The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in England and Wales is a personal ordinariate in the Latin Church of the Catholic Church immediately exempt, being directly subject to the Holy See. It is within the territory of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, of which its ordinary is a member, and also encompasses Scotland. It was established on 15 January 2011 for groups of former Anglicans in England and Wales in accordance with the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum coetibus of Pope Benedict XVI.
The personal ordinariate is set up in such a way that "corporate reunion" of former Anglicans with the Catholic Church is possible while also preserving elements of a "distinctive Anglican patrimony". The ordinariate was placed under the title of Our Lady of Walsingham and under the patronage of Saint John Henry Newman, a former Anglican himself.
History
Background
The apostolic constitution which allows for the institution of personal ordinariates for Anglicans who join the Roman Catholic Church was released on 9 November 2009, after being announced on 20 October 2009 by Cardinal William Levada at a press conference in Rome.
Anglican responses
The Bishop of Lincoln, John Saxbee, said that "I can't judge the motives behind it [the offer], but the way it was done doesn't sit easily with all of the talk about working towards better relations" and that "Fence mending will need to be done to set conversations back on track."
Roman Catholic clergy who were present at an ecumenical service at Westminster Cathedral for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity were reported as being "dismayed" by the sermon by Canon Giles Fraser, then chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral, which included comments that the ordinariate had a "slightly predatory feel" and that "In corporate terms, [it is] a little like a takeover bid in some broader power play of church politics."
In 2011, Bishop Christopher Hill, the chairman of the Church of England's Council for Christian Unity, described the erection of the ordinariate as an "insensitive act".
In 2019, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, responded to Anglican priests defecting to Rome in this way by saying "Who cares?" and that he did not mind people leaving to join other denominations as long as they are "faithful disciples of Christ".
Formation
In October 2010, the parochial church council of St Peter's Church in Folkestone became the first Church of England parochial group to formally begin the process of joining the Roman Catholic Church.
On 8 November 2010, three serving and two retired bishops of the Church of England announced their intention to join the Roman Catholic Church. The serving bishops were provincial episcopal visitors Bishop Andrew Burnham of Ebbsfleet, Bishop Keith Newton of Richborough and Bishop John Broadhurst of Fulham. The retired bishops were Edwin Barnes, formerly Bishop of Richborough, and David Silk, formerly Bishop of Ballarat in Australia and an honorary assistant bishop in the diocese of Exeter. The then Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, announced that he had with regret accepted the resignations of Bishops Burnham and Newton. In the following week, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales considered the proposed ordinariate and gave assurances of a warm welcome for those who wish to be part of it.
On 1 January 2011, Broadhurst, Burnham and Newton (together with their wives, apart from Burnham whose wife is Jewish), three former Anglican nuns of a convent at Walsingham and former members of 20 different Anglican parishes, were received into the Roman Catholic Church.
The first personal ordinariate, the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, within the territory of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, was established on 15 January 2011 with Keith Newton appointed as the first ordinary.
About half of St Peter's Parish, Folkestone (mentioned above), including their priest, were received into the ordinariate on 9 March 2011, along with 600 other Anglicans largely from south-east England, with six groups from the Southwark diocese.