After reading “Popery: Represented and Misrepresented” this set him on course to be received into the Church. He visited London, this time freely, and met with Bishop Richard Challoner, who was the architect of the revival of Catholicism in England as Hay was to be eventually in Scotland. This led him to the further step of applying to become a priest and he entered the Pontifical Scots College, Rome in 1751. As mentioned in a previous post, he was with John Geddes and William Guthrie returning to Scotland as priests in 1759. He was appointed to Preshome (near Buckie), in The Enzie, a district which had remained loyal to the Old Faith despite the Penal Laws against it. Apart from being a mission station, Preshome was also an administrative centre of the Church from 1697 to 1869.