CONCERNS ABOUT ‘SHARING THE CONCERNS’: A CRITICAL RE-EXAMINATION OF THE OFFICE OF AUXILIARY BISHOP

Abstract

Of the Second Vatican Council’s sixteen major documents, only one, Christus Dominus, speaks about the office of auxiliary bishop, and when it does, it argues that, primarily, these bishops “are called to share the concerns of the diocesan bishop.” Even at the council, though, objections that the proliferation of auxiliary bishops undermined the principle of the mono-episcopacy, caused cultural confusion, were sacramentally unnecessary, and did ecumenical damage, arose from multiple quarters. This article retrieves these interventions and undertakes a critical re-examination of the office of auxiliary bishop. What comes to light leads to three concrete proposals: first, the practice of ordaining priests to become auxiliary bishops ought to be suspended for at least a set period of time, and perhaps indefinitely; second, clear criteria for dividing large dioceses into smaller ones need to be established and utilized; and third, the function of “sharing the concerns” should be performed by a “kitchen cabinet” composed primarily of laity who must support and partner with the diocesan bishop in his ministry of episkopē.