MICHAEL POPE, RIP, (LATTERLY PRIMATE OF THE ANGLICAN CATHOLIC CHURCH IN AUSTRALIA, ACCA)
Many MSC and visitors to this site may have met Michael Pope.
News has come that Michael Pope has died. He has been what is called a colourful character, a man of music and strong presence. He was a student at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart College, Bowral and then spent five years at Chevalier College, Bowral, 1950-1954. He kept in constant touch and was well known in several MSC communities.
In the early 1970s, he studied for the priesthood in Genoa, advised by Fr J.J. McMahon MSC (arranging, when J.J. McMahon’s body was being lowered into the grave at Douglas Park, to have a recording of J.J. performing on the piano, playing at the graveside). He was ordained for the archdiocese of Melbourne by Cardinal Knox in 1973 and received an appointment to Geelong. There were administrative difficulties in the parish and Michael left the priesthood.
In recent years, he belonged to the Anglican Catholic Church in Australia. He was consecrated as primate in Lincoln in the UK in 2013, based in northwestern NSW. He had been ill in recent months and died on January 20th 2016.
(The Anglican Catholic Church in Australia (ACCA) is the regional jurisdiction of the Traditional Anglican Communion for most of Australia. The former Bishop Ordinary of the ACCA, John Hepworth, was also the Primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion.)
Episcopal consecration in the Traditional Anglican Communion,