His Grace, honorific for bishops

[Elizium23]

I have a simple question: Is it Traditional to refer to bishops as “His Grace”?

I understand that the modern practice is limited to England and Wales or thereabouts. Bishops outside this territory are addressed as “His Excellency”. However, I saw an announcement for the Pontifical Solemn Mass in San Francisco with “His Grace” Salvatore Cordileone (Sunday September 14 at 6:30pm at Star of the Sea). So I wonder if this is something which Traditionalists use because it was an older custom that has fallen into disuse.

Thanks for the help!

 

[dzheremi]

I can’t speak for the Catholic Church, but that is the honorific for bishops in the Coptic Orthodox Church. I would think it is fairly standard in all traditional churches. (The Arabic honorific used for bishops, “sayedna”, is “our master”; we refer to our Pope as “sayedna al-baba (name)” to emphasize that he too is a bishop, and not some other type of thing.)

 

[justice99]

as far as I know, His Grace is used for Archbishops in the Roman Catholic Church, My Lord for Bishop and His Eminence for Cardinals.
I may be wrong

 

[phil19034]

Today, the correct title in non British English is “Your Excellency” for both Bishops and Archbishops.

The British use “Your Grace”

Reasons: in England, Bishops were granted the social status of a Duke. When addressing an English Duke, the address is “Your Grace.” Hence English Bishops inherited the title from the secular English Dukes and not the Church.

The title “Your Excellency” is used in France, Spain, Italy, Germany, etc.

In the United States, the title “Your Grace” was originally used for Archbishops, but Americans didn’t like calling Bishops “Your Lordship” (a style of a local Lord). So there was an issue. “Your Excellency” was used in England to address Earls and Counts. It was in the middle of both “Your Grace” and “Your Lordship.” So making all Bishops in the US your Excellency made some sense and made us sound less Anglican.

Also as more Catholic immigrants came here in the early 1900s they used “Your Excellency” in their national parishes and helped bring that into mainstream use in the US.

While the use of “Your Grace” is not bad (there are still parishes predominantly anglophone influence who will stills say “Your Grace”) I’m not aware of any American Bishop who prefers that title. The all pretty much prefer to be called “Your Excellency” or “Monsignor.” If you look up the Bishop’s name in Wikipedia, most pages state their preferred style.

Also, their bios on their Diocese’s website will sometimes mention their personal style.

Hope this helps

 

[Elizium23]

Thanks phil! That confirms what I thought and is an excellent explanation! And I forgot all about the bishop-archbishop distinction. Thanks, I appreciate it.