His maternal grandmother came from a family of Lutheran Sorbs who immigrated to the Wimmera region of Victoria, from what is now the German state of Saxony in the early 19th century.

[7] Elliott earned an honours degree in history from the University of Melbourne, where he was a resident student at Trinity College.

[8] He later read theology at the University of Oxford, then returned to Australia, studying for the Catholic priesthood at Corpus Christi College, Glen Waverley.

His service to the council included the promotion of marriage and family life at high-profile United Nations conferences.

[9] Elliott has also served in the Roman Curia as a consultator for the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments and as a member of Anglicanae Traditiones, the inter-dicasterial commission charged with preparing the liturgical books to be used by the Personal ordinariates which Pope Benedict XVI established for Anglican converts to Catholicism.