Posts Tagged ‘bishops’

Bishops should get regular performance reviews

Thursday, September 28th, 2023

As we prepare for the next phase of the Synod on Synodality, we have heard much talk from the information-gathering process about greater inclusion and diversity in church governance. However, there has been little discussion about the shape of the church hierarchy, particularly with respect to accountability for performance. We often think of the accountability Read more

US needs around 34 new bishops by 2025

Thursday, March 23rd, 2023

If Pope Francis continues to serve as bishop of Rome for another two years, he may have a notable opportunity to refashion the U.S. Catholic hierarchy. Dozens of bishops, several in historically significant archdioceses, will be required by canon law to submit resignation letters upon turning 75. At least 13 archdioceses and 21 dioceses could Read more

Obsessed with bishops

Monday, November 21st, 2022
obsessed with bishops

We’re all guilty, at least many of us whose job it is to report or comment on the Catholic Church. Let’s just admit it: we are obsessed with bishops. It seems like they are almost always the main focus or at least a significant part of whatever we write or talk about. And why not? Read more

No longer the Bishops’ church

Monday, November 14th, 2022

The upcoming plenary meeting of the USCCB comes as the Catholic Church is on its way to being, in some ways, a “post-episcopal” Church—no longer a bishops’ Church. That will likely have a dramatic impact on how Catholicism may influence and interact with American social and political values. The situation arises from the precipitous drop Read more

Francis names three women to bishop selecting committee

Thursday, July 14th, 2022

The Holy See Press Office on July 13 announced that Pope Francis has appointed three women to the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops. The role of the dicastery is to help the pope in the appointment of Catholic bishops for Latin-rite dioceses outside what the Vatican considers the mission territories, for example, Australia. Bishop appointments to Read more

The hazardous job of being a bishop

Monday, June 13th, 2022
obsessed with bishops

It is no fun being a bishop these days. After the recent resignations of Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of Lyon and Archbishop Michel Aupetit of Paris, and then the controversial legacies left by Archbishop Jean-Pierre Cattenoz in Avignon and Bishop Emmanuel Lafont in Cayenne (French Guyana), as well as the severe sanction that forced the Diocese Read more

Change threatens some bishops

Thursday, March 24th, 2022
Sacrosanctum Concilium,

The Bishops’ Conference of the Nordic Countries recently wrote an open letter to the German Bishops’ Conference to voice concerns over the Synodal Path now underway in Germany. They ‘“let rip” at the Germans. The Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Iceland Church leaders’ letter is an excellent example of one group of bishops seeing the Read more

A crucial choice: how the Church selects its bishops

Thursday, December 2nd, 2021

Hard times for bishops! For those who are used to the generally compliant tones that have characterized the Catholic faithful’s relationship to the hierarchy up till now, it must be said that this is changing. Bishops in France are now being directly and harshly criticized by “ordinary Catholics” following the publication of the Sauvé Report, Read more

Beatitudes for bishops; a model for today’s pastor

Thursday, November 25th, 2021
Catholic Outlook

At the beginning of an Italian bishops’ conference plenary session, Pope Francis gave each a copy of a text called “The Beatitudes of the Bishop”. Originally written by the archbishop of Naples for his homily when ordaining three bishops last month, the eight “beatitudes of the bishop” loosely correspond with those spoken by Jesus in Read more

Inside the top secret process of appointing Catholic bishops

Thursday, April 29th, 2021
appointing Catholic bishops

When Father John Wester received a call just before 8 a.m. Mass, he had no idea it would be the nuncio, the pope’s ambassador, phoning to tell him he would be the next auxiliary bishop of San Francisco. “I think my knees were knocking,” now-Archbishop Wester of Santa Fe, N.M., told America’s “Inside the Vatican” Read more