Members of the ordinariate participate in a Mass and liturgical tradition that is rooted in Anglican patrimony while still being in total union with the pope and the Catholic Church.
Along with its sister ordinariates in the U.S.-Canada and Pacific-Australia, the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham was established by Pope Benedict XVI in 2011 through his apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus. Though open to Catholics of all backgrounds, the ordinariate primarily exists as a way for former Anglicans to be received into the Catholic Church while still retaining many of their English traditions and practices.
While the ordinariates in the U.S. and Australia have their own bishops, neither of whom were former Anglicans, Waller is the first bishop to lead the ordinariate in the U.K. Previously the Walsingham Ordinariate had been led by Monsignor Keith Newton, a former Anglican who was ordained a priest in the Catholic Church but could not be ordained a bishop due to being married. Newton, who is 72, is retiring.
The Vatican’s decision to make the head of the ordinariate in Britain a bishop has widely been seen as a signal of support and confidence from Rome.
In an interview with OSV News, Waller said that though there have been rumors that “Rome was going to put an end to our ordinariate,” he said that “this was never the attitude of the Holy See, which has always been supportive and caring.”
Following Saturday’s ordination, the Walsingham Ordinariate said in a statement on its website that “it is a great honor that Pope Francis has appointed one of our own priests to be the second ordinary and shows his commitment to the ordinariates established under Anglicanorum Coetibus by his predecessor.”
From Anglican priest to Catholic bishop
Waller, 63, joined the Anglican priesthood in 1992, converted to the Catholic Church in 2011, and became a priest that same year. Before being appointed to lead the Walsingham Ordinariate he served as its vicar general.
After receiving three recommendations from the ordinariate’s governing council, Pope Francis announced he was appointing Waller as the new head of the ordinariate on April 29.
The Walsingham Ordinariate was the first of three in the world to have had an influence in choosing its leader. In April, Newton told the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, that he believed allowing this faculty, one that is usually left to the apostolic nuncio, “showed the Holy See’s confidence in the ordinariate in the U.K.”
