Peter John Elliott (born 1 October 1943) is a retired Australian

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

who served as an

auxiliary bishop An auxiliary bishop is a bishop assigned to assist the diocesan bishop in meeting the pastoral and administrative needs of the diocese. Auxiliary bishops can also be titular bishops of sees that no longer exist as territorial jurisdictions. ...

of the

Archdiocese of Melbourne The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne is a Latin Rite metropolitan archdiocese in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Erected initially in 1847 as the Diocese of Melbourne, a suffragan diocese of Archdiocese of Sydney, the diocese was el ...

from 2007 to 2018. He is also an author, writing a number of published works that predominantly concern the celebration of Catholic liturgy.

Personal life and background

Elliot was born and grew up in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, where his father served as an

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

priest. Elliott was received into the Catholic Church while a student at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

. Elliot is of partial Sorbian descent. His maternal grandmother came from a family of

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

Sorbs who immigrated to the

Wimmera The Victorian government's Wimmera Southern Mallee subregion is part of the Grampians region in western Victoria. It includes most of what is considered the Wimmera, and part of the southern Mallee region. The subregion is based on the social ...

region of

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

, from what is now the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

state of

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

in the early 19th century. Their emigration from Germany was motivated by their dissent from the union of Lutheran and Calvinist churches that had recently taken place there.

Education

Elliott earned an honours degree in history from the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

, where he was a resident student at

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

. He was then awarded the Marley Studentship to study at

Trinity College Theological School Trinity College Theological School (TCTS) is an educational division of Australia's Trinity College, the oldest residential college of the University of Melbourne. It is also one of the constituent colleges of the University of Divinity. The scho ...

. He later read theology at the University of Oxford, then returned to Australia, studying for the Catholic priesthood at Corpus Christi College, Glen Waverley. In addition, Elliott completed his doctorate in sacred theology (STD) from the

Pontifical Lateran University The Pontifical Lateran University (; ), also known as Lateranum, is a pontifical university based in Rome. The university also hosts the central session of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family. The university ...

's Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Rome, writing a thesis on the sacramentality of marriage.

Ordained ministry

Priesthood

On 19 February 1973, Elliot was ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Melbourne by Cardinal

Lawrence Joseph Shehan Lawrence Joseph Shehan (March 18, 1898 – August 26, 1984) was an American Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Baltimore from 1961 to 1974. He was made a cardinal in 1965. Shehan previously served as an Auxiliary Bishop of Baltimore f ...

, the Archbishop of Baltimore, during the 40th International Eucharistic Congress which took place in Melbourne and to which Shehan served as papal legate. Elliott then served as an assistant priest in several appointments in the archdiocese as well as secretary to Bishop John A. Kelly from 1979 to 1984.

Ministry in the Roman Curia

Elliot returned to Rome as an official of the

Pontifical Council for the Family The Pontifical Council for the Family was a pontifical council of the Curia of the Roman Catholic Church from 1981 to 2016. It was established by Pope John Paul II on 9 May 1981 with his motu proprio ''Familia a Deo Instituta'', replacing the Com ...

at the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Geography * Vatican City, an independent city-state surrounded by Rome, Italy * Vatican Hill, in Rome, namesake of Vatican City * Ager Vaticanus, an alluvial plain in Rome * Vatican, an unincorporated community in the ...

, serving for 10 years beginning in 1987. His service to the council included the promotion of marriage and family life at high-profile United Nations conferences. Elliott has also served in the Roman Curia as a consultator for the

Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments The Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments () is the dicastery (from , from δικαστής, 'judge, juror') of the Roman Curia that handles most affairs relating to liturgical practices of the Latin Church as distin ...

and as a member of ''Anglicanae Traditiones'', the inter-dicasterial commission charged with preparing the liturgical books to be used by the

Personal ordinariate A personal ordinariate for former Anglicans, shortened as personal ordinariate or Anglican ordinariate,"Bishop Stephen Lopes of the Anglican Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter..." is a canonical structure within the Catholic Church establis ...

s which Pope Benedict XVI established for Anglican converts to Catholicism.

Episcopacy

On 30 April 2007,

Pope Benedict XVI Pope BenedictXVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger; 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as p ...

appointed him an

and the

titular bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

of Manaccenser. He received his episcopal consecration from Archbishop

Denis Hart Denis James Hart (born 16 May 1941) is a retired Australian prelate of the Catholic Church. He was Archbishop of Melbourne from 2001 to 2018. Early years and background Hart was born in East Melbourne, Victoria, the eldest of the three chil ...

of Melbourne on 15 June 2007, with Cardinal

George Pell George Pell (8 June 1941 – 10 January 2023) was an Australian cardinal of the Catholic Church. From 2002, he faced recurring accusations of sexual abuse, although his subsequent sexual abuse conviction was quashed on appeal to the High Cour ...

of Sydney and Archbishop Ambrose Battista De Paoli, the

Holy See The Holy See (, ; ), also called the See of Rome, the Petrine See or the Apostolic See, is the central governing body of the Catholic Church and Vatican City. It encompasses the office of the pope as the Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishop ...

apostolic nuncio An apostolic nuncio (; also known as a papal nuncio or simply as a nuncio) is an ecclesiastical diplomat, serving as an envoy or a permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a state or to an international organization. A nuncio is ...

to Australia, serving as principal co-consecrators. Following his ordination as a bishop, Elliot served on both the Bishops' Liturgy Commission and the National Liturgical Council of Australia. Pope Francis announced in November 2018 that he had accepted Elliott's resignation, which was submitted on reaching the retirement age of 75.

Bibliography

* ''Prayers of Jubilee: A Personal Prayerbook for Catholics'' (1976,

Our Sunday Visitor Our Sunday Visitor (OSV) is a Catholic publishing company in Huntington, Indiana, which prints the American national weekly newspaper of that name, as well as numerous Catholic periodicals, religious books, pamphlets, catechetical materials, ...

) * ''The Cross and the Ensign: A Naval History of Malta'' (1982,

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...

) * ''What God Has Joined'' (1990, Alba House) * ''Ceremonies of the Modern Roman Rite'' (1995,

Ignatius Press Ignatius Press is a Catholic theological publishing house based in San Francisco, California, in the United States. It was founded in 1978 by Father Joseph Fessio, a former pupil of both Henri de Lubac and Pope Benedict XVI. Named after Ignatiu ...

) ** Published the following year in Spanish as ''Guía práctica de liturgia'' by Ediciones Universidad de Navarra. * ''Ceremonies of the Liturgical Year'' (2002, Ignatius Press) * ''Liturgical Question Box'' (2018, Ignatius Press) * ''Ceremonies Explained for Servers: A Manual for Altar Servers, Acolytes, Sacristans, and Masters of Ceremonies'' (2020, Ignatius Press)

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elliott, Peter John Living people 1943 births People educated at Trinity College (University of Melbourne) 21st-century Roman Catholic titular bishops 21st-century Roman Catholic bishops in Australia Converts to Roman Catholicism from Anglicanism People of Sorbian descent University of Melbourne alumni Alumni of the University of Oxford Pontifical Lateran University alumni Roman Catholic bishops of Melbourne Religious leaders from Melbourne