If you have been away

Perhaps you were baptised as a baby, made your First Communion, and drifted somewhere along the way. Perhaps you stopped after a row with a priest, a bereavement, a teenage drift, a marriage that did not work, or a question no one answered. Perhaps it has been five years, or twenty, or fifty. The Catholic Church in Shrewsbury has one thing to say to you, and the diocesan welcome page says it without flourish.

If you are already a Catholic, but have been away from the Church for any amount of time, please know that you are most welcome to return. You may wish to speak to your parish priest about Confession. Be assured that it is always a great source of joy when someone returns to the Church after being away from the faith.

Bishop Mark Davies, becoming-a-catholic page, dioceseofshrewsbury.org.

That is the whole policy of the diocese. It is also the policy of the Lord Jesus, who told the parable of the prodigal son. "While he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him" (Luke 15:20).

You are not the only one walking back

Something is happening in the Diocese of Shrewsbury. The Rite of Election at the Cathedral on the First Sunday of Lent received 171 candidates from 31 parishes in 2026. In 2025 the figure was 100. In 2024 it was 82. The numbers have nearly doubled in three years. Many of these are people coming for Baptism for the first time. A growing share are baptised Catholics who fell away as teenagers and are now, in their twenties or thirties, finding their way back to the Eucharist.

The 2023 Bible Society and YouGov "Quiet Revival" study, drawing on a sample of 13,146 adults, found churchgoing among 18 to 24 year olds rising from 4 per cent in 2018 to 16 per cent in 2025. The Bishop has framed the moment using Newman's phrase from the 1852 Second Spring sermon: "a Church ready for converts."

If you were baptised as a child and are returning, you are part of that same wave. The Bishop has been clear that the same line applies to you. "Every member of the Church must always be a convert." There is no shame in coming back. The Church takes returning seriously, because she takes you seriously.

The simple shape of return

For a baptised Catholic who has been away, the path is shorter than you might think. The Sacrament of Penance, often called Confession, is what restores the broken friendship with God. The Catechism teaches that this sacrament "is rightly called a sacrament of conversion, of Penance, of confession, of forgiveness, and of reconciliation" (CCC 1423-1424). Five names for one gift.

Bishop Davies has named the link between confession and return often. In his pastoral letter on the death of Pope Francis, on Divine Mercy Sunday 2025, he reminded the diocese:

We might think of the Year of Mercy he called in 2015 which saw many return to sacramental confession. We might picture in 2020 a deserted Saint Peter's Square at the height of the global pandemic, when Pope Francis stood alone holding the Blessed Sacrament in blessing to the world.

Bishop Mark Davies, Pastoral Letter on the death of Pope Francis, Divine Mercy Sunday, 27 April 2025.

Pope Francis' Year of Mercy in 2015 made confession easier to find. Bishop Davies has carried that emphasis into Shrewsbury, urging Catholics to remember "our constant need of grace and conversion in the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation." That sentence is even more for the one returning.

Going to confession after a long time

The mechanics are not complicated. They are forgiving by design.

• Find a confession time. Most parishes hear confessions on Saturdays. Shrewsbury Cathedral and the parish churches across the diocese advertise their times. Or ring the parish office.
• Tell the priest at the start that it has been a long time and that you are not sure how to do it. He will walk you through. He has done this many times.
• Confess the things that have weighed on you. You do not need a complete inventory. You need honesty.
• Receive absolution. The priest, in the person of Christ, says the words: "I absolve you from your sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." That is the moment.
• Do the small penance he gives you, often a few prayers, that same day if you can.

Then come to Sunday Mass. Receive Communion. You are home.

If your situation is complicated

If you are in a marriage situation that is troubling you, or if there is something you fear cannot be unsaid, talk to a priest before you write yourself off. The diocesan Marriage and Family Life Office, alongside the Marriage Tribunal, exists precisely to help in difficult cases. No question is unwelcome.

What to do next

• Speak to your local parish priest. The Bishop's own line on the welcome page. It is the right first step.
• Find your nearest parish at catholicshrewsbury.com/find/parishes.
• Visit Shrewsbury Cathedral on a Sunday. Sit at the back. Stay for tea afterwards.
• Visit Saint Joseph's, Stockport, the Eucharistic Shrine of Perpetual Adoration. Tell the Lord, in your own words, that you are coming home.