The Interaction Between Diocesan Bishops and the Roman Pontiff

Abstract

The author examines the role of the Roman Pontiff in keeping up the communion with the diocesan bishops in the Church. In his article entitled   “The Interaction between Diocesan Bishops and the Roman Pontiff,” he elaborates on the interaction between diocesan bishops and the Roman Pontiff in the Code of Canon Law 1983 (CIC). In his argument, he correlates a diocesan bishop’s ordinary, proper and immediate power with that of the Supreme Pontiff having supreme, full, immediate, and universal ordinary power.  He describes that the Roman Pontiff not only has power over the universal Church but also has pre-eminent ordinary power over all dioceses and their groupings.  This reinforces and defends the proper, ordinary, and immediate power which the bishops have in the dioceses entrusted to their care. The bishops are available to the Roman Pontiff in the exercise of his office, to cooperate with him in various ways, among which is the synod bishops.