Does Rome get involved in raising and deposing Bishops, canon law, liturgy, etc. and if so how much?
I pretty much agree with the comments of brother Malphono in his post #6. I would only like to add two comments:
On the matter of raising and deposing bishops in diaspora territories:
The issue here is only the raising of bishops. The authority to depose bishops of a
sui juris Patriarchal or Major-episcopal Church, even in the diaspora, belongs to the supreme head bishop of that particular Church (i,.e., the Patriarch or Major Archbishop in Synod).
Many think that the principle involved in the Pope raising a bishop in the “diaspora” (i.e., the Traditional territory of the Patriarch of the Latins [formerly, the “Patriarch of the West”]) is that the Patriarch of the Latins gets to intervene in the affairs of Eastern and Oriental Catholic Churches, while Eastern or Oriental Catholic Patriarchs likewise cannot do the same for Latin bishops in their Traditional territory. Thus, there arises a certain jealousy of “jurisdiction,” at least from laymen. However, it is not really about what one Patriarch can do in the Traditional territory of another Patriarch.
The real principle involved in the Pope’s raising a bishop in the “diaspora” is that only the Supreme Authority has the prerogative to establish a bishop of particular Tradition in the Traditional territory of a bishop of
another particular Tradition. As explained in another thread, it is not in the historic Traditional competence of a Patriarch to be able to establish a bishopric for a
sui juris Church of another Tradition in his own territorial jurisdiction. There is simply no model for such an exigency in the early Church, simply because the idea of “ritual (personal) jurisdiction within a territorial jurisdiction” did not exist in the early Church. This a later development within the Catholic Church (a reality that also exists in the Oriental Orthodox communion).
Being that only the Supreme Authority has the prerogative to do this, we can either call an Ecumenical Council each time a new bishop for a personal jurisdiction within an existing territorial jurisdiction is needed, or we can call on the Pope. So there should be no feelings of jealousy regarding what one Patriarch can do and another cannot. In fact, it is not that the Latin Patriarch is able to do for his territorial jurisdiction what an Eastern or Oriental Patriarch cannot do. What is occurring is that the Supreme Authority is providing something that is not within the historic Traditional competence of Patriarchs to provide - namely, a bishop of a certain
sui juris Church Tradition within the territorial jurisdiction of a bishop of another
sui juris Church Tradition.
Of course, this can change, and the recent Synod of Middle Eastern bishops expressed interest in such a change for the first time. We can wait for this to be resolved in the next Ecumenical Council, or we can ask the Pope - in conference with his brother bishops, of course - to introduce new legislation into the Canons of the universal Church which would permit the Patriarchs and Major Archbishops of
sui juris Churches to have the competence to do one of two things: either (1) to raise bishops of a
different sui juris Church Tradition within their territorial jurisdiction; or (2) to raise bishops of their own
sui juris Church Tradition within the Traditional territorial jurisdiction of another bishop.
On the matter of Liturgy:
On this point, I just wanted to relate an interesting story. When the Coptic Catholic Church came to fruition in the 19th century, the Franciscan missionaries requested to impose Latinizations on the Coptic Catholic Church. The Pope refused the request. Instead, the Pope, ignorant of the difference between the Coptic Tradition and the Byzantine Tradition, imposed Byzantine Liturgical practices on the Coptic Catholic Church with an eye to “preserving” its “Eastern identity.” Hilarious, in hindsight.
Blessings,
Marduk
