Alan Hopes

In 1994, he was received into the Roman Catholic Church. He was ordained a Roman Catholic priest on 4 December 1995. For three years he served as assistant priest at Our Lady of Victories in Kensington, London, before becoming parish priest of the Holy Redeemer and St Thomas More Parish, Chelsea.[2][3]

In 2001, Hopes was appointed Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Westminster[2] and in 2002 became a member of the Committee for Liturgy and Worship of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales.

Hopes at the ordination of former Anglican bishops to the Catholic diaconate in 2011

On 4 January 2003, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him titular bishop of Cuncacestre and an auxiliary bishop of Westminster,[1][4] making him one of the most senior members of Catholic clergy to have converted in the 1990s. On 24 January 2003 he received episcopal consecration,[5][6] along with the now Archbishop Bernard Longley, in Westminster Cathedral from Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor. The principal co-consecrating bishops were Bishop Arthur Roche of Leeds and Bishop Kieran Conry of Arundel and Brighton. As an auxiliary bishop, Hopes had particular pastoral oversight of the deaneries of West London.

In October 2010, Hopes was appointed episcopal delegate of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales for the implementation of the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum coetibus.[7]

On 11 June 2013, Pope Francis appointed Hopes the fourth Bishop of East Anglia[5][8][6] and he was installed on 16 July 2013 at St John the Baptist Cathedral, Norwich.[2]

On 28 October 2016 he was appointed by Pope Francis a member of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

Hopes submitted his resignation as required upon turning 75 and Pope Francis accepted his resignation on 11 October 2022. He remained as apostolic administrator of the diocese until the installation of his successor on 14 December 2022.[8][9]