The Archbishop of Canterbury has said he is perfectly happy if members of the Church of England convert to Catholicism, and that it can even be “wonderful.”

In an interview with Fraser Nelson, editor of The Spectator, the Most Rev Justin Welby says he does not mind at all that many of Church of England clergy defected to Rome after the ordination of women priests.

“Who cares?” he says. “I don’t mind about all that. Particularly if people go to Rome, which is such a source of inspiration. I had an email from a very old friend, an Anglican priest who has decided to go to Rome. I wrote back saying: how wonderful! As long as you are following your vocation, you are following Christ. It’s just wonderful.

“What we need is for people to be disciples of Jesus Christ. I don’t really care whether it’s the Church of England or Rome or the Orthodox or Pentecostals or the Lutherans or Baptists. They are faithful disciples of Christ.” The Spectator reports that Archbishop Welby has a Catholic priest, Fr Nicolas Buttet, as his spiritual adviser and that one of his closest friends is Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster. He also goes see the Pope regularly and they talk about personal things.

His interview comes as Bishop Brian Farrell, LC, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, suggests that after a difficult year for ecumenism, the churches might be at a new “turning point.”