The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter is equivalent to a diocese, created by the Vatican in 2012 for people nurtured in the Anglican tradition who wish to become Catholic.
Three such ordinariates exist: the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham (England and Wales, Scotland), the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter (United States, Canada) and the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross (Australia and the Pacific Rim).
Established by Pope Benedict XVI in accordance with the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus of November 2009 in order to enable “groups of Anglicans to join the Catholic Church while preserving elements of their liturgical and spiritual patrimony,” members of the Personal Ordinariates are Roman Catholics of the Latin Rite, within the full communion of the Catholic Church. One of the principal aims of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus is “to maintain the liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions of the Anglican Communion within the Catholic Church, as a precious gift nourishing the faith of the members of the Ordinariate and as a treasure to be shared.”
There are currently forty-two Ordinariate communities in the United States and Canada, as well as four more parishes erected under a pastoral provision in the 1980s and 90s, which use the same distinctive liturgy. Our bishop is the Most Reverend Steven J. Lopes. His seat is the Cathedral of Our Lady of Walsingham in Houston, Texas.