Pope Leo XIV has named Bishop Steven Lopes of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter as apostolic administrator of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross, expanding the Texas-based bishop’s pastoral responsibility to Australia and parts of Oceania.

The appointment, announced on May 11, follows the transfer of Archbishop Anthony Randazzo, who had overseen the Australian ordinariate since 2023, to the role of prefect of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts. Bishop Lopes will serve as temporary custodian of the ordinariate while retaining leadership of the North American structure.

Bishop Lopes, who has visited Australia on several occasions for ordinariate events and clergy gatherings, welcomed the development. “Happily and providentially, I am no stranger to the Ordinariate in Australia,” he said. “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.”

The three personal ordinariates established by Pope Benedict XVI through the 2009 apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus – the Chair of St Peter in North America, Our Lady of Walsingham in Britain and Our Lady of the Southern Cross in Australia and Oceania – provide a canonical home for groups of Anglicans and other Protestants entering full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of their distinctive Anglican liturgical and spiritual patrimony.

The ordinariates use approved liturgical books that reflect traditional English forms of worship, including Divine Worship: The Missal, authorised under Pope Francis. This patrimony is widely appreciated by traditional Catholics for its elevated sacral language, rich hymnody and reverent style, offering a bridge between the Catholic faith and elements of pre-Reformation English Christianity.

Archbishop Randazzo expressed gratitude for the ordinariate’s development during his tenure.

“It has been a privilege to serve the Ordinariate during this period of renewal and hope,” he said. “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.”

Under Archbishop Randazzo, the Australian ordinariate established clergy formation and vocation funds and ordained two new transitional deacons last month. The structure serves communities in Australia, Japan and Guam, and continues to attract former Anglicans and Protestants seeking the fullness of Catholic faith while retaining cherished elements of their heritage.

Bishop Lopes, a former official at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was closely involved in the early implementation of Anglicanorum Coetibus.

He has become a notable figure in the ordinariate world for his strong support of the Traditional Latin Mass alongside the ordinariate’s own liturgical books. His appointment as apostolic administrator brings the North American and Australian ordinariates under unified leadership for the time being. He has appointed Fr Stephen Hill as vicar general and moderator of the curia to assist in the administration of the Australian ordinariate.

The ordinariates represent one of the lasting fruits of Pope Benedict XVI’s pontificate, offering a structured path for corporate reunion while safeguarding the integrity of Catholic doctrine. In 2019, Pope Francis expanded their mission to invite all Protestants into full communion and to support the re-evangelisation of lapsed Catholics.

A 2024 document from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith described the Anglican patrimony within the ordinariates as a “living reality” contributing to the richness of the Church’s identity as “one, holy, catholic and apostolic”.