Ordinariate bishop for North America sees his pastoral care expanded to Australia

By Gina Christian, OSV News

(OSV News) — A Texas-based bishop, who leads one of the Catholic Church’s three “Anglican ordinariates,” has seen his pastoral care expanded to Australia, as a fellow prelate has been tapped to lead a Vatican dicastery.

On May 11, Pope Leo XIV named Bishop Steven J. Lopes of the Houston-based Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter the apostolic administrator of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross, headquartered near Sydney.

Bishop Lopes takes over the responsibility from Archbishop Anthony Randazzo, whom Pope Leo appointed prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Legislative Texts. Since 2023, Archbishop Randazzo had overseen the Australian ordinariate, which was erected in 2012, while leading his own Diocese of Broken Bay in New South Wales.

The Catholic Church has three personal ordinariates with Anglican patrimony worldwide — commonly called “the Anglican Ordinariate” as an informal shorthand — which function as dioceses led by their respective bishops. The ordinariates were established under Pope Benedict XVI’s 2009 apostolic constitution “Anglicanorum Coetibus,” providing both a permanent home for the Anglican heritage within the Catholic Church and a path for Anglican and Protestant communities to enter into full communion with the Church.

Bishop Lopes, whose ordinariate covers the U.S. and Canada, explained that his new territory “Down Under” is not unfamiliar.

“Happily and providentially, I am no stranger to the Ordinariate in Australia having visited several times over the years to participate in various Ordinariate events and clergy gatherings,” he said in a May 11 press release from the Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross.

The press release noted that Bishop Lopes — who worked nearly a decade at the Congregation (now Dicastery) for the Doctrine of the Faith — was “closely involved” in the implementation of Pope Benedict’s apostolic constitution to create the ordinariates, said the press release.

“My task now is to be its custodian for a while, encouraging its people to grow in the beauty of holiness as the surest means of growth and fruitfulness,” Bishop Lopes said.

The ordinariates for North America and the United Kingdom, the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter and the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, respectively have their own bishops in place.

However, the Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross has been led by an apostolic administrator since the retirement of its last ordinary, Msgr. Carl Reid, in 2023. The ordinariate, which lists communities in Australia, Japan and Guam, was initially led by former Anglican bishops ordained Catholic priests. They were appointed by the pope to serve as ordinary, but could not be ordained Catholic bishops as they were married. While the Catholic Church does ordain married men to the priesthood — as a norm in the Eastern churches and by exception in the Latin Church — only celibate priests can be ordained bishops.

Archbishop Randazzo said in the press release that he was grateful for “the grace-filled growth of the Ordinariate and the faithful witness of its clergy and people.”

According to the press release, the Australian ordinariate “has experienced renewed stability and development” through Archbishop Randazzo’s work, which built upon that of his two predecessors, Msgr. Reid and Msgr. Harry Entwistle.

Vocation and clergy funds were established under Archbishop Randazzo “to support the long-term formation and sustainability of the Ordinariate’s clergy and communities,” with two new transitional deacons ordained last month.

“With confidence, I look to the future, trusting that this community will continue to flourish as a vibrant sign of unity in the Church,” said Archbishop Randazzo. “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.”

The press release noted Bishop Lopes appointed Father Stephen Hill as vicar general and moderator of the curia, to assist him in administering the Australia-based ordinariate.

Established under Pope Benedict XVI’s 2009 apostolic constitution “Anglicanorum Coetibus,” the ordinariates celebrate the Mass, Liturgy of the Hours, sacraments and other liturgies in traditional English according to liturgical books reflecting their Anglican heritage and approved under Pope Francis.

In 2019, Pope Francis expanded the ordinariates’ mission to invite all Protestant Christians into full Catholic communion and enliven the faith of Catholics who had weakened or fallen away from the practice of the faith.

The ordinariates have a norm of ordaining only celibate men to the priesthood, similar to other dioceses of the Latin Church, but can also seek papal permission to ordain as Catholic priests, on a case-by-case basis, married men who formerly served as Anglican priests.

In March, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith released a document describing the “Anglican heritage” of the Catholic Church’s personal ordinariates as a “living reality” that “looks to the future in the transmission of the faith to future generations.”

The Vatican said the ordinariates — which bring with them a patrimony from the Church of England that developed for nearly 500 years following the Reformation — offer “a unique reflection of the face of the Church and a distinctive contribution to the living richness of her identity as ‘one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.'”

Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X @GinaJesseReina.