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

In those hierarchically organised churches of Western Christianity which have an ecclesiastical law system, an ordinary is an officer of the church who by reason of office has ordinary power to execute the church's laws^[1]. The term comes from the Latin word ordinarius. In Eastern Christianity, a corresponding officer is called a hierarch^[2], which comes from the Greek word ιεραρχης meaning "priestly ruler". Ordinary may refer to: Adjective: Of no exceptional ability, degree, or quality; average. ... Pic taken and uploaded by User: Aloysius Patacsil In a window in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu, Pope Pius XI prayerfully gazes to Saint Joseph, patron of the universal Church, with Msgr. ... Pic taken and uploaded by User: Aloysius Patacsil In a window in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu, Pope Pius XI prayerfully gazes to Saint Joseph, patron of the universal Church, with Msgr. ... The Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace is the oldest Roman Catholic cathedral in continuous use in the United States. ... Honolulu as seen from the International Space Station Honolulu is the largest city and the capital of the U.S. state of Hawai‘i. ... Nickname: Motto: SPQR: Senatus Populusque Romanus Location of the city of Rome (yellow) within the Province of Rome (red) and region of Lazio (grey) Coordinates: Region Lazio Province Province of Rome Founded 21 April 753 BC Government  - Mayor Walter Veltroni Area  - City 1,285 km²  (580 sq mi)  - Urban 5... Headstone at the grave of Alencastre, last vicar apostolic of the Hawaiian Islands. ... Apostolic vicariate is a type of Roman Catholic diocese for non-Catholic or missionary regions and countries. ... The Sandwich Islands was the name given to Hawaii by Captain James Cook on his discovery of the islands on January 18, 1778. ... Official language(s) English, Hawaiian Capital Honolulu Largest city Honolulu Area  Ranked 43rd  - Total 10,931 sq mi (29,311 km²)  - Width n/a miles (n/a km)  - Length 1,522 miles (2,450 km)  - % water 41. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations · Other religions Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Archbishop of Canterbury · Catholic Pope Coptic Pope · Ecumenical Patriarch Christianity Portal This box:      Christianity is... Latin was the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ...

Ordinary power

In canon law, the power to govern the church is divided into the power to make laws (legislative), enforce the laws (executive), and to judge based on the law (judicial)^[3]. A person exercises power to govern either because the person holds an office to which the law grants governing power or because someone with governing power has delegated it to the person. Ordinary power is the former, while the latter is delegated power^[4]. The office with ordinary power could possess the governing power itself (proper ordinary power) or instead it could have the ordinary power of agency, the inherent power to exercise someone else's power (vicarious ordinary power)^[5]. Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Wycliffe Tyndale · Luther · Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Pope · Patriarch of Constantinople Christianity Portal This box:      Canon law is the term used for... In the broadest sense, a vicar (from the Latin vicarius) is anyone acting as a substitute or agent for a superior (compare vicarious). In this sense, the title is comparable to lieutenant. ...

The law vesting ordinary power could either be ecclesiastical law, i.e. the positive enactments that the church has established for itself, or divine law, i.e. the laws which the church believes were given to it by God^[6]. As an example of divinely instituted ordinaries, Roman Catholics believe that when Jesus established the Church he in turn established the episcopate and the Primacy of Simon Peter and endowed the offices with power to rule the Church^[7]. Thus, in the Roman Catholic Church, the office of successor of Simon Peter and the office of diocesan bishop possess their ordinary power even in the absence of positive enactments from the Church. Other episcopalian Christian denominations believe in the divine establishment of the episcopacy in varying degrees, but they all share the characteristic that the episcopal office is established by some law and that its power comes from law. Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations · Other religions Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Archbishop of Canterbury · Catholic Pope Coptic Pope · Ecumenical Patriarch Christianity Portal This box:      This article... Wikisource has original text related to this article: Bible, English, King James, Matthew A number of Christian denominations hold that Simon Peter was the most prominent of the apostles, favoured by Jesus of Nazareth with the first place of honour and authority. ...

Many officers possess ordinary power but, due to their lack of ordinary executive power, are not called ordinaries. The best example of this phenomenon is the office of judicial vicar, a.k.a. officialis. The judicial vicar only has authority through his office to exercise the diocesan bishop's power to judge cases^[8]. Though the vicar has vicarious ordinary judicial power, he is not an ordinary because he lacks ordinary executive power. A vicar general, however, has authority through their office to exercise the diocesan bishop's executive power^[9]. He is therefore an ordinary because of this vicarious ordinary executive power. In the Roman Catholic Church, a judicial vicar is an officer of the diocese who has ordinary power to judge cases in the diocesan ecclesiastical court. ... An official (from the Latin Officialis, person – or object – related to an officium, v. ... A vicar general (often abbreviated VG) is the principal deputy of the bishop of a diocese for the exercise of administrative authority. ...

Catholic usage

Local ordinaries/hierarchs

Local ordinaries are ordinaries over particular churches^[10]. The following officers are local ordinaries: A particular Church, in Catholic theology and Canon law, is any of the individual constituent ecclesial communities in full communion with Rome that are part of the Catholic Church as a whole. ...

• Diocesan/eparchial bishops and all prelates who head particular churches
• Vicars capitular, administrators sede vacante, apostolic vicars, apostolic prefects, apostolic administrators, and exarchs
• Vicars general and protosyncelli
• Episcopal vicars and syncelli

Pope Pius XI blesses Bishop Stephen Alencastre as fifth Apostolic Vicar of the Hawaiian Islands in a Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace window. ... Eparchy is an anglicized Greek word, authentically latinized as eparchia and loosely translating as rule over something, but has the following specific meanings, both in political history and in the hierarchy of eastern churches. ... A bishop in the Catholic Church is a member of the College of Bishops, is an ordained minister, and holds the fullness of the priesthood. ... Look up prelate in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A particular Church, in Catholic theology and Canon law, is any of the individual constituent ecclesial communities in full communion with Rome that are part of the Catholic Church as a whole. ... A vicar capitular is a provisional ordinary of a Roman Catholic diocese. ... Sede vacante is the vacancy of the episcopal see of a particular church in the Canon law of the Roman Catholic Church. ... Apostolic vicariate is a particular church of the Roman Catholic Church for non-Catholic or missionary regions and countries which do not have a diocese yet. ... An apostolic prefect is the missionary head of a particular church of the Roman Catholic Church, known as apostolic prefecture, in missionary regions and countries where no diocese is yet established. ... In the Roman Catholic Church, an apostolic administrator is a prelate appointed by the Pope to serve as an ordinary for an Apostolic Administration, which is a territorial jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Church, similar in function but lower in status then a diocese, but are usually to be found... In the Byzantine Empire, an exarch was an essentially military viceroy who governed a part of the empire at some remove from the central (oriental) authorities, the Emperor and the Patriarch of Constantinople. ... A vicar general (often abbreviated VG) is the principal deputy of the bishop of a diocese for the exercise of administrative authority. ... A vicar general (often abbreviated VG) is the principal deputy of the bishop of a diocese for the exercise of administrative authority. ... A vicar general (often abbreviated VG) is the principal deputy of the bishop of a diocese for the exercise of administrative authority. ... A vicar general (often abbreviated VG) is the principal deputy of the bishop of a diocese for the exercise of administrative authority. ...

Other ordinaries/hierarchs

Other officers are also ordinaries (Latin Church) or hierarchs (Eastern Churches), but not local ordinaries (Latin Church) or local hierarchs (Eastern Churches):

• Patriarchs, major archbishops, and metropolitans who head sui juris churches
• Abbots and major superiors over their respective religious orders
• Prelates of personal prelatures

The pope is local ordinary of Rome. He is also the ordinary, but not the local ordinary, of the Latin rite church. Roman Catholics also believe that he is the local ordinary of the universal Church. For other senses, see Patriarch (disambiguation). ... In the Roman Catholic Church, a major archbishop is an Eastern Rite hierarch who has the same jurisdiction in his sui juris particular church that an Eastern rite patriarch does, but whose episcopal see is less prestigious than a patriarchal see. ... In hierarchical Christian churches, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or simply metropolitan, pertains to the diocesan bishop or archbishop (then more precisely called Metropolitan archbishop) of a metropolis; that is, the chief city of an old Roman province, ecclesiastical province, or regional capital. ... The Latin term sui juris means of ones own right. ... Abbots coat of arms The word abbot, meaning father, has been used as a Christian clerical title in various, mainly monastic, meanings. ... A Taoist monk playing an instrument. ... A prelate is a member of the clergy having a special canonical jurisdiction over a territory or a group of people; usually, a prelate is a bishop. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Wycliffe Tyndale · Luther · Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Pope · Archbishop of Canterbury Patriarch of Constantinople Christianity Portal This box:      The Pope (from Latin... The Latin Rite is one of the 23 sui iuris particular Churches within the Catholic Church. ...

References

1. ^ c. 134 § 1, Code of Canon Law, 1983
2. ^ c. 984, Code of Canons of the Oriental Churches, 1992
3. ^ c. 135 §1, Code of Canon Law, 1983
4. ^ Id. c. 131 §1
5. ^ Id. § 2
6. ^ "Ordinary," The Catholic Encyclopedia
7. ^ See Lumen gentium and Pastor aeternus
8. ^ c. 1420 § 1, Code of Canon Law (1983)
9. ^ Id. c. 479 § 1
10. ^ Id. c.134 §§1–2

Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, is one of the principal documents of the Second Vatican Council. ... In Catholic theology, papal infallibility is the dogma that, by action of the Holy Spirit, the Pope is preserved from even the possibility of error[1] when he solemnly declares or promulgates to the Church a dogmatic teaching on faith or morals as being contained in divine revelation, or at...

See also

• Military ordinariate