Life without bishops

Spreaking to 110 bishops ordained over the past year, Pope Benedict reiterated their role as teachers of the faith in their dioceses. It is indeed a central dimension of the episcopal vocation to animate the joy of our Christian faith in the People of God.

A good bishop is a guide to his clergy and to the faithful of his diocese, a father in faith.

Pope Benedict called on bishops to be doctors of the faith. This they must be, but they must also be able to lead their diocese in other respects.

A bishop must be an administrator and a mediator, a personnel manager and a pastor. He must be able to give public witness to the Church’s pastoral and apostolic concerns. Ideally, he must be a consensus builder under whose leadership the diocese’s clergy and laity are united in the Church’s mission. And if he does not have all of these attributes, the bishop must have the gift of delegating wisely.

In summary, it takes an extraordinary type of man to become an accomplished bishop.

It is therefore right that the Holy See should take some time to identify and appoint suitable candidates to fill vacant episcopal positions.

It is reasonable to debate whether the present procedure in the appointment of bishops, which largely excludes the involvement of a diocese’s clergy and laity, represents the ideal way of identifying appropriate episcopal candidates. However, we must presume that the requisite care is being taken in the appointment of new bishops’ especially because it is difficult to reverse a poor choice.

Sometimes the process can take long. Sometimes it takes a little too long.

It is difficult to understand, for example, why the archdiocese of Bloemfontein, a metropolitan see, is still vacant, more than two years after its former archbishop, Buti Tlhagale, was transferred to Johannesburg (a protracted process itself).

Can it really be that in more than two years no suitable candidate could be identified inside or outside the archdiocese to become the father in faith to Bloem-fontein’s 95000 Catholics?

Likewise, it is not easy to see why no arrangement for a swift succession should be made in a case where the Holy See knows in advance that it will accept a bishop’s required resignation upon his 75th birthday.

Surely if no suitable successor can be identified, such submissions of resignation should not be accepted, and the incumbent be asked to continue in his ministry (as has happened in some Southern African dioceses).

In South Africa, one archdiocese and five dioceses are currently vacant that is almost 700000 Catholics without a resident bishop (though one, Mariannhill, is served by an auxiliary bishop, and another, Umzimkulu, is being administrated by the archbishop of Durban).

At least three other dioceses are headed by bishops over the retirement age of 75, while the bishop in another will turn 75 in within a year.

Within the next few years, these dioceses, and possibly others, will be vacant.

The episcopal function is too crucial in the life of the Church to be assigned injudiciously. At the same time, it is also too crucial for a diocese to go without.

The faithful in some of South Africa’s pastoral regions may well wonder when a balance between these two essential needs will be met.