Pope Leo XIV appoints Bishop Steven J. Lopes apostolic administrator of Australia’s Anglican Ordinariate after Archbishop Randazzo’s Vatican post.
Newsroom (12/05/2026 Gaudium Press ) A Texas-based Catholic bishop who already shepherds one of the Church’s three personal ordinariates rooted in Anglican tradition has been entrusted with a broader pastoral role spanning hemispheres. On May 11, Pope Leo XIV appointed Bishop Steven J. Lopes, head of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter in Houston, as apostolic administrator of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross, based near Sydney, Australia.
The move follows the pope’s appointment of Archbishop Anthony Randazzo as prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Legislative Texts. Archbishop Randazzo had served as apostolic administrator of the Australian ordinariate since 2023, while concurrently leading the Diocese of Broken Bay in New South Wales. His new Vatican role necessitated a leadership transition at the ordinariate, which now falls under Bishop Lopes’ temporary care.
A global structure with Anglican roots
The Catholic Church currently maintains three personal ordinariates preserving Anglican patrimony worldwide. Often referred to collectively as “the Anglican Ordinariate,” these ecclesial structures function in many respects like dioceses, though they are personal rather than territorial in nature. Each is led by a bishop or an apostolic administrator and serves faithful who have entered full communion with the Catholic Church from Anglican or other Protestant backgrounds.
These ordinariates were established following Pope Benedict XVI’s 2009 apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus. The document created a permanent canonical framework allowing groups of Anglicans to reconcile corporately with Rome while retaining elements of their liturgical, spiritual and pastoral heritage. The initiative also affirmed that this heritage could enrich the wider Catholic Church.
Bishop Lopes’ own ordinariate, the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, covers the United States and Canada. Its counterparts are the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in the United Kingdom and the Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross, which includes communities across Australia, as well as in Japan and Guam.
Familiar ground “Down Under”
Despite the geographical distance, Bishop Lopes said Australia is not unfamiliar territory. In a May 11 press release from the Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross, he noted that he has visited the region several times over the years, participating in ordinariate events and clergy gatherings.
“Happily and providentially, I am no stranger to the Ordinariate in Australia,” Bishop Lopes said, underscoring a continuity of relationship that he framed as an asset for his interim role.
The press release also highlighted Bishop Lopes’ longstanding involvement with the ordinariates at the universal Church level. He spent nearly a decade working at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith—now the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith—and was closely involved in implementing Anglicanorum Coetibus in its early years.
“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,” he said, characterizing his appointment as one of stewardship rather than permanent governance.
Leadership transitions and canonical context
Unlike the ordinariates in North America and the United Kingdom, which currently have their own bishops in place, the Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross has been without a permanent ordinary since 2023, when its last ordinary, Monsignor Carl Reid, retired.
Historically, the Australian ordinariate was led by former Anglican bishops who entered the Catholic Church and were ordained as priests. Appointed by the pope as ordinaries, they were unable to receive episcopal ordination because they were married. While the Catholic Church permits the ordination of married men to the priesthood—routinely in the Eastern Catholic Churches and by exception in the Latin Church—only celibate priests may be ordained bishops.
Bishop Lopes’ appointment as apostolic administrator addresses this canonical reality while ensuring continued oversight during a period of transition.
Gratitude and growth under Archbishop Randazzo
Archbishop Randazzo, in the same press release, expressed gratitude for what he described as the “grace-filled growth of the Ordinariate and the faithful witness of its clergy and people.” According to the release, the ordinariate experienced renewed stability and development during his tenure, building upon foundations laid by his predecessors, Monsignor Reid and Monsignor Harry Entwistle.
Key initiatives under Archbishop Randazzo included the establishment of vocation and clergy funds aimed at supporting the long-term formation and sustainability of ordinariate clergy and communities. The release noted the ordination of two new transitional deacons last month, a sign of vocational vitality.
“With confidence, I look to the future, trusting that this community will continue to flourish as a vibrant sign of unity in the Church,” Archbishop Randazzo said, adding that he remains confident the ordinariate’s mission will bear fruit “well into the future.”
To assist with governance during Bishop Lopes’ tenure, Father Stephen Hill has been appointed vicar general and moderator of the curia for the Australia-based ordinariate.
A living patrimony within the Church
The ordinariates celebrate the Mass, Liturgy of the Hours and other sacraments in traditional English, using liturgical books that reflect Anglican heritage and that were approved under Pope Francis. In 2019, Pope Francis further expanded the ordinariates’ mission to invite all Protestant Christians into full communion with the Catholic Church and to reawaken the faith of Catholics who had grown distant from practice.
Most recently, a document released in March by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith described the Anglican heritage of the ordinariates as a “living reality” oriented toward the future transmission of the faith. The Vatican said this patrimony, developed over nearly 500 years since the Reformation, offers a “distinctive contribution” to the Church’s identity as “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.”
Within that broader vision, Bishop Lopes’ expanded pastoral mandate signals continuity, care and confidence in the role the ordinariates continue to play in the life of the global Church.
- Raju Hasmuh with files from OSV News
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