Please Support the St Barnabas Society: They Support Converts!

It has just been announced that the St Barnabas Society is donating £100,000 to the Ordinariate in England and Wales. I would like to take the opportunity here to encourage every reader to send a financial gift to the St Barnabas Society. Please send this to your email friends and link it to your blogs as well so that they can receive the support they need to help converts who have pressing needs on them. The St Barnabas Society is an incredibly generous charity that helps convert clergy in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland to survive after taking the steps necessary for being reunited to the Catholic Church. This fund was established long ago by Pope Leo XIII in order to support clergy from the Anglican Church who converted to Rome. This fund has been around for a long time and has helped numerous converts; your scribe is one of the recipients of their generosity. I cannot do enough to promote them. May I ask that every reader encourage their parish that on Easter Sunday One a collection be taken to be sent to the St Barnabas Society so that they can continue to do their work. I know that they must be giving out a lot of money right now and they deserve our support. I would encourage Ordinariate bound congregations to send a gift as well so that others may benefit in the future. It is good to give till it hurts a little and we all should be willing to support this tremendous charity. Therefore, please pass this blog post to everyone you know and support the St Barnabas Society! Thank you! What is it that they do exactly? You can contact them through their website here. Please mention this blog post if you do as I am hopeful that this sort of support has a positive result for them. Thank you!

The St Barnabas Society, a registered charity, operates in Great Britain and Ireland and exists to provide pastoral and financial help on behalf of the whole Catholic community to former clergy ministers and religious from other churches, who live in Great Britain and Ireland, and who have been led by faith and conscience to come into full communion with the Catholic Church.

St Barnabas was chosen as its patron because it was he who befriended Paul after his dramatic conversion on the road to Damascus and encouraged him to begin a new life in the apostolic church with St Peter at its head.

Those who have been ministers, clergy or religious of other churches lose not only their jobs but also often their homes. Many are not qualified, trained or experienced in any other work and find it very difficult to obtain another job. Thanks to the generosity of the Catholic community the St. Barnabas Society is able to help these people with friendship, advice, and where necessary financial support.

Those who have been religious may have no money or possessions of any kind. The monetary grants we make may range from a one-off amount; to meet a particular need such as for clothes, to a regular monthly grant to help with living and housing costs. The Trustees decide the size and frequency of the discretionary grants on the basis of the needs of the applicant. Monthly grants are reviewed at regular intervals in the light of the applicant's current position.

The St Barnabas Society continues the work, begun over a century ago, of welcoming and helping clergy and religious of other churches. It cooperates with the Bishops and Parish Priests to provide support until the individuals have been integrated into the Catholic community and established in a new life.