Why can't you find bishops in their cathedrals?

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justbeinfrank

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This isn’t an apologetics question per se, but I’ve always wondered … when you go to Mass on Sunday at a cathedral, why is it more likely than not that the bishop will *not *be celebrating Mass? Unless it’s a special occassion, it’s usually a rector or a parochial vicar presiding.

What are Bishops doing on Sundays? They have to be saying Mass somewhere; why don’t they do it *regularly *in their cathedrals?
 
I’m a member of a cathedral parish and we only see the Bishop (aside from the usual feast days) infrequently. The bishop is usually out making visits to parishes within the diocese. You, will, however, find him in the cathedral for almost all the services during the Triduum. And he’s always there for any Mass which involves governmental officials (which is frequent since ours is a capital city). Actually, when I think about it, we see the governor more frequently - almost every Sunday.
 
Our new bishop posts his public calendar on the diocesan website, so we always know where he is on Sundays.

He travels around the diocese visiting different parishes. He is always at the cathedral for holy days, though.
 
Often a cathedral parish has a rector, the priest who presides at the Masses and takes care of pastoral needs of the parish. The the bishop may have one Mass there on the weekend. He is probably making parish visits about half the Sundays of the year and saying Mass there, plus visiting parishes for confirmations for at least 2-3 months, including Sundays. Plus out of town meetings, conferences and trips, more frequently if he is on a board or committee of the national bishops conference.
 
There are lots of reasons why Bishops need to travel around their dioceses - for one thing they are the ones who do confirmations and ordinations.

For another they do other tasks - our Auxiliary Bishop here also has an administative post at one of the seminaries in the area (located a fair distance from the Cathedral). The one time I did see him was when he and some of the seminarians did a mission at one of the local churches here. Which is a shame - he’s an awesome speaker.

As for our Cardinal-Archbishop, well, being a Cardinal and working on some committee or other at the Vatican is one explanation - some Bishops of course would do such work as well. Then again a lot of the administrative offices of our Archdiocese aren’t at the Cathedral either, they’re a fair ways away. In fact they have their own chapel there where I occasionally go for Mass when I’m in that neighbourhood.
 
In my diocese, there are 4 bishops, but only the Archbishop lives anywhere near the Cathedral, so maybe that is part of why they are rarely there. Of course they are busy, and being bishops they have moved on from the priest’s role of staying in one parish, administering the sacraments there all the time. They have a different, and very important role.
 
I lectored monthly at our local Cathedral for ten years. The number of times that I lectored at a Mass where our Bishop (Howard Hubbard) was present was around 4 or 5. It’s not unusual — I wouldn’t expect him to fulfill the duties of the parish priest in addition to everything else he does.
 
justbeinfrank said:
This isn’t an apologetics question per se, but I’ve always wondered … when you go to Mass on Sunday at a cathedral, why is it more likely than not that the bishop will *not *be celebrating Mass? Unless it’s a special occassion, it’s usually a rector or a parochial vicar presiding.

What are Bishops doing on Sundays? They have to be saying Mass somewhere; why don’t they do it *regularly *in their cathedrals?
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My bishop says at least one Mass per Sunday at the cathedral unless he is making pastoral visits to the various parishes in the diocese. If that’s the case he usually celebrates two or three Masses at the parish he is visiting. There are over 55 parishes in my diocese – that doesn’t leave a lot of Sundays when he can be present in his own cathedral.

Deacon Ed
 
Our bishop, Cardinal Maida, spends most Sundays visiting parishes in the Archdiocese.

For example, a parish might be celebrating it’s 50th or 100th anniversary, or a pastor might be celebrating his 25th or 50th anniversary of Ordination; in those cases, the Cardinal will make a special effort to celebrate Mass at that parish. Since there are 140+ parishes in the Archdiocese, that’s a lot of parishes to cover.

Add to that, he is a Cardinal, so he is on several Vatican commissions, so he’s in Rome at least every other month.
 
justbeinfrank said:
This isn’t an apologetics question per se, but I’ve always wondered … when you go to Mass on Sunday at a cathedral, why is it more likely than not that the bishop will *not *be celebrating Mass? Unless it’s a special occassion, it’s usually a rector or a parochial vicar presiding.

What are Bishops doing on Sundays? They have to be saying Mass somewhere; why don’t they do it *regularly *in their cathedrals?
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He’s required to visit every parish in the diocese regularly:
A bishop is obliged to visit the diocese annually either in whole or in part, so that he visits the entire diocese at least every Five years either personally or, if he has been legitimately impeded, through the coadjutor bishop, an auxiliary, vicar general, episcopal vicar, or another presbyter.
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CIC, Canon 396 section 1.

So, e.g., if there are 75 parishes, he has to visit 15 a year, which is more than one a month. Add to that the various other reasons he might be absent (retreats, visits to the Vatican or other dioceses, NCCB meetings, etc.) and you start to run out of Sundays in any given month.

Though I agree, I wish I saw my bishop more frequently.
 
Maybe you could call your cathedral and ask what the bishop’s schedule is. They may be able to tell you when he is going to be there to say Mass, if you want to assist at a Mass celebrated by the bishop.
 
I know Archbishop Chaput has the 6:30 pm Mass at his cathedral in denver. When I visit my relatives there, I love to go to his mass which is packed, by the way.

Ave Maria!
 
My Bishop celebrates Mass in the Cathedral a grand total of 4 days a year- Christmas, Passion Sunday, Good Friday (although not a Mass) and Easter Sunday.
 
LilyM said:
As for our Cardinal-Archbishop, well, being a Cardinal and working on some committee or other at the Vatican is one explanation - some Bishops of course would do such work as well.
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Sort of related: is the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference located in Sydney, Canberra, or Melbourne?
 
LilyM said:
Oh the offices of the General Secretariat (and most all of the others for that matter) are in Canberra. Equally inconvenient for everyone 😛
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I looked at that page and others, but apparently I just didn’t scroll down. I did notice the pdf files of their press releases had a 0414 contact number - is that Canberra?
 
Digitonomy said:
I looked at that page and others, but apparently I just didn’t scroll down. I did notice the pdf files of their press releases had a 0414 contact number - is that Canberra?
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0414 would be a mobile telephone (aka cellphone) number.
 
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