Last Thursday we celebrated a great anniversary for the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham: fifteen years ago, the Catholic Church took what Pope Benedict XVI would later call a “prophetic gesture” with the promulgation of Anglicanorum Coetibus. In responding to groups of Anglicans seeking full communion, the Church made room not only for people, but for a living inheritance - “a precious gift… and a treasure to be shared.”
That gift took visible form on 15 January 2011, when John Broadhurst, Andrew Burnham, and Keith Newton were ordained to the Catholic priesthood. Preaching that day, Cardinal Nichols spoke candidly of the cost of conscience and the pain of departure, echoing Blessed John Henry Newman’s phrase “the sad parting of friends.” Yet he framed that sacrifice within hope: a journey marked by “obedience to the truth” and ordered not toward loss, but toward visible unity in Christ.
From the beginning, the Ordinariate was never intended as a parallel Church or an ecclesial cul-de-sac. As Anglicanorum coetibus makes clear, it is structured as “a particular church in which the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church of Christ is truly present and operative.” At the same time, it exists so that elements of Anglican life - what Pope Saint Paul VI once called “the legitimate prestige and worthy patrimony of piety and usage” - might be preserved and lived within the fullness of Catholic communion.
This double belonging - fully Catholic, expressed in its Anglican patrimony -was at the heart of the homily preached in 2024, when Bishop David Waller was ordained bishop, becoming the first bishop of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. Cardinal Víctor Fernández described the Ordinariate’s journey as one “toward full participation in the gift of Apostolic Succession - with all the other treasures that our Catholic Church has in fullness.” He reminded the faithful that the Ordinariate is not only received by the Church, but also enriches her; because the Gospel, though one, is always expressed through culture.
Quoting Pope Francis, he recalled that “the history of the Church shows that Christianity does not have simply one cultural expression,” and that in the process of inculturation, “the Church acquires a new face.” In this sense, the Ordinariate represents one such face: English, prayer-shaped, steeped in Scripture and hymnody, now fully Catholic.
Fifteen years on, the story of the Ordinariate is still being written. Its future, like its beginning, depends on humility, patience, and fidelity - on praying, living, and working in communion with the wider Church, so that the “exchange of gifts” may continue, and the Spirit may “lead us ever more fully into truth and goodness.”
For the Ordinariate
ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who dost govern all things in heaven and earth: Mercifully hear our prayers, and grant to this Ordinariate all things needful for its spiritual welfare; priests and deacons to labour in this portion of thy vineyard; holy, learned, and zealous religious; churches complete in the beauty of holiness. Strengthen and confirm the faithful; protect and guide the children; visit and relieve the sick; turn and soften the wicked; arouse the careless; recover the fallen; restore the penitent. Remove all hindrances to the advancement of thy truth; and bring us all to be of one heart and mind within the fold of thy holy Church, to the honour and glory of thy blessed Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
For the unity of the Church
ALMIGHTY Father, whose blessed Son before his passion prayed for his disciples that they might be one, even as thou and he are one: Grant that thy Church, being bound together in love and obedience to thee, may be united in one body by the one Spirit, that the world may believe in him whom thou didst send, the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the same Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
To Our Lady of Walsingham for the conversion of England
O Mary, recall the solemn moment when Jesus, thy divine son, dying on the cross, confided us to your maternal care. Thou art our mother, we desire ever to remain thy devout children. Let us therefore feel the effects of thy powerful intercession with Jesus Christ. Make thy name again glorious in that place once renowned throughout England by thy visits, favours, and many miracles. Pray, O Holy Mother of God, for the conversion of England, restoration of the sick, consolation for the afflicted, repentance of sinners, peace to the departed. O blessed Mary, Mother of God, our Lady of Walsingham, intercede for us. Amen.
Photos © Mazur/cbcew.org.uk
Last Thursday we celebrated a great anniversary for the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham: fifteen years ago, the Catholic Church took what Pope Benedict XVI would later call a “prophetic gesture” with the promulgation of Anglicanorum Coetibus. In responding to groups of Anglicans seeking full communion, the Church made room not only for people, but for a living inheritance - “a precious gift… and a treasure to be shared.”
That gift took visible form on 15 January 2011, when John Broadhurst, Andrew Burnham, and Keith Newton were ordained to the Catholic priesthood. Preaching that day, Cardinal Nichols spoke candidly of the cost of conscience and the pain of departure, echoing Blessed John Henry Newman’s phrase “the sad parting of friends.” Yet he framed that sacrifice within hope: a journey marked by “obedience to the truth” and ordered not toward loss, but toward visible unity in Christ.
From the beginning, the Ordinariate was never intended as a parallel Church or an ecclesial cul-de-sac. As Anglicanorum coetibus makes clear, it is structured as “a particular church in which the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church of Christ is truly present and operative.” At the same time, it exists so that elements of Anglican life - what Pope Saint Paul VI once called “the legitimate prestige and worthy patrimony of piety and usage” - might be preserved and lived within the fullness of Catholic communion.
This double belonging - fully Catholic, expressed in its Anglican patrimony -was at the heart of the homily preached in 2024, when Bishop David Waller was ordained bishop, becoming the first bishop of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. Cardinal Víctor Fernández described the Ordinariate’s journey as one “toward full participation in the gift of Apostolic Succession - with all the other treasures that our Catholic Church has in fullness.” He reminded the faithful that the Ordinariate is not only received by the Church, but also enriches her; because the Gospel, though one, is always expressed through culture.
Quoting Pope Francis, he recalled that “the history of the Church shows that Christianity does not have simply one cultural expression,” and that in the process of inculturation, “the Church acquires a new face.” In this sense, the Ordinariate represents one such face: English, prayer-shaped, steeped in Scripture and hymnody, now fully Catholic.
Fifteen years on, the story of the Ordinariate is still being written. Its future, like its beginning, depends on humility, patience, and fidelity - on praying, living, and working in communion with the wider Church, so that the “exchange of gifts” may continue, and the Spirit may “lead us ever more fully into truth and goodness.”
For the Ordinariate
ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who dost govern all things in heaven and earth: Mercifully hear our prayers, and grant to this Ordinariate all things needful for its spiritual welfare; priests and deacons to labour in this portion of thy vineyard; holy, learned, and zealous religious; churches complete in the beauty of holiness. Strengthen and confirm the faithful; protect and guide the children; visit and relieve the sick; turn and soften the wicked; arouse the careless; recover the fallen; restore the penitent. Remove all hindrances to the advancement of thy truth; and bring us all to be of one heart and mind within the fold of thy holy Church, to the honour and glory of thy blessed Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
For the unity of the Church
ALMIGHTY Father, whose blessed Son before his passion prayed for his disciples that they might be one, even as thou and he are one: Grant that thy Church, being bound together in love and obedience to thee, may be united in one body by the one Spirit, that the world may believe in him whom thou didst send, the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the same Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
To Our Lady of Walsingham for the conversion of England
O Mary, recall the solemn moment when Jesus, thy divine son, dying on the cross, confided us to your maternal care. Thou art our mother, we desire ever to remain thy devout children. Let us therefore feel the effects of thy powerful intercession with Jesus Christ. Make thy name again glorious in that place once renowned throughout England by thy visits, favours, and many miracles. Pray, O Holy Mother of God, for the conversion of England, restoration of the sick, consolation for the afflicted, repentance of sinners, peace to the departed. O blessed Mary, Mother of God, our Lady of Walsingham, intercede for us. Amen.
Photos © Mazur/cbcew.org.uk
