Get in Touch

If you have a query about vocations to the priesthood or religious life within the Archdiocese of Cardiff, you can contact Fr. Williams by submitting a message via the form below.

Applicants from overseas;

We have a considerable number of email requests from individuals across the world who a have various different reasons for wishing to explore a priestly vocation outside their own diocese. We would recommend that those already in seminary should persevere in formation with their existing diocese, since we would regard that to be the normative route for anyone in good standing with their bishop and formation staff.

Some tend to talk in terms of “application” to a diocese they have no personal experience of, as if they were responding to a job vacancy. In line with the most recent Ratio Fundamentalis on priestly vocation, we deliberately avoid the mindset and language of “application” but, instead focus on “personal accompaniment”. This accompaniment must take an appropriate amount of time and remain free from any pressures caused by visa requirements and financial and living considerations. Scenarios where the discerner is materially dependent on being accepted for (or continuing in) formation can lead someone to seek to enter the priesthood for the wrong reasons and make free and open discernment almost impossible.

We therefore spend a number of years getting to know a discerner personally, before the possibility of application for formation is even concretely discussed. Indeed, the individual is invited to apply if the accompaniment is going well on a mutual basis. We regret that we cannot, therefore, consider applications from anyone unable to embark on this vital journey on a face-to-face basis and we are not resourced to commit to any form of sponsorship or material support for overseas applicants.