Can a bishop be demoted?

[Cardinalsin]

If a bishop does something wrong can he be demoted to cannon or sent back to seminary.

 

[TheDoctor]

If you are asking “can a bishop be made a priest or a deacon” then the answer is no. A member of the clergy can be laicized, that is, removed from their right to exercise their office, however Holy Orders leaves an indelible mark on the soul and cannot be erased.

If you are asking “can a bishop be relieved of their assignment and send for re-training or to another assignment” then the answer is yes.

 

[Kielbasi]

If a bishop does something wrong can he be demoted to cannon or sent back to seminary.

I suppose anything “can” happen, but it wouldn’t seem very likely. If a bishop did something sufficiently wrong to be “demoted”, he would more like just be defrocked and removed from public ministry. If it was even more severe, he might be excommunicated.

But just reduced in rank or sent back to the seminary? Can’t think of a circumstance where that would be appropriate.

 

[commenter]

You have to make a distinction between a sacrament, and an office. A priest who is a pastor, can - only with just cause - be removed from that assignment; either reassigned, or given no job assignment at all. But he remains a priest.

A bishop who is ordinary of a diocese can only be removed with good cause. Clergy have rights in canon law, too. A bishop who has any other kind of position, as auxiliary or something in the Vatican, can also be removed, with cause. He remains a bishop. Of course a bishop can exercise his sacramental faculties as bishop only as long as he has permission from the ordinary of the diocese, or the pope. If he still exercises his faculties without permission, it is valid, but illicit.

 

[Digitonomy]

I suppose anything “can” happen, but it wouldn’t seem very likely. If a bishop did something sufficiently wrong to be “demoted”, he would more like just be defrocked and removed from public ministry. If it was even more severe, he might be excommunicated.

But just reduced in rank or sent back to the seminary? Can’t think of a circumstance where that would be appropriate.

I can think of lots of circumstances where it could become clear that a bishop is not fit to exercise his office, but where defrocking would be a very disproportionate response.

Imagine that a bishop

• Diverted a large amount of money from the diocese’s general fund to lavishly furnish his residence.
• Had a habit of using crude and insulting remarks at public events.
• Made the sacraments (make up your own scenario here) difficult to receive for those in his flock otherwise disposed to receive them.* Pitted his staff against one another so that the chancery became a backbiting political snakepit.* Made numerous statements that seemed heterodox, then walked them back once he got his face in the media.* Had little time for diocesan matters because he spent most of his day praying an especially plodding Liturgy of the Hours. Then carved out large parts of the remaining time for NASCAR and art house films on Netflix.

So it may not happen often, but there are a large number of ways a bishop can take his office on the wrong track without going completely off the rails.

 

[stinkcat_14]

There was the case of bishop bonaventure Broderick. He fell into a dispute with the Vatican and was dismissed from his position and they wouldn’t give him another one. He ended up running a gas station for 30 years until Cardinal Spellman brought him into the Archdiocese of New York.

 

[jimkhong]

If a bishop does something wrong can he be demoted to cannon or sent back to seminary.

The mark of ordination and the authority to exercise the office of the ordained are two different things. The first is eternal and the latter is subject to the authority of the Church.

Ordination is a sacrament and as all sacraments go, it is a grace that comes from God. Once, given it is irrevocable. So, a priest/deacon once ordained will remain a priest/deacon forever as far as the sacrament is concerned, even in the event of great personal sin. Similarly, a bishop remains a bishop forever as far as the sacrament is concerned.

The authority to act as a bishop/priest/deacon however is at the discretion of the Church and that can be reduced at any time, to the level of a priest if necessary. The simplest example would be when a new bishop takes over from a retiring one. The retired bishop (the bishop emeritus) effectively can only act on his own as like any other ordinary priest. Although still bishop, he cannot perform ordinations and confirmations or represent the diocese unless so delegated by the new bishop.

Thus, any bishop under disciplinary action (and there have been plenty) will remain bishops from a sacrament point of view but the Church may withdraw his authority to act as a bishop, e.g. run a diocese, perform ordinations/confirmations, etc. However, he will still have the title of a bishop, continue to be listed as such and have right of precedent over priests in liturgical processions. He will still continue to have the authority to say mass like any priest would. In cases of severe discipline (usually doctrinal infractions) even the right to say mass is withdrawn as it would for similarly offending priests.