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Covering the Local Church
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the Archdiocese of Santa Fe’s Catholic center is located in Albuquerque, N.M.;
the chancery office of the Diocese of Baker, Ore., is located in Bend.
The way diocesan offices are structured varies widely from one diocese to
the next. But there are some offices every diocese must have by church law,
such that vicar general, chancellor, finance office and a tribunal; and there
are some offices that virtually every diocese needs as a practical matter, such
as offices for Catholic schools, religious education or catechetics, Catholic
Charities or social services, and liturgy or worship.
Bishop
The bishop who heads a diocese is called the
diocesan bishop
. He is the chief
legislator, executive and judge in the diocese. He alone can legislate. He can
exercise executive power personally or through vicars general or episcopal
vicars. He can exercise judicial power personally or through a judicial vicar
and judges.
If the diocesan bishop has other bishops assisting him, they are called
auxiliary bishops
. In some circumstances, especially if he has health problems
that limit his ministry or if he is nearing retirement, a diocesan bishop may
ask for a coadjutor. A
coadjutor bishop
has right of succession; that is, upon
the death or retirement of the diocesan bishop, the coadjutor immediately
becomes the new diocesan bishop. Auxiliary bishops do not have the right of
succession.
Auxiliary bishops always have the title of bishop—
Auxiliary Bishop John
Smith
,
Bishop Smith
—whether they serve in a diocese or archdiocese. When
a coadjutor is appointed to an archdiocese, however, he has the title of arch-
bishop:
Coadjutor Archbishop John Smith
,
Archbishop Smith
.
Vicar General and Episcopal Vicars
The bishop’s chief administrative aide, the
vicar general
must be a priest or
bishop, ordinarily with a licentiate or doctorate in canon law or theology.
Small dioceses typically have only one, but larger dioceses may have several. A
vicar general has the same ordinary executive powers over the whole diocese
as the diocesan bishop, with the exception of those powers the bishop has
reserved to himself and those reserved to the bishop alone by church law.
Ordinarily the priest or bishop designated as moderator of the curia is also
a vicar general. If there is a coadjutor bishop, church law says he is to be made a
vicar general. If there is an auxiliary bishop, he is to be made a vicar general.