Posted on 11/10/2006 5:09:52 PM PST by Salvation
No, hwew ia list of dioceses in the United States:
A diocese has a bishop and an archdiocese has an archbishop. I think the connotation has to do with population.
Yuck. Our bishop actually DID cut the "Social Justice" office. And he's even pretty left-wing, politically, so the fact that he saw through it and had the nerve to do this is impressive. Good luck.
Generally, every diocese is part of an archdiocese. It's a territorial thing. St. Patrick was made archbishop of Ireland (in the 5th century) without even setting foot there and before there were any Christians there. During his missionary activities, he established dioceses all over Ireland. The bishop is the representative of the Apostles, and all bishops have a "pedigree" that can be traced back to a particular apostle (or could have been, until a fire in Rome in the 16th century destroyed the archives). A bishop is consecrated by a bishop, who in turn was consecrated by another bishop, etc., all the way back to the Apostle who consecrated the first bishop in his line. Bishops even have a certificate attesting to their line of consecration, although, as I noted, in the West it now only traces it back to the destruction of the archives.
One of the problems with Vatican II was its vagueness. It was not a doctrinal council, and many of the statements that came out of it were sort of eyewash, with the result being that they can be interpreted any way you want. I think the current Pope wants to get a grip on this. It's very dangerous and has led to some awful problems in the last nearly 45 years.
It's because fallen man has a natural tendency to bureaucracy. They just forgot to mention that in Genesis.
For next week's second collection, we are being asked to contribute to the Bishops' poverty project. I will not be contributing, as I do not intend to fund their help of illegals.
Over the summer, our Archdiocese asked us to pledge a certain amount to be paid over many months. Although I had donated a fair amount the previous year, my eyes have been opened by the Bishops' Council's support of illegals. I told them as much when I sent a letter to let them know that I would not be contributing this year.
Good responses. You have a good bishop, fighting silly bureaucracies - which diocese are you in?
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