You are not alone in asking the question

If you have found your way to this page, something has stirred in you. Perhaps a friend's witness, a half-remembered prayer, a longing you cannot quite name. You are not alone. Across the Diocese of Shrewsbury, more people are knocking on the door of the Catholic Church than at any time in living memory. On the First Sunday of Lent 2026, Shrewsbury Cathedral hosted not one but two Rites of Election to receive 171 candidates from 31 parishes preparing for the sacraments at Easter. In 2025 the figure was 100. In 2024 it was 82. The numbers have nearly doubled in three years.

This is not happening because of a clever campaign. It is happening because, as Bishop Davies wrote in his Lent 2026 Pastoral Letter, men and women, many of them young, are searching through the noise of contemporary life and finding something solid.

As Lent begins, we see a growing number of men and women, many of them young adults, who are seeking faith and baptism. This stream of new converts is evident across our Diocese and country and indeed across the western world. It is all the more remarkable because this new generation of converts have been drawn to the Church by no special initiative on our part, rather by the constancy of faith, the reverence of worship and the authentic witness they have found.

Bishop Mark Davies, Pastoral Letter for Lent 2026.

What the Church says to you, today

The Catholic Church in Shrewsbury says, plainly, that you are welcome. The diocesan welcome page puts it like this: you do not need to be a baptised Catholic to walk through the doors of any of our churches, or to stay and pray during Mass. You can come and sit at the back. You can light a candle. You can listen.

Scripture promises that the search itself is met. "Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you" (Matthew 7:7). The Catechism describes the human person as a creature whose deepest restlessness only finds rest in God: "The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God" (CCC 27).

Drawing on Newman's prophecy

Bishop Davies has framed this moment using a phrase from Saint John Henry Newman's Second Spring sermon, preached in 1852 to the newly restored English hierarchy. Newman spoke of "a Church ready for converts." In his Lent 2026 letter, the Bishop returns to that line and presses it on every Catholic in the diocese.

As Shrewsbury Diocese began its mission some 175 years ago, Saint John Henry Newman spoke of "a Church ready for converts." Seeing so many today, often coming from no religious background to find the faith of the Church, I recalled these words of Cardinal Newman. We must now be ready to support new converts who are seeking Christ and His Church amid all the confusions of our time.

Bishop Mark Davies, Pastoral Letter for Lent 2026.

The same letter reminds Catholics that being ready for converts begins at home. The Bishop writes that "every member of the Church must always be a convert." The word covers all of us. The newly baptised and the lifelong Catholic are walking the same path, deeper into Christ.

What is happening across the country

The Shrewsbury surge sits inside a wider picture. The 2023 Bible Society and YouGov "Quiet Revival" study, which sampled 13,146 adults, found that churchgoing among 18 to 24 year olds rose from 4 per cent in 2018 to 16 per cent in 2025. Young adults are now the second most regular churchgoers in Britain after the over 65s. Bishop Davies has linked this directly to Newman's prophecy that the conversion of England will be accomplished one by one, person by person, over decades.

Your simple first step

The Bishop's own advice on the diocesan becoming-a-catholic page could not be plainer.

If you are interested in becoming a Catholic or finding out more about the Catholic faith then speak to your local parish priest. There is a period of instruction prior to being received into the Church that people go through so that they may better understand Catholic beliefs and why we do the things that we do.

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

That is it. You do not need a perfect faith. You do not need to have read every book. You need a phone call or an email to the priest of the parish nearest your home.

• Find your nearest parish at catholicshrewsbury.com/find/parishes.
• Ring or email the parish office and ask about OCIA, sometimes still called RCIA.
• If you would prefer to write to the diocese first, contact Natalie Orefice at Natalie.orefice@dioceseofshrewsbury.org.
• Visit Shrewsbury Cathedral on a Sunday and stay for tea afterwards.

You can also simply turn up to a Sunday Mass before you do anything else. Sit at the back. Watch. Listen. The Lord who is calling you knows the way.