Catholics Create Room for Anglicans

The Age reports:

Several hundred Anglican Australians are expected to convert to Roman  Catholicism while keeping many of their Anglican  practices next month after an  invitation from Pope Benedict XVI.

Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart said the Pope would announce the  establishment of a ”personal ordinariate for former Anglicans” in Australia on  June 15, with their own  bishop and churches.

Archbishop Hart, the newly elected chairman of the Australian Catholic  Bishops Conference, said the ordinariate would be a new diocese, called the  Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross.

Conference secretary Father Brian Lucas said last night the church expected  about 500 Anglicans to convert, some from the dissident Traditional Anglican  Communion, which broke away years ago after the Australian Anglican Church  allowed women to be priests, and some mainstream Anglicans with a Catholic  inclination.

He said he expected there would be two parishes in Melbourne, two in Sydney,  one in Brisbane and one in Perth. The Pope had not yet appointed a bishop.

“This will be announced on June 15. But there are people needing to make a  decision about their life, particularly Anglican clergy, and now they can make  their plans with confidence in the next step in their journey,” Father Lucas  said.

The Australian ordinariate follows similar moves in England last year and the  United States earlier this year.

Meanwhile, the Pope confirmed last night that Parramatta Vicar-General Robert  McGuckin has been appointed Bishop of Toowoomba, replacing Bishop Bill  Morris.

HT Deborah Gyapong who adds:

I’m surprised it is as high as 500. I would bet when all is said and done, the numbers will be more similar to those in Canada, which will initially add up to what, about 300? when all the groups are received.

Is that all it takes for a Ordinariate to be erected?

 

Ordinary Welcomes the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross

Msgr Keith Newton today:

It was announced yesterday that a Personal Ordinariate will be established within the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference on 15 June 2012. This will be the third Personal Ordinariate to be erected by Pope Benedict XVI following the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus.

The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross will be under the patronage of St Augustine of Canterbury and will be headed by an Ordinary, who is yet to be named.

Monsignor Keith Newton, Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, said, “This is great news for the Church in Australia, and for those from the Anglican tradition who are seeking to fulfil the goal of full visible unity with the Apostolic See, whilst maintaining essential elements of our Anglican tradition”.

“A close bond already exists between the Ordinariate here in the UK and our brothers and sisters of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter. It is my hope that similarly strong ties can be established with our Australian counterparts, especially as we look forward to the publication of a common liturgical use”.

Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne said, “I hope that those former Anglicans who have made a journey in faith that has led them to the Catholic Church will find a ready welcome”.

Also, a Catholic News Agency report on the Ordinariate:

Pope Benedict XVI will continue the expansion of the new Catholic Church structure created for former Anglicans by launching an ordinariate for Australia on June 15.

“I am confident that those former Anglicans who have made a journey in faith that has led them to the Catholic Church will find a ready welcome,” said Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne, who serves as president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.

Australia’s Anglican ordinariate will be called the Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross, under the patronage of St. Augustine of Canterbury. It will have the status of a diocese.

The ordinariate is intended for Anglicans and former Anglicans who wish to enter full communion with the Catholic Church while retaining some of their customs and liturgical traditions.

The Australian bishops have put in place procedures to help Anglican clergy and laity join the Catholic Church through the ordinariate, the bishops said May 11.

The ordinariate for England and Wales launched in 2011, while the U.S. ordinariate launched on January 1, 2012.

In England and Wales there are at least 40 ordinariate groups with 60 priests, the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham magazine The Portal reports. Several of its members are former Anglican bishops.

As of January, 1,400 individuals from 22 communities have expressed interest in joining, the U.S. ordinariate. About 60 current or former Anglican priests are preparing to be ordained Catholic priests for it, according to the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter.

The U.S. ordinariate will open its first parish in Scranton, Pa. this August.