Ordinary

Pope Pius XI, depicted in this window at Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace, Honolulu, was ordinary of the universal Roman Catholic Church. At the same time, Bishop Stephen Alencastre, Apostolic Vicar of the Sandwich Islands, was the contemporaneous ordinary of Hawaii

The ordinary is an ecclesiastical office and title of a person wielding authority, both administrative and ceremonial, within the hierarchical organization of various traditional Christian denominations. The office and title is most used in the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Rite, Church of England and the Anglican Communion.

In Roman Catholic usage, the ordinary is a prelate of a particular church, such as a diocese, eparchy, or apostolic vicariate. Such ordinaries are called local ordinaries and include diocesan bishops, vicars general and episcopal, and administrators of vacant sees. The office and title is also used in reference to the superior of a religious order and the prelate of a personal prelature, but these ordinaries are not local ordinaries.

See also