Pope Francis accepted Friday the resignation of the head of Australia’s personal ordinariate for groups of former Anglicans.
The resignation of Msgr. Carl Reid as Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross will take effect July 1.
The Vatican did not explain why the pope had accepted the 72-year-old churchman’s resignation after less than four years in the post, but the personal ordinariate underwent an apostolic visitation last year.
The visitation, which coincided with the personal ordinariate’s 10th anniversary, was led by Bishop Steven Lopes, Ordinary of the North American Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter.
Lopes is believed to have submitted a report following the visitation, but its contents have not been published.
Pope Francis has named Bishop Anthony Randazzo of Broken Bay, Australia, to serve as the personal ordinariate’s apostolic administrator ad nutum Sanctae Sedis (“at the disposition of the Holy See”). The appointment will begin July 1.
In an April 21 statement, Randazzo said: “I accept this appointment with great anticipation, however I realize I have much to learn, especially regarding the rich, beautiful, and distinctive theological, spiritual, and liturgical patrimony of the Ordinariate.”
He added: “It is my hope that this new phase in the life of the Ordinariate community will allow us to build upon the good work of the past, as together we strive to be evangelising communities of grace, faith, and hope, united in Christ, and guided by the Holy Spirit.”
The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross was created on June 15, 2012, in the wake of Pope Benedict XVI’s 2009 apostolic constitution Anglicanorum coetibus, which authorized the creation of ordinariates for groups for former Anglicans who sought to retain elements of their patrimony after being received into the Catholic Church.
It was the third personal ordinariate to be established after the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, in England and Wales, on Jan. 15, 2011, and the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter on Jan. 1, 2012.
The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross, which covers Japan and Guam as well as Australia, is the smallest of the three. It serves an estimated 1,200 Catholics in 14 parishes with 21 priests.
Given its small size, shortfalls in funds, and the advanced age of some clergy, questions have been raised about its sustainability.
The personal ordinariate was led from 2012 by Msgr. Harry Entwistle, who retired in 2019 at the age of 78.
He was succeeded by Msgr. Reid, who previously served as dean of the Canadian parishes of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter.
Reid was born in Hagersville, Ontario, on Dec. 14, 1950. He was baptized in the Anglican Church of Canada. He became a minister in the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada in 1990 and a suffragan bishop in 2007.
He was received into the Catholic Church in 2012 and ordained a priest of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter a year later.
Reid was installed as Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross in St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, on Aug. 27, 2019.
In a message launching the personal ordinariate’s 2023 Easter appeal, Reid referred to the apostolic visitation, which he said was focused on the body’s future.
“Even as we continue to await the results of that visit, which surely should be viewed as a wake-up call, we were ensured that the Ordinariate will continue,” he wrote.
“That brings more sharply into focus the need, not only for vocations (pray, please!), but also the means to ensure that our current seminarians receive the support, both spiritual and physical (financial) to see them through their studies and, pray God, their ordinations.”
He noted that combined Advent and Lent/Easter appeals in 2022 had raised around 35,000 Australian dollars in donations, 5,000 Australian dollars less than the year before, and below the roughly 50,000 Australian dollars that the personal ordinariate needs each year.
