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THE BISHOP IN HIS OWN DIOCESE * I. Two AsPECTs OF A BisHoP T HE Second Vatican Council was opened October 11, 1969l. An imposing cortege of more than two thousand five hundred bishops descended in silent and prayerful procession from the halls of the Vatican Palace and entered the council chamber. The figure of Pope John XXIII, seated on the gestatorial chair, closed the procession. The spectacle, presided over by the Vicar of Christ on earth, was a marvelous image of the living Church. It was the dawn of the Council. The Church was felt, alive and present. The spectacle of countless bishops, congregated around the Pope, the Supreme Shepherd, embodied the words of the Apostle: "The Holy Spirit has placed you as bishops, to rule the Church of God." 1 They are the successors of the Apostles, whom Christ made continuators and ministers of His work.2 This is what they have always done. It is what they assembled to do, summoned by the Vicar of Christ to an Ecumenical Council. Nevertheless, no one had previously taken part in an episcopal assembly of this kind, because, as it is well known, the last Ecumenical Council was the First Vatican Council, interrupted in 1870.3 It was, therefore, the first time they took part in a council. But almost all brought with them their pastoral experience, an experience in knowing how to govern * Translated by F. C. Lehner, 0. P. 1 Acts 20: 28. • " Christus fuit in lumen et salutem gentium per discipulos suos, quos ad praedicandum gentibus misit" (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae, lila, q. 42, a. 1, ad I) . And in the answer to the second objection, he appraises this fact in the following way: " non est minoris potestatis, sed maioris, facere aliquid per alios, quam per seipsum. Et ideo in hoc maxime potestas divina in Christo monstrata est, quod discipulis suis tantam virtutem contulit in docendo, ut gentes quae nihil de Christo audierant, converterent ad ipsum." 3 Cf. H. Jedin, Breve historia de los Concilios. Barcelona: Herder, 1960, pp. 150151 . ~36 THE BISHOP IN HIS OWN DIOCESE ~37 their dioceses, since most of them have spent the best years of their lives at the head of their respective dioceses. In fact, this consideration makes us logically think about a bishop in two dimensions, namely, the collective and the individual . Both episcopal dimensions can be explained and expressed in the following formulae: (1) Regere ecclesiam suam, that is, "his diocese"; 4 and (~) Regere Ecclesiam Dei, that is, the entire Church, as regards the members of the college or corpus episcoporum, the head of which is the Pope.5 This second, or ecumenical and universal, function affects the whole Mystical Body in its earthly and temporal aspect; and a council is the outstanding instance of this greater function . The first, or local and diocesan, function cannot be disassociated from the essence and global life of the Church, but there is no doubt that it has its own unique and proper value within the bounds of the diocese. The spectator at the inaugural act of the Second Vatican Council intuitively recognized that twofold dimension of the episcopacy. The bisheps, congregating around the Pope, manifest the universal dimension of the episcopacy; and yet in their ethnic differences one immediately recognizes the places of their origin, their nationality, their dioceses. In his own diocese , through long years of solicitude and vigilance, the bishop actually fulfills the mission which we have termed "local." While the Christian world awaits the Acta of the Second Vatican Council, we are going to focus our attention on that silent and modest aspect, the role of the bishop. We are going to view and study him in his " local mission," at the head of his particular church or diocese. The concrete theme about "the bishop in his diocese " implies four elemental questions according to both the methodological and factual meanings of the terms: What is a diocese? What is the bishop's role? What role does a bishop play in his diocese? Will the Second Vatican Council speak about the • CIC.: can. 3~9, § 1. • CIC.: can. ~~8 and ~~8. 238 ALVARO HUERGA diocese and the role of...

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