The cardinal in charge of the Vatican’s doctrinal department has ordained the first bishop of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.
Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, flew from Rome to London to ordain Bishop David Waller as the second ordinary of the organisation created for the corporate reception of Anglicans into the Catholic Church.
During a Mass at Westminster Cathedral, the Argentine Jesuit quoted a homily of St John Henry Newman on Christ the Good Shepherd, reminding the congregation of the saint’s observation that “a shepherd leads from within”.
He quoted the words of the Victorian cardinal and theologian, saying: “Blessed are they who resolve - come good, come evil, come sunshine, come tempest, come honour, come dishonour - that [Christ] shall be their Lord and Master, their King and God.
He explained that such words provided the new bishop with “encouragement and inspiration … in caring for the flock entrusted to him”
Cardinal Fernández said: “This is, in fact, what Pope Francis insists we must all do: to announce to everyone the love of God, manifested in the open arms of Christ, who today is active in our lives.”
The cardinal added: “For this mission today, Bishop-elect Waller receives the fire of the Holy Spirit: the only one capable of transforming our hearts […] and filling us with His fervour and with true joy in love.”
The ordinariate was established in 2011 by Pope Benedict XVI under the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus.
It provides for the reception of Anglican parishes into the Catholic faith and in just a decade has compassed about 50 communities in Great Britain.
Bishop Waller, a former Anglican minister, succeeds Mgr Keith Newton, a married father-of-three, as the leader of the ordinariate and, because he is celibate, will also serve as its first bishop.
Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster, Bishop Stephen Lopes of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter in the United States and Canada, and Bishop Anthony Randazzo, the Apostolic Administrator of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross in Australia, were the other ordaining bishops.
In his homily, Cardinal Fernández noted how the ordinariate is structured to enable Anglicans entering into full communion with the Catholic Church to preserve what Pope St Paul VI described as “the legitimate prestige and worthy patrimony of piety and usage proper to the Anglican Communion”.
Referring to its “rich English heritage,” the cardinal said that “the ordinariate is invited to see the positive aspects of the Anglican tradition preserved in it ‘as a precious gift […] and as a treasure to be shared,’” quoting <em>Anglicanorum Coetibus</em>.
He added: “In this process, the Church not only gives but is also enriched. […] We can say, therefore, that the ordinariate represents one of the faces of the Church which, in this case, receives certain elements of the rich history of the Anglican tradition: elements that are now lived out in the fullness of Catholic communion.”
Cardinal Fernández also emphasised the importance of the ordinariate’s collaboration with local dioceses to promote unity and spiritual growth.
He noted that the priests of the ordinariate already collaborate with local dioceses across Great Britain and encouraged those present to “grow in a spirit of dialogue and sharing, including concerning pastoral goals in light of what Pope Francis proposes”.
Bishop Waller was born in London in 1961 and educated at the School of St David and St Katharine in Hornsey and the College of Ripon and York St John, University of Leeds.
From 1983 to 1989 he worked as a community worker in Bradford before training for Anglican orders at Chichester Theological College. He was ordained in 1992.
In 2000 he moved to East London to become vicar of St Saviour, Walthamstow, and he remained in that post until his reception into the Catholic Church in 2011. From 2005 until 2010 he served as a member of the General Synod of the Church of England.
<em>(© Mazur/cbcew.org.uk)</em>
