Benedict XVI establishes Anglican Ordinariate in Australia

Benedict XVI is the Pope of Christian Unity.

From The Catholic Herald:

Pope Benedict XVI has established a personal ordinariate in Australia and named a Lancashire-born former bishop of the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) to lead it.

The ordinariate, the world’s third for Anglicans wishing to become Catholic while retaining some of their Anglican heritage, is known as the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross. It was erected today, June 15.

Fr Harry Entwistle, who was born in Chorley, Lancashire, was ordained a Catholic priest today and named as the ordinariate’s leader.

Fr Entwistle had previously served as a bishop in the TAC, a communion of traditional Anglican groups that had broken away from the worldwide Anglican Communion.

The 72-year-old priest studied at St Chad’s Theological College at Durham University and served as chaplain at Wandsworth prison in south-west London before emigrating to Australia.

He said: [NB] “Pope Benedict has made it very clear that unity between Christians is not achieved by agreeing on the lowest common denominator, and those entering an ordinariate accept the Catechism of the Catholic Church as the authoritative expression of the Catholic faith.

“Membership is open to former Anglicans who accept what the Catholic Church believes and teaches; former Anglicans who have previously been reconciled to the Catholic Church but who now wish to reconnect with their Anglican spiritual heritage and those baptised in the Catholic Church who have close family members who belong to the ordinariate.”

“As the ordinariate is in organic unity with the Catholic Church, Western and Eastern Catholics are welcome to worship and receive communion in an ordinariate Mass and vice versa,” he said.

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8 Comments

  1. Supertradmum says:

    Excellent. Praise God. This will change the Church in Australia for the better.

  2. Dismas says:

    Thanks be to God for our dearly beloved converts!

    Can one safely conclude that the nota bene also applys to Personal Prelature?

    [NB] “Pope Benedict has made it very clear that unity between Christians is not achieved by agreeing on the lowest common denominator, and those entering an ordinariate accept the Catechism of the Catholic Church as the authoritative expression of the Catholic faith.

  3. Is Father Harry Entwistle celibate? If so, we may actually have our first “official” bishop to head one of the Anglican ordinariates (since the heads of the Anglican ordinariates already established so far have all been married), assuming that he indeed is consecrated a bishop with taking the position of head of the ordinariate. With this, the ordinariate in Australia will be able to be fully independent (from the diocese) as Pope Benedict XVI had intended since Father would would then have the power to ordain new priests in his ordinariate.

  4. Clinton R. says:

    “Pope Benedict has made it very clear that unity between Christians is not achieved by agreeing on the lowest common denominator…”

    The basis of true ecumenism! May it continue. +JMJ+

  5. Chatto says:

    Chorley! That’s near(ish) where I grew up! “Entwistle” is a good Lancashire name, to boot! And it’s good news about the Ordinariate as well, of course…

  6. Suburbanbanshee says:

    Fr. Entwistle did marry, in 1967; his wife’s name is Jean Barrett Polts (Entwistle). She’s still alive. They have two adult kids.

    Apparently the Australian Ordinariate includes a small number of Anglican Use Catholics from Japan.

    Also the principal church is St. Ninian & St. Chad’s, in Maylands, Perth; and their patron saint is St. Augustine of Canterbury. That’s in the fax from the Vatican here. (Heh, gotta love Vatican fax!)

  7. Laura R. says:

    Thanks be to God, and many prayers for the flourishing of all three Anglican Ordinariates!

  8. Alan Aversa says:

    EF > Anglican Rite > Novus Ordo

    Viz., “unity between Christians is not achieved by agreeing on the” Novus Ordo.

    As Card. Ottaviani made clear in his intervention to Pope Paul VI regarding the Orthodox, the Novus Ordo “can only repel the faithful of the Eastern Rites.” So, the “Extraordinary Form” can only attract them, as it has attracted the TAC.

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