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Author Topic: A Bishop's Jurisdiction: From God, or the pope  (Read 807 times)

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Offline DecemRationis

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A Bishop's Jurisdiction: From God, or the pope
« on: November 24, 2021, 01:33:33 PM »
I have a copy of Father Joachim Salverri's Sacrae Theologiae Summa,  Volume 1B, On the Church of Christ/On Holy Scripture. Tough, deep reading. Anyway, Section 374, Scholium 2, deals with "On the mediate or immediate origin from God of the jurisdiction of Bishops." He notes:


Quote
This question was raised in the Councils of Trent and Vatican I, but it was not decided. Several authors with Victoria and Vazquez have held that the jurisdiction is given immediately by God to the individual Bishops; but generally Catholic authors with St. Thomas , St. Bonaventure, St. Robert Bellarmine and Suarez hold that jurisdiction is given to the bishops not immediately by God but mediated through the Roman Pontiff. Pius XII teaches this opinion positively in the Encyclical, Mystici Corporis, when he says: "But the Bishops so far as their own diocese is concerned . . . are not completely independent but are subject to the proper authority of the Roman Pontiff, although they enjoy ordinary power of jurisdiction received directly from the Sovereign Pontiff himself." We think that his opinion is to be preferred.


Salverri is a respected theologian and this is a respected work. He's writing after Mystici Corporis, and he says he prefers Pius XII's "opinion" that bishops get their jurisdiction from the pope.

First, doesn't that mean it's still an open question? And two, if a bishop's jurisdiction comes directly from God, what does that say about a bishop's authority to consecrate other bishops when, for example, the seat is vacant?

It would seem to me that this is an important question in the post-V2 crisis of the Church, and if in fact a heretic was (is) on the seat. You wouldn't have to get to supplied jurisdiction or some other issues to justify a Thuc or Lefebvre consecration - if you recognize the Conciliar popes as impostors and to be disregarded as per Paul IV's cuм Ex.

Having an impostor(s) on the throne would also be a situation different from a simple interregnum, when you could simply wait for the next pope. To state the obvious, this is a crisis situation without precedent  - as the Archbishop said, Tradition and the true faith with the Latin Mass could disappear.

Thoughts?

Re: A Bishop's Jurisdiction: From God, or the pope
« Reply #1 on: November 24, 2021, 01:37:08 PM »
It certainly doesn't sound like a settled matter.


Offline Ladislaus

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Re: A Bishop's Jurisdiction: From God, or the pope
« Reply #2 on: November 24, 2021, 02:32:49 PM »
I hold a combination of the views, that during the reign of a Pope, Christ supplies jurisdiction through the Pope to the bishops, but during an interregnum He supplies it directly to the bishops ... respecting the designations for authority put in place by the previous pope.  If a bishop were to pass away and another one step in his place during a lengthy interregum, I hold that Our Lord would invest him with the necessary jurisdiction on the basis of an epikeiea.  In the early Church, it happened regularly that the people of a "diocese" (or the equivalent) would designate or elect their bishop, and then bishops from neighboring cities would come to consecrate the individual ... with very little involvement from the Bishop of Rome.  That does not mean that even in those situations the jurisdiction itself did not come from Rome, at least through a tacit delegation, but nevertheless there's a distinction between the designation and election of a pope and the formal supplying of jurisdiction.  That's why in a scenario where, say, the Vatican were nuked and all the Cardinials killed, the Church could find any means necessary to designate the man they wanted to become Pope, and the power itself would be formally invested in him by God.  Election (or designation for office) can happen in a variety of ways, but only God formally invests the designee with authority (unlike with any other office in the Church).