The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross in Australia is to be established on the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on Friday June 15th, 2012. The name of the Ordinary has not been announced.
The media release from the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference is as follows:
Media Release
11 May, 2012
The President of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Archbishop
Denis Hart, announced today that Pope Benedict XVI intends to announce
the establishment in Australia of a Personal Ordinariate for Former
Anglicans to commence on 15th June 2012.
A Personal Ordinariate is a church structure for particular groups of
people who wish to enter into communion with the Catholic Church.
In 2009 Pope Benedict announced special arrangements to cater for groups
of Anglicans who wished to join the Catholic Church. This provision
allows them to maintain some of the traditions of prayer and worship of
Anglicanism.
Personal Ordinariates have already been established in the United Kingdom (2011) and the United States of America (2012).
The Australian Bishops have already put in place procedures to enable
clergy and lay church members to join the Catholic Church through the
Ordinariate.
Archbishop Hart hopes that there will be a warm welcome to those wishing to enter the Catholic Church through the Ordinariate.
“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”, he said.
This new community will have the status of a diocese and will be known
as the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross under the
patronage of St Augustine of Canterbury.
