing conviction that it is more relevant to the emerging socio-cultural conditions in the Western society which is marked by alienation due to a spiritual vacuum in it.

People in the West, especially the youth, find no spiritual fulfilment in the current situation where there is either indifference to or disdain for religions. There is a feeling of being rudderless. This is attributed to a lack of belief, certitude and direction from existing church authorities.

The most common impetus for the young to enter the Catholic church is the realisation that the world around them cannot provide them with any moral order. A culture of license has left them unmoored.

Sociologists say that in an age of moral confusion and cultural uncertainty, people are drawn to those who believe what they say—who live and speak as if their core convictions are real and unshakable. It is said that this, more than anything, may explain the quiet shift to Catholicism now unfolding in the UK.

Church Attendance

In the UK, for the first time in centuries, the Catholic Church now surpasses the Church of England in active attendance. Among the young, Catholics outnumber Anglicans. In London, the shift is even more pronounced. The tide is turning. But it's not turning towards “trendy liturgies or progressive theology”, but towards the “clarity, continuity, and conviction in the Catholic church”.