Ordinariate liturgy to be trialled in Perth mid-August

24 Jul 2013

By The Record

Monsignor Harry Entwistle, head of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross. PHOTO: Robert Hiini
Monsignor Harry Entwistle, head of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross. PHOTO: Robert Hiini

A liturgy incorporating Anglican patrimony will soon be trialled in Perth at the Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross Parish of St Ninian and St Chad’s in Maylands.

Speaking with The Record from Brisbane after a meeting of Ordinariate clergy last week, Ordinariate leader Monsignor Harry Entwistle said the liturgy would be trialled in several Ordinariate parishes throughout Australia, including in its Maylands parish from mid-August.

While the order of the Eucharistic liturgy had been completed, the liturgy’s propers, collects and prefaces had yet to be finalised.

Mgr Entwistle also welcomed the Holy See’s recent clarification that people who had been baptised Catholic but had not yet received all the Sacraments of Initiation, including Confirmation and Holy Communion, were free to return to the Church through the Ordinariates.

“The Pope has given the Ordinariates a brief and a charge to evangelise,” Mgr Entwistle said.

“I have been saying from the beginning that we must be evangelising or we will not play our part in the New Evangelisation called for by [recent] popes. I think it encourages us in the Ordinariates to say ‘the world is our mission field’.”

In a communication with the Ordinariates approved by Pope Francis on May 31, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said enrolment in the Ordinariates remained barred to Catholics who wanted to join simply out of ‘subjective preference’.

Pope Benedict XVI opened the way for the establishment of personal Ordinariates for former Anglicans on November 4, 2009, enabling both communion with the See of Peter and retention of some Anglican patrimony.

To date, the Ordinariates have finalised rites for marriage, funerals and the baptism of infants.