How can I complain about a bishop?

[guitarman30]

I am in search of a source to lodge a complaint against a bishop. I will be addressing the bishop one additional time before I give up on resolving the issues and on the Church. I would like to copy the letter to a party that has the authority to address diocesan problems while being discreet and not bring scandal to the Church. I have heard that there is a papal emissary in the United States. I have been considering sending a copy of the letter to this individual, should he exist, and/or to the Vatican. I would appreciate sources or suggestions.

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

The “papal emissary” you mention is the Apostolic Nuncio and that is currently Archbishop Pietro Sambi. Here is the address:

Archbishop Pietro Sambi
Apostolic Nuncio to the United States
3339 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20008-3610

In Rome, the relevant Vatican congregation is the Congregation for Bishops. I don’t have the address for the Congregation, but you could ask a research librarian at a local library to help you find it. You might also contact the St. Joseph Foundation, a Catholic apostolate specializing in matters of canon law.

I must caution you though that you should not allow any priest or bishop to determine whether or not you will remain in the Church. You must be Catholic for Christ alone, not for any bishop or priest, and because Christ founded the Catholic Church for your salvation. Catholic apologist Frank Sheed once said:

We are not baptized into the hierarchy; do not receive the cardinals sacramentally; will not spend an eternity in the beatific vision of the pope. Christ is the point. I, myself, admire the present pope, but even if I criticized him as harshly as some do, even if his successor proved to be as bad as some of those who have gone before, even if I find the Church, as I have to live with it, a pain in the neck, I should still say that nothing that a pope (or a priest) could do or say would make me wish to leave the Church, although I might well wish that they would leave.

If you do not get the response to your difficulty with this bishop for which you hope, I encourage you to see it as a call to offer up your suffering to Christ in union with his suffering for the salvation of the world – and not as an excuse to abandon Christ and his mystical body, the Church.

Recommended reading:

A Crisis of Saints by Fr. Roger Landry
Problems in the Church by Jimmy Akin