On 3 October 2025, Downing Street announced that Dame Sarah Mullally, currently Bishop of London and former Chief Nursing Officer for England, has been appointed the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury, the first woman ever to hold the post in the 1,400-year history of the office. Her confirmation is scheduled for January 2026 at St Paul’s Cathedral, with her installation at Canterbury Cathedral in March.
The Titular Archbishop of Selsey, as Primus of the Old Roman Apostolate, has issued this statement to place the appointment in its wider historical and theological context, noting the irony of the timing, the sadness of further division, and the necessity of prayer — above all, for the conversion of Dame Sarah and of England itself to the fullness of Catholic faith.
His Grace has issued the following statement:
[Begins] The announcement of Dame Sarah Mullally as the next Archbishop of Canterbury has been greeted as a historic milestone: the first woman to occupy the See of Augustine in its long history. As Catholics, we do not meet such news with rancour, but with prayerful reflection — and with a sense of history that brings both sorrow and hope.
It is not without irony that this appointment comes in the very week when the Catholic Church in England and Wales marks the 175th anniversary of the restoration of the hierarchy by Blessed Pope Pius IX.¹ In 1850, after centuries of persecution and suppression, the Church regained the fullness of her episcopal order in these lands. Bishops were once again set over dioceses, restoring to the faithful the visible structure of apostolic government that had been interrupted since the Reformation. It was, and remains, a sign of continuity with the ancient faith first planted here by St Augustine of Canterbury in 597.²
The juxtaposition could not be more striking. On the one hand, Catholics recall with thanksgiving the providential renewal of true apostolic order. On the other, the Church of England presents to the world a figure who embodies the innovations of recent decades. Dame Sarah’s own story is admirable in many respects: a distinguished career in nursing, service as Chief Nursing Officer for England,³ and a respected tenure as Bishop of London. Yet her elevation is also symbolic of the different path the Church of England has taken — one that has sought renewal not in fidelity to the deposit of faith, but in adaptation to cultural change.
This decision also has ecumenical consequences of the highest order. Whatever fragile hopes once existed for reconciliation between Canterbury and the apostolic Churches — Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, and the rest — have now effectively been set aside. Both the Catholic Church⁴ and the Orthodox Churches⁵ have spoken with one voice: Holy Orders are of divine institution, and the Church has no authority whatsoever to ordain women. To install a woman as Archbishop is therefore not only an ecclesiological innovation but a definitive signal that the Church of England has chosen a path of permanent separation from apostolic Christianity. If reunion with the successors of Peter and Andrew was once a dream, this decision has placed it far beyond reach.
Meanwhile, the fruits of this progressive path are already evident. Since the ordination of women in the 1990s, Anglicanism has suffered defections of clergy and laity, dwindling attendance,⁶ and deep fractures across the Communion. The recent controversy surrounding the election of the new Archbishop of Wales, Cherry Vann, provoked strong reactions both within Britain and across the Global South. Christian Concern described the appointment as “tragic,”⁷ while the Archbishop of Nigeria declared that his province “cannot share communion with a church that has departed from the teachings of the Bible.”⁸ Such division illustrates how fragile Anglican unity has become. The appointment of a woman to Canterbury is likely to deepen those divisions, not heal them.
And yet, our response must not be triumphalism. For Catholics, the sight of Canterbury in confusion and fragmentation is never a cause for satisfaction, but for sorrow. The See of Augustine was once the beacon of unity in England, and its decline is bound up with the spiritual decline of the nation itself.
We must therefore pray. We must pray for Dame Sarah Mullally’s conversion to the fullness of truth, that she may yet come to see the beauty of the apostolic faith unbroken in the Catholic Church. We must pray for those Anglicans who still hunger for unity with the Church Christ founded. And above all, we must pray for the conversion of England itself, once known as Our Lady’s Dowry, that this nation may return to the faith that sanctified its saints and martyrs and alone can secure its future.
In this week of anniversaries, we are reminded of two paths: one of restoration, when the Catholic hierarchy was re-established in fidelity to apostolic order; the other of innovation, which risks further disintegration. History will judge which path leads to life. For our part, we remain committed to witness, to charity, and to prayer — confident that the truth entrusted to the Church will endure, and that England will, in God’s time, find its way home. [ENDS]
¹ Pius IX, Universalis Ecclesiae (1850), restoring the Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales.
² Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People, I.25–26, on Augustine’s mission to Kent in 597.
³ UK Government, Department of Health archives, “Dame Sarah Mullally, Chief Nursing Officer for England” (1999–2004).
⁴ John Paul II, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis (1994): “the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women.”
⁵ Inter-Orthodox Theological Consultation, “Women and the Priesthood,” Chambésy (1988), reaffirming that priestly ordination is reserved to men.
⁶ Church of England, Statistics for Mission 2022; Harriet Sherwood, The Guardian, 24 Oct 2024, reporting a fall of 169,000 worshippers in four years.
⁷ Newsweek, “Gay Archbishop’s Appointment Criticized by Christian Group,” Jul 2025, on Cherry Vann’s election in Wales.
⁸ The Times, Aug 2025, quoting the Archbishop of Nigeria rejecting communion with the Church in Wales after Vann’s appointment.
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