EDITORIAL

Bishops and hope

By Kenneth Baker, S.J., Editor


One of the recommendations of Vatican II was the convening, at regular intervals, of worldwide synods of bishops to offer advice to the Holy Father. Since 1967 there have been eleven of them; I have covered the last nine for HPR. It has been seven years since the last one in 1994 on consecrated life/religious.

Since 1987 the Roman Synods have considered the following states of life in the Church: laity (1987), priests (1990), consecrated life/religious (1994).

The Roman Synod convened by the Pope for this year will take place in Rome from September 30 to October 27. The topic, selected by the Pope a few years ago, is: “The Bishop: Servant of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the Hope of the World.” In 1998 a rough outline of the topic, called Lineamenta was sent to all the bishops and they were asked to comment on it. Using the rough draft and the suggestions of the bishops, the Vatican office for the Synod produced what is called the “Working Paper” (Instrumentum Laboris). The focus of members of the Synod will be to comment on this paper. 

These documents are based on the Vatican II Decrees on the Pastoral Office of Bishop (Christus Dominus) and chapter 3 of Lumen Gentium which deals with the hierarchical structure of the Church and the episcopate.

The subjects covered include the following: the mission of bishops today; some aspects of the bishop’s ministry such as his relations to the Holy See, to priests, to the laity, to the episcopal college; the ministry of the bishop in his diocese — especially to teach, sanctify and rule; the missionary duty of the bishop; the spiritual life of the bishop.

Here is the way the Synod works: the bishops study the “Working Paper” and each one is allowed eight minutes to give a talk on what he wants to suggest; then they meet together in small language groups (English, French, Spanish, etc.) to discuss the topics suggested and to come up with some concrete proposals; these are then collated by a special committee into a list of propositions; then they meet again to discuss these and to vote on them. The results are then given to the Holy Father and he is asked to produce an Apostolic Letter on the matter — which usually takes a year or so.

The above is a very brief outline of who, what, when and where. There is no doubt that the role of bishop in the Church is crucial. As the bishops go so goes the Church. When they are good the Church flourishes; when they are bad the Church withers and limps along. As the Council of Trent saw, two things are necessary to reform a diocese — a holy bishop and a solid seminary.

A point to watch in this Synod is the theological connection of hope with the office of bishop. In the “Working Paper” the theological virtue of hope is linked to the office of bishop again and again. This is a deduction from the bishop’s role as teacher and defender of faith in Jesus Christ, for one who has faith also has hope since Jesus rose from the dead and promises eternal life to all those who have faith in him.

There are always surprises at these synods. One surprise I would like to see is a recommendation to the Pope that bishops not be moved, or “promoted,” from one diocese to another. I am pleased to see that there is a “hint” of this in #126. In my opinion, the Church would be much healthier if we adopted the practice of the early Church that a bishop is “married” to his diocese indissolubly. Once a man is made a bishop of a diocese he should remain there until death or retirement — no moving from diocese to diocese. This policy would eliminate the scourge of ambition which often affects clerics. If a bishop knew that he was there for life, he would concentrate on serving his diocese and would not be angling for a “promotion” to a larger diocese.