Aux Bishop who outranks his Ordinary

[phil19034]

How does he act as auxiliary bishop? I know that he assists with confirmations, etc., but that’s a long way from acting as auxiliary bishop. Is he in charge of any area, or have any authority in the chancery?

I don’t know… That was Cardinal Rigali’s own words to Pope Francis. The Bishop of Knoxville mentioned it during the dedication of their new Cathedral.

Basically, I think he’s simply very active in the diocese.

Archbishop Chaput said once during the Homily for the ordination of a new Aux Bishop that the Aux Bishops began when bishops lost their dioceses and moved in with bishops in other cities.

So that’s really what Cardinal Rigali is going… he’s helping liturgically, not administratively.

 

[dochawk]

Do you know of any concrete example of the American Byzantine Metropolitan taking precedence over Latin Cardinals? Just curious.

Not off the cuff. I think it’s anything where the ranking isn’t based on cardinals, but . . .

I thought the Byzantine Archbishop in Pittsburgh was an Archbishop, not a Major Archbishop?

Metropolitan, actually, which is the same thing as an Archbishop.

However, he is the head of a sui juris church, which puts him ahead of regular archbishops, and I suppose everyone else but Major Archbishops (all of whom, I believe, also head sui juris churches, and Patriarchs (real Patriarchs, not those “Latin Patriarch of . . .”, or any other Latin “Patriarch” other than the Pope).

hawk

hawk

 

[twf]

Huh… I just realized that, in answer to my own OP, its not completely unprecedented… in that a very special auxiliary bishop, the Vicar General of the Diocese of Rome, is traditionally named a cardinal… so much so that we typically refer to the position as “the Cardinal Vicar of Rome”. Of course that’s a special case .

 

[Canvas]

Pope Francis is actually quite different in the respect that he is truly appointing more and more Cardinals from parts of the world that were, in the past, much less influential in the Vatican.

 

[twf]

Actually it looks like there is currently no Cardinal Vicar of Rome… the Pope’s Vicar General is an archbishop.

 

[phil19034]

Pope Francis is actually quite different in the respect that he is truly appointing more and more Cardinals from parts of the world that were, in the past, much less influential in the Vatican.

Yes, I know. That’s something that everyone, except the Europeans wanted. The Europeans want the Cardinals to be mostly European. And the Italians say the Pope should be Italian and most Cardinals should be Italian. But everywhere else, most people wanted to see the Cardinals be more diverse.

So it isn’t surprising that a non-European Pope is doing this. It was to be expected. The only two things that were not expected was making Newark, NJ a red hat see and making an Aux Bishop a Cardinal.

God Bless

 

[Joe_5859]

This is the type of stuff I find interesting, but not worth thinking about too much. I find it interesting that the cardinalate keeps getting more international, and that Pope Francis has skipped over certain sees that always get a cardinal in favor of countries that have never had one before.

But, ultimately, he can do what he wants. It doesn’t bother me.

 

[OldCAFMember]

Pope Francis is actually quite different in the respect that he is truly appointing more and more Cardinals from parts of the world that were, in the past, much less influential in the Vatican.

Hmmm, that’s exactly what was said about St. John Paul II.

 

[Genesis315]

Pope Francis is actually quite different in the respect that he is truly appointing more and more Cardinals from parts of the world that were, in the past, much less influential in the Vatican.

Hmmm, that’s exactly what was said about St. John Paul II.

And it’s really nothing new. That this should be the case was decided during Session 40 of the Council of Constance in 1417. The Council of Florence (Session 23) reaffirmed it in 1436 saying:

“They should be chosen from all the regions of Christianity, as far as this is convenient and possible, so that information on new things in the church may be more easily available for mature consideration.”

The Council of Trent (session 24) in 1563 also reaffirmed this saying that when choosing cardinals, the Pope shall “select out of all the nations of Christendom, as he shall find persons suitable.” The Second Vatican Council said the same in 1965 in Christus Dominus 10.