The Ordinariate in Australia

ORDINARY WELCOMES AUSTRALIAN COUNTERPART

Monsignor Keith Newton, the Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, has expressed his pleasure at the appointment of Fr Harry Entwistle as the first Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross, for Anglicans wishing to enter the Catholic Church in Australia.

Speaking of the news, Mgr Newton said, "I'm very pleased to hear of this encouraging appointment. Fr Entwistle has a wealth of experience from his Anglican ministry in England and in Australia, and I look forward to working with him closely as we seek to articulate the vision of Anglicanorum coetibus".

Mgr Newton joined Mgr Jeffrey Steenson, the Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter, in welcoming today's appointment.

The formal erection of a Personal Ordinariate in Australia sees the third such structure for Anglicans who desire communion with the Catholic Church, following the wishes of Pope Benedict XVI in his 2009 Apostolic Constitution.

It was announced on Friday Pope Benedict XVI has erected the third personal ordinariate according to the norms established by the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorun coetibus. The Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross will conform to the area of the Australian Bishop’s Conference. The former Western Regional Bishop of the Traditional Anglican Communion, the Reverend Harry Entwistle, was appointed the Ordinariate’s first Ordinary.

Reverend Harry Entwistle was born on May 31, 1940 at Chorley, Lancashire, England and baptised an Anglican in the Parish Church on July 7, 1940. After studies at St. Chad's Theological College in the University of Durham, he was ordained priest on September 20, 1964 for the Anglican Diocese of Blackburn, Lancashire. After priestly service in Fleetwood, Hardwick, Weedon, Aston Abbotts and Cubligton, he was Chaplain in Her Majesty's Prison Service from 1974 to 1981 and from 1981 to 1988, Senior Chaplain at HM Prison Wansworth.

He migrated to Australia in 1988 where he was the Senior Chaplain for the Department of Corrective Services in the Anglican Diocese of Perth, Western Australia.
From 1992 to 1999 he was Archdeacon and Parish Priest of Northam; from 1999 to 2006 Parish Priest of Mt Lawley. In 2006 he joined the Traditional Anglican Communion and was appointed Western Regional Bishop and Parish Priest of Maylands in Perth.

After reception into the Church and ordination as a deacon, he was ordained to the priesthood in St. Mary's Cathedral, Perth on June 15, 2012.