Saturday, June 19, 2004
How to Reform the Catholic episcopacy
Third installment of the popular "How to Reform" series ...
1. Local selection, if not election, returning to the most ancient practice of the Church.
2. A bishop's appointment to a diocese should be permanent at least ninety percent of the time, allowing for rare occasions when an experienced bishop would be needed to head a major see. I would not include most archbishoprics in this latter category.
3. A bishop should be appointed from the clergy of the particular diocese most of the time, giving leeway for unusual situations in which a local appointee would not be healthy. Religious priests might also provide a good source of candidates. I think a minimum of ten years as a proven pastor plus some advanced learning (spirituality, preaching, liturgy, or canon law, etc.) would be about right. Ideally, a bishop would be elected at around age 60-70 for about ten years of service.
4. Stronger national conferences.
5. Stronger regional conferences.
6. Smaller dioceses. A bishop should have fifty to eighty parishes, as a guideline: enough for one leader to visit about once a year, minimally. Dioceses with more than eighty parishes should probably be split.
7. As a corollary, most specialized ministry in the modern chancery (annulments, vocations, news media, liturgy, catechesis, social justice advocacy) could be maintained on regional levels and shared amongst neighboring dioceses.
8. Sell off all bishops' residences that have market value beyond the mean of the cathedral neighborhood. Correct to humble dwellings in the cathedral parish, or become a spiritual vagabond.
9. Strive to give an extraordinarily saintly witness so as to heal the Church from cover-up scandals.
Anything missed?
