Only priest gets communion now?

[RoseScented]

I actually had a coworker baffled by the “bishops each run their particular diocese” idea. I don’t remember the topic but it was one where the Vatican had said “this is what you do, but local bishops can change things if they find it useful to their communities”, they just completely forgot about the “, but…” part. They asked me why someone down the road could do x and you up the road couldn’t do x and it would be a sin (assuming down the road is a new diocese). They (a non-denominational) were adamant that the bishop was not allowed to make x a sin when another bishop disagreed, especially the Pope. In her mind the Pope was like the ruler of a country and the bishops just coordinated collecting money, local paperwork, and questions and sending them back to Rome.

Trying to get them to see the distinction between obedience to your local bishop vs the x-action was quite trying.

 

[Glennon_P]

This ^^^^^.

My diocese is the only one in the United States that does not allow female altar servers. For a period in the 1980s and 1990s, we were the only diocese in the country where one had to be an installed Lector to read at Mass - and since the ministry of Lector is reserved to men, that meant no women reading at Masses here.

Frequently, people would ask me, “Why can’t women read at Mass/girls serve at Mass in Lincoln when they can in every other diocese?” The answer…in his diocese, the Bishop has the authority to do that. It doesn’t mean other dioceses are wrong; it means their Bishop decided what was best for his diocese, as our Bishop had for his.

Yes, Rome is “corporate headquarters”. But “HQ” gives a great deal of latitude to the local Bishop to adapt to the situation in his diocese.