Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus of Melbourne Peter J Elliott began life as the son of an Anglican vicar, went to state schools and Melbourne Grammar, and studied history at the University of Melbourne. But halfway through a master’s in theology at Oxford University where he was training for the Anglican clergy, he decided to become a Catholic.
He passed away peacefully on 6 August, at the age of 81. A few days before his death, he told The Catholic Weekly that fellow Oxonian, Cardinal Newman, now canonised and soon to be declared a doctor of the church, was a decisive influence.
“The last book I read before I became a Catholic was Newman’s Development of Christian Doctrine,” he said.
Melbourne Archbishop Peter A Comensoli said in a statement that Bishop Elliott had “a rare combination of intellectual depth, liturgical beauty, and pastoral warmth. His life was marked by a profound sense of the sacred and a tireless commitment to the Gospel.”
Bishop Elliott was ordained in 1973 during the 40th International Eucharistic Congress in Melbourne. In a 2007 interview he said that “what has influenced my priesthood, rising from this background, was a love of the liturgy, a valuing of the sacraments and a sense of beauty, reverence and awe, which characterised the Anglican tradition at its best. My father also taught me to preach—without notes!”
After a number of years of pastoral experience in Melbourne, Bishop Elliott served in Rome for a decade as an official of the Pontifical Council for the Family. He helped to promote marriage and family life at the at the Cairo Population Conference in 1994 and the UN Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995.
“I learned in no uncertain terms that the family, marriage and human life itself are under direct attack, and that God’s providence is guiding the Catholic Church to meet the challenge of global secularism in all its aggressive and destructive forms,” he later recalled.
He also worked in the Vatican on liturgical matters and helped to prepare the official liturgy for the personal ordinariates which Pope Benedict XVI created for Anglican converts.
The Australian ordinariate posted on Facebook that Bishop Elliott had been “a great lover of the Anglican patrimony.” He once observed that “Anglicans no longer need to swim the Tiber, as the Holy See has built them a noble bridge.”
In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him an auxiliary bishop of Melbourne. He retired from active ministry in 2018.
Anna Krohn, an educator and writer who knew him well, commented: he was “a giant churchman who wore many hats with profound erudition, articulation and with a deeply pastoral heart. He also had a magnetic and dangerous wit and sense of fun.”
Bishop Elliott was esteemed for his love of the liturgy. He wrote three handbooks—Ceremonies of the Modern Roman Rite, Ceremonies of the Liturgical Year, and Ceremonies Explained for Servers.
“He was a man of many different talents,” recalled Catholic Weekly columnist Fr John Flader. “He also oversaw the drafting of texts for religious education in Melbourne. Bishop Elliott once commented that these would ‘put the beef back into the hamburger’ in an attractive, creative way.”
Despite the challenges of evangelisation in an increasingly secularised society, Bishop Elliott was not daunted.
“So many ‘secular’ people are hungering for God, even if they do not know it. But without formation we have little to offer them,” he said shortly before his ordination as a bishop.
“Nevertheless, when it is all said and done, we Catholics still have to respond to the greatest gift of Vatican II, the universal call to holiness. That is how we meet and transform a secularised society, by deeper personal spirituality, by union with the merciful heart of the Lord Jesus.”
