Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross

08/06/2026

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26/05/2026

“For miracles are not to be loved, but the souls of men.” — Pope Saint Gregory the Great to Saint Augustine of Canterbury

Saint Augustine of Canterbury was the monk sent by Pope Saint Gregory the Great to bring the Gospel once more to the English people. Arriving in Kent in the year 597 with a small band of missionaries, Augustine encountered a land fractured by paganism, political uncertainty, and the fading memory of Roman Christianity. Yet through patience, preaching, and prayer, he established the See of Canterbury and laid the foundations for what would become the English Church. It is for this reason that he is remembered not merely as a missionary, but as the Apostle to the English.

Yet more than an organiser or missionary, Augustine was a man of deep obedience and faith. Saint Bede recounts that he and his companions entered Canterbury in procession carrying a silver cross and an image of Christ, singing litanies as they prayed for the conversion of the land. Augustine understood that the Church is not built first through power or influence, but through holiness, perseverance, and confidence in the Gospel. As Patron of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross, his witness reminds us that the Christian faith in England was not preserved by accident, but by faithful men willing to leave all things behind for the sake of Christ.

Note: Ember Wednesday is not observed today as it is a Feast in the OLSC.

25/05/2026

We are calling for donations to support the commissioning of a new portrait of Saint John Henry Newman.

24/05/2026

“Mary cares for the brethren of her Son who still wander through this world in the midst of dangers and difficulties until they are led to the happiness of their heavenly home.” — Lumen Gentium

On this Feast of Our Lady, Help of Christians, it is fitting to reflect on what the Church teaches regarding her maternal intercession. Our Lady cares deeply for us as her children, just as Christ entrusted us to her from the Cross: “Woman, behold thy son.” These words were not spoken for Saint John alone, but for all who belong to Christ. As she cared for Our Lord in His infancy, so now she cares for His brethren as we journey through the dangers and difficulties of this life toward our heavenly home.

Lumen Gentium further teaches that Mary’s maternal role “neither takes away from nor adds anything to the dignity and efficacy of Christ the one Mediator.” Rather, it draws us more closely to Him, for through her maternal help “the faithful may more closely adhere to the Mediator and Redeemer.” It is therefore fitting that Pope Pius VII, attributing his deliverance from Napoleon to the intercession of Our Lady, established this feast in thanksgiving. Through the prayers of Mary, Help of Christians, may we be led ever closer to her Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

23/05/2026

Today is Pentecost, traditionally called Whit Sunday.

It is the day the Church celebrates the coming of the Holy Ghost upon the apostles.

After the Ascension, the disciples waited. They prayed. They stayed together. They did not rush out to begin the mission of the Church in their own strength. They waited for the gift Christ had promised.

As we read in Acts:
“And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (Acts 2:4, RSVCE)

Pentecost is the beginning of the Church being sent out into the world. Not timidly. Not alone. Not by human effort. But filled with the life and power of God.

Reginald Heber, who also wrote “Holy, Holy, Holy”, wrote for Whitsunday:
“Spirit of Truth, on this Thy day
To Thee for help we cry,
To guide us through the dreary way
Of dark mortality.”

That is still the prayer of the Church.
Come, Holy Ghost.
Guide us. Strengthen us. Cleanse us. Teach us. Renew us.

The same Spirit who filled the apostles is still at work in the Church today. In prayer. In preaching. In the sacraments. In mission. In the conversion of the heart. The Spirit is not given only for private devotion, but for the whole life of the Church: Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Communion, Penance, Holy Matrimony, Holy Orders, and Holy Unction.

Come, Holy Ghost, fill the hearts of thy faithful.

Renew thy Church, strengthen our witness, and send us out with the fire of God’s love.

21/05/2026

The ancient hymn Ave Maris Stella (“Hail, Star of the Sea”) reflects the Church’s understanding of Mary as Mother, intercessor, and guide to Christ. Drawing on Lumen Gentium, the article explores how Marian devotion is inseparably connected to the mystery of the Church itself. Mary stands both at the Annunciation and at Pentecost — awaiting the birth of Christ and then the birth of the Church — revealing her as the first and perfect image of the Church. Through the insights of Joseph Ratzinger, Marian devotion is presented not merely as emotion, but as something that purifies the heart and leads the faithful more deeply to Christ.

Ave maris stella,
Dei Mater alma,
Atque semper virgo,
Felix caeli porta.

Solve vincla reis,
Profer lumen caecis,
Mala nostra pelle,
Bona cuncta posce.

Monstra te esse matrem,
Sumat per te precem,
Qui pro nobis natus,
Tulit esse tuus.

English:
Hail, star of the sea,
nurturing Mother of God,
and ever Virgin,
happy gate of Heaven.

Loosen the chains of the guilty,
give light to the blind,
drive away our ills,
obtain for us all good things.

Show thyself to be a mother,
may He accept prayers through thee,
who, born for us,
chose to be thine….

The hauntingly beautiful hymn, Ave Maris Stella, was sung recently during a procession by the sea on the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima in Manly – a fitting gesture as Our Lady Star of the Sea is the patroness of the Diocese of Broken Bay. The first four stanzas provide a summary of sorts for Mary in May, as Marian devotion and doctrine are placed within the context of the birth of the Church at Whitsunday/Pentecost.

As the Marian movement grew out of Lourdes and Fatima, a liturgical movement developed out of a renewal of Benedictine monasticism, which emphasised the role of Mary as an icon or type of the Church. The Marian movement focused on the subjective and personal, whilst the liturgical movement tended to characterize Marian piety as objective and sacramental. Although there was a certain degree of tension between these two movements, the Church ultimately regarded them as being complementary. Rather than presenting Mariology in a separate text, the Council Fathers at Vatican II sought to integrate Mariology into ecclesiology. Simply put, Mary is closely connected to the Church which is why Lumen Gentium has as its final chapter, “The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God in the Mystery of Christ and the Church.”.

Luke in his Gospel depicts Mary as twice heralding the Advent of Christ – at the Annunciation, when she awaits the birth of her Son, and at the beginning of Acts, when she awaits the birth of the Church. Godfrey of St Victor described the church as “reborn” from Christ’s opened side on the cross, since the church’s original birth was in Mary, whom Godfre calls prima Ecclesiae persona, the “first person of the Church”. Mary is present at the foot of the Cross, and at Pentecost. Cardinal Ratzinger summarized the connection between the subjective and objective aspects of Marian piety thusly:

At the moment when she pronounces her Yes, Mary is Israel in person; she is the Church in person and as a person. She is the personal concretization of the Church because her Fiat makes her the bodily Mother of the Lord. But this biological fact is a theological reality, because it realizes the deepest spiritual content of the covenant that God intended to make with Israel.

Ratzinger would go on to state that Marian piety involves the heart, affectivity, and thus fixes faith solidly in the deepest roots of man’s being. In the Church’s piety, Mary appears, so to speak, as the living Veronica’s veil, as an icon of Christ that brings him into the present of man’s heart, translates Christ’s image into the heart’s vision, and thus makes it intelligible. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” – Matthew 5:8 The organ for seeing God is the purified heart. It may be the task of Marian piety to awaken the heart and purify it in faith. Marian piety can help man to rediscover unity in the centre, that is, from the heart.

O Most merciful God, who for the salvation of sinners and the refuge of the wretched, hast made the Immaculate Heart of Mary most like in tenderness and pity to the Heart of Jesus, grant that we, who now commemorate her most sweet and loving heart, may by her merits and intercession, ever live in the fellowship of the Hearts of both Mother and Son, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.
St John Henry Newman

Lumen Gentium can be found at: https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html

Ave Maris Stella: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Z0O8X26UIU

20/05/2026

We made a video to farewell Archbishop Randazzo as he prepares to take up his new assignment in Rome.

Our farewell messages from around the Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross.

16/05/2026

Today is the Seventh Sunday of Easter, the Sunday between the Ascension of our Lord and the coming of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost.

In the Gospel, we hear the beginning of what is often called Christ’s High Priestly Prayer. Before his Passion, our Lord lifts his eyes to heaven and prays to the Father, not only for himself, but for those whom the Father has given him.

“Holy Father, keep them in thy name, which thou hast given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.” (John 17:11, RSVCE)

This moment of prayer, Christ calls his disciples together to the life they are called to be part of: the Church. He prays that they may be kept in him, guarded in him, and made one in him.

St. John Henry Newman wrote:
“To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.”

In these last nine days of active prayer between Ascension (14th May) and Pentecost (24th May), we are called to wait in prayer. The disciples had seen Jesus ascend, but they had not yet received the gift of the Holy Spirit, which they received on the tenth day.

For us today, this Sunday reminds us that unity is not built on human strength alone. It is received through prayer and obedience to a life in Christ. We are still in the world, called to witness to his resurrection, called to love one another, and keep fervent prayer in his Spirit.

The Church is called to be one so that the world may see the glory of the Son and come to know the Father who sent him.

Eugène Burnand, The High Priestly Prayer, 1900

12/05/2026

“There is plenty of life.”

In a recent interview with "The Pillar", Our Apostolic Administrator Bishop Steven Lopes reflects on the future of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross, speaking with hope about its mission, growth, and Anglican patrimony within the Catholic Church.

A worthwhile read on this new chapter in the life of the Ordinariate.

On Monday the bishop was named the new administrator of Australia’s ordinariate for former Anglicans.

11/05/2026

I'm delighted to announce the Holy Father has named Most Rev Steven Lopes (centre) as the Apostolic Administrator of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross, effective immediately.

Bishop Steven is currently Bishop Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter.

His pastoral care of the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter, will now extend to the Ordinariate in Australia. He is a man of the church and will strongly encourage the continued growth and mission of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross.

As I conclude my time as Apostolic Administrator, I give thanks for the grace-filled growth of the Ordinariate and the faithful witness of its clergy and people. It has been a privilege to serve the Ordinariate during this period of renewal and hope. I am encouraged by the strong foundations laid and the emerging signs of vitality, and I remain confident that its mission will bear fruit well into the future.