The obligation and privilege of the bishop through his consecration is to build up the church through a threefold office: that of teaching, especially by preaching the word of God that of sanctifying, by celebrating the Eucharist and the other sacraments and that of governing. It is an “office of love,” one that continues throughout his life.Ģ. The bishop is, like Christ, a servant and not a master, and his sacred ministry is a response to love. The document makes two theological points in explaining why the bishop emeritus can and should still serve the church:ġ. It also takes into account that bishops emeriti (a term first used officially in Canon 402) can still serve and minister to the church in significant ways. The wisdom of the requirement is based on the need for alertness and energy on the part of the bishop. 21) that “bishops resign from their office if on account of advanced age or from any other grave cause they become less able to carry out their duties.” As a result, bishops are required to submit their resignation at the age of 75. ![]() In days gone by, bishops, priests and religious typically died “with their boots on.” Then Canon 401 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law followed up on “the earnest request” of the Second Vatican Council’s “Decree on the Bishop’s Pastoral Office in the Church” (No. It should come as no surprise that retirement, described as “a profound change of life…a break with one’s previous life experience” and a “severing of the network of relationships that constitute one’s life,” can lead even a bishop to a sense of “isolation and even create a sense of emptiness on a psychological and relational level.” They represent an innovation in the life of the Catholic Church.” Today the number of retired bishops worldwide is around 1,150.Īfter acknowledging these bishops’ valued ongoing service to the church and their rights and duties, the document takes up some of their personal experiences. In the introduction, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the congregation’s prefect, observes: “In the 2,000-year history of the church, bishops emeriti are a new reality just a little more than 40 years old. They begin a “new phase of their ministry,” according to The Bishop Emeritus, a study by the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops that became available in English last August (originally published in Italian in 2008). ![]() ![]() Old soldiers never die,” said retired General Douglas MacArthur, “they just fade away.” Retired Roman Catholic bishops, however, do not just fade away.
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