Michael Nazir-Ali, a prominent pro-life Ex-Anglican Bishop, has become a Catholic and is preparing for ordination as a priest.
Ruth Institute Senior Research Associate Fr. Paul Sullins said: “We are pleased to welcome Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali into communion with the Bishop of Rome as he continues his own faith journey in Christ. What a wonderful confirmation of Pope Benedict’s wisdom in establishing the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham to permit those formed in the vibrant liturgy and faith culture of Anglicanism to return home to the Catholic faith! May God bless the future Fr. Nazir-Ali as he continues his outspoken defense of traditional Christian sexual ethics, and bless our brothers and sisters in the Anglican Church as they wrestle with the dilemma between conformity or confrontation with an increasingly secular culture.”
Nazir-Ali served as Anglican Bishop of Rochester, England from 1994 through 2009, and General Secretary of the Church Missionary Society from 1989 to 1994, as well as the bishop of Raiwind in his native Pakistan.
As an Anglican Bishop, Nazir-Ali was an outspoken defender of Christian teachings on life and the family and frequently accused the Church of England of “jumping on faddish bandwagons.”
He spoke of the “seriousness of the sin of abortion” and marriage between one man and one woman as the only “proper context for sexual expression, and that sexual relationships outside such an understanding of marriage fall short of God’s purposes.”
Ruth Institute President, Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse, Ph.D., added: “The Ruth Institute joins our colleague Fr. Paul Sullins, formerly an Anglican priest himself, in welcoming Bishop Nazir-Ali to the Roman Catholic Church. The Ruth Institute defends the ancient Christian teachings about marriage, family and human sexuality. These teachings are sometimes regarded as exclusively Catholic, even though they are the common heritage of the whole Judeo-Christian tradition. Today, the Roman Catholic Church, at least on paper, professes these teachings most consistently. The Ruth Institute is an interfaith international coalition to defend the family and build a civilization of love. We welcome Bishop Nazir-Ali, soon to be Father Nazir-Ali, and look forward to fruitful collaboration with him in defense of these same truths.”
The Ruth Institute is a global non-profit organization, leading an international interfaith coalition to defend the family and build a civilization of love.
Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse is the author of The Sexual State: How Elite Ideologies are Destroying Lives and Love and Economics: It Takes a Family to Raise a Village.
To schedule an interview with Dr. Morse, contact media@ruthinstitute.org, or reply to this email.