Diocese

“ This representative body legislates for the whole Church. Each diocese also has its own constitution and canons, by which it regulates its internal affairs, having also an annual diocesan convention, in which the clergy and laity are represented. A bishop is elected by the diocese, subject to confirmation by a majority of the bishops and standing committees of the different dioceses. ”

“ The Diocesan centre of Church work, in which the Bishop finds his seat and Altar in the Mother Church of his Diocese There he can be at the head of all kinds of Diocesan Societies which organize and carry out work in which all parishes share, but which they cannot themselves undertake. There he has his diocesan officers, canons, missioners, and lay-helpers. There, too, he is in his own church, which is his own in a sense that no pro-cathedral parish church can be. This is fortunately the ideal which our Cathedral Constitution, as laid down by Diocesan Statute, had in mind. ”

“ As a place of public gathering the parish church held an important place in the life of the Middle Ages.
BISHOPS A group of parishes formed a diocese, over which a bishop presided. It was his business to look after the property belonging to the diocese, to hold the ecclesiastical courts, to visit the clergy, and to see that they did their duty. The bishop alone could administer the sacraments of Confirmation and Ordination. He also performed the ceremonies at the consecration of a new church edifice or shrine. ”

“ It is the whole people of a diocese stretching from the Humber to the Thames, which by representation has assembled in the mother church to listen to their bishop’s fatherly exhortations, and to join with him in a united service of worship of Almighty God. ”

“ So here, in this realm of England, speaking nationally, there is but one Church, over which the archbishops of Canterbury and York, with their suffragans, preside: and in each diocese there is only that one Church, over which the diocesan presides, a branch of the national Church, as the national is a branch of the universal Church: and again, in each parish there is but one Church, forming a branch of the diocesan Church, over which the parochial minister presides. ”

“ It is only when we find that a single diocese furnishes the names of two or three canonised bishops, or when a name appears in gold in the calendar which had no special importance for the whole of the country, but must have had a particular interest in one city or diocese, that we can begin to think of special attributions. ”

“ The Diocese embraces all the people within its limits and for them all it has a message and a blessing. For the deliverance of this message and the bestowal of this blessing all, both Clergy and Laity, have responsibilities and therefore the Church turns to them for the means whereby this work can be carried on. The support of Diocesan Missions is as obligatory on all members of the Church as the support of the Bishop or their own Parish, and to this all will contribute annually if they love the Lord Jesus in sincerity and truth. ”

“ Each bishop had his especial church, which was called a cathedral, and usually surpassed the other churches of the diocese in size and beauty.
Duties of a Bishop.
Only a bishop could ordain new members of the clergy or degrade the old. He alone could consecrate churches or [Pg 207] anoint kings. He alone could perform the sacrament of confirmation, though as priest he might administer any of the other sacraments. [137] Aside from his purely religious duties, he was the overseer of all the churchmen in his diocese, including the monks. ”

“ A body of forty or fifty clergymen, the pick of the diocese, partly resident at the cathedral, partly elsewhere, might be trusted to do many things which an oligarchy of four or five cannot be trusted to do. ”

“ Succeeding to a well-administered diocese, without the problem of an increasing population, he was able to devote much of his time to the general policy of the church. Possessed of a strong will and unfailing memory, combined with a genuine interest in the work of his clergy and an ample generosity, he fully exerted his authority. ”

“ The bishops thereupon either summon directly the clergy of their respective dioceses to appear before them or their commissaries to elect two proctors, or they send a citation to their archdeacons, according to the custom of the diocese, directing them to summon the clergy of their respective archdeaconries to elect a proctor. ”

“ Newbold murmured.
“It was at any rate not for my own sake that I refused to have an assistant,” the Bishop went on. “If I could have trusted the choice of my clergy! It is easy and natural, to choose the most popular, the most prominent. A bishop’s diocese is dearer than perhaps any one of his [Pg 44] clergy can understand. It is my little piece of God’s world, it is my Westbury in large. ”

“ See it filled now, with the bishop on the stone throne opposite the entrance, and the dignitaries of the cathedral and the archdeacons seated to right and left of him, and the whole area crowded with the [Pg 358] clergy and synodsmen; it is the people of his diocese—the clergy in person, the laity by their representatives—come to report themselves to their bishop, to submit themselves to his jurisdiction, to receive his admonitions and counsels. The House of Lords is a rather depressing spectacle to the visitor who gazes on its empty grandeur ”

“ Those who make common diocesan or monastic goods, unless they restore to the bishop or superior the things belonging to the diocese or monastery, the whole proceeding shall be null. If they are persons in Holy Orders they shall be deposed, but if laymen or monks they shall be cast out. ”

“ The crowd, in overwhelming magnitude, rolled around to the door; and while the aforesaid episcopal band were sprinkling the walls with hyssop, the king and his nobles drive them back, repress them, guard the portals.'
Yet the principal actor on the occasion was the bishop of the diocese. The thirty-sixth canon of the second Council of Aries decrees, 'If a bishop be minded to build a church in another diocese, let its dedication be reserved for the diocesan.' S. Columbanus, being only a priest, dedicated the church of S. Aurelia (Walfrid. Strabo. Vita S. Gallo, cap. vi) . ”

“ And by Canon 51, “the deans, presidents, and residentiaries of any cathedral or collegiate church, shall suffer no stranger to preach unto the people in their churches, except they be allowed by the archbishop of the province, or by the bishop of the same diocese, or by either of the universities. ”

“ We need the Church, for faith, for courage, for guidance. The Diocese needs this Parish—its loyalty—its support—its fellowship—as we need the Diocese. The City needs this Church. You will never forget, will you, the Vision, and the power that came with it, that Mr. Stein gave us forty years ago, viz;—that the Church is the Body of Christ, not a club, to minister, and not to be ministered to. The people all about us, the whole city, are our concern, to bring them the Gospel of Christ. So, I pray God you will go forward into the new day with high faith and enthusiasm. ”

“ Properly speaking the Diocese is the real unit of Church life. Originally the Bishop went first in the establishing of the Church in any nation or country; out of this Jurisdiction grew the parishes or local congregation, being ministered to by the Priests {82} under the Bishop. ”

“ When it is remembered that the state of things described in the above remarks existed in the great University diocese, which was presumably in advance rather than behind the age, and that, moreover, the clergy were presided over by a man who was thoroughly earnest and conscientious, and yet that he can only hint in the most delicate way at improvements which, as the tone of his exhortation evidently shows, he hardly hoped would be carried out, it may be imagined what was the condition of parishes in less favoured and more remote dioceses. ”

“ But a priest travelling (peregrinus) should recite the office according to the calendar of the church to which he is attached regularly, but the obligation of following the calendar of his home church was not binding by a grave precept. A reply of the Sacred Congregation of Rites (Nov., 1831) arranged (1) that beneficed clergy are always bound to recite the office of their own proper church or diocese; (2) that simple priests may read either the office as arranged for the place they tarry in or travel in, or the office of their own home diocese ”

“ Of late years many immigrants, Italians, Poles, Slavonians, and Lithuanians have come to the diocese, working in the coal mines that are everywhere opening, and taxing the energy of several of the clergy to their utmost capacity. The population of the diocese is 751,107, of which number 75,000 are Catholics. ”

“ The reader will find in these two works an exposition of the diverse statutes of the Catholic Church in other countries. Each of these statutes differs from ours in one or several important articles; the fixed, or even territorial, endowment of the clergy, the nomination to the episcopate by the chapter, or by the clergy of the diocese, or by the bishops of the province, public competition for curacies, irremovability, participation of the chapter in the government of the diocese, restoration of the officialité ”

“ It is a great misfortune to the Church of England that her dioceses, compared with the population, are so extensive and so few. It is impossible for our bishops to perform all their canonical duties, such as visiting annually every parish in the diocese, inspecting schools, Divine service, instruction, &c., besides baptizing, confirming, consecrating. ”

“ The Visitation is the personal inspection of institutions, churches, religious establishments and their personnel, to correct abuses and enforce the observation of rules. Through this The Visitation. Congregation the pope, as bishop of Rome, made the inspection of his diocese; it is for this reason that he was president of this commission, the most important member of which was the cardinal vicar. He takes the place of the pope in the administration of the diocese of Rome; he has his own offices and diocesan assistants as in other bishoprics. ”

“ I do not doubt that it is pleasing to the charity of you all, that he who was ordained for a diocese by the consent of the bishop who held the mother see, should retain only the people for whom he was ordained. ”

“ The Fathers of that Council had already formally recognised the grand evils of the age, which cried for a remedy, to be the want of sound religious instruction among the people and of theological science among the clergy. And a decree had been passed directing the bishops in each diocese to choose persons capable of preaching and instructing the people who were to be employed in this office; and requiring that certain learned men should be appointed in all churches, whether cathedral or conventual, to assist the bishops in preaching the Word of God and administering the Sacraments. ”

“ The diocese has made considerable progress under his administration. It contains 40 priests, 36 churches, 4 chapels, and 68 stations. There are 11 convents, an academy, 10 parochial schools, and 2 orphan asylums. The Catholic population is about 40,000. ”

“ The Churchwarden or Questmen of every parish, and two or three or more discreet persons in every parish, to be chosen for Sidemen or Assistants by the Minister and parishioners, if they can agree (otherwise to be appointed by the Ordinary of the diocese) , shall diligently see that all the parishioners duly resort to their Church upon all Sundays and Holy-days, and there continue the whole time of Divine Service; and none to walk or to stand idle or talking in the Church, or in the Churchyard, or in the Church-porch, during that time. ”

“ Even when old, he draws on his energies; he officiates, he preaches, he presides at long ceremonies, he ordains seminarians, he confirms thousands of children,5251 he visits one after another the parishes in his diocese; often, at the end of his administration, he has visited them all and many times. ”

“ Missionary literature receives its life, vigour and impulse from the field-organizer and continues his work in his absence.
2. Action. To realize that vision and incarnate it in work for the Home and Foreign Missions, the Field-secretary will take the diocese as a unit of his organization. In each diocese, with the permission, authority, and co-operation of the Ordinary, he will establish the Societies recommended by our Holy Father in his Apostolic Letter, and others that have been created to meet the specific needs of the country or to favour certain particular missionary work. ”

“ We rejoice to hear of the vigorous life which the Church in your diocese has manifested in the remarkable growth which the past century has seen it make. We pray that it may continue to receive God's blessing in rich abundance, and bring forth much fruit to His glory.
We have a lively sense at the same time of our Lord's great mercy to ourselves in lifting us up from our poor and despised estate, in bringing us to comparative honour, and comforting us on every side. ”

“ It is quite clear that those words contemplate that there are or may be persons who ' shall pretend to be priests, &c.,' and shall 'have ecclesiastical living' in some diocese 'by reason of some other form of consecration or ordering' than the one contained in the Book of Common Prayer, and to such persons the Act prescribes, not re-ordaining, but that they shall, in the presence of the ordinary, declare and subscribe their assent to the Articles. ”

“ These titles are generally assigned to bishops appointed to Apostolic Delegations, Vicariates and Prefectures, or to the office of coadjutor, auxiliary or administrator of a diocese. (See Archbishop and Bishop.)
The dioceses are divided into parishes, variously grouped, the most usual organization being that of deaneries. In the parish the authority of the Church is brought into intimate touch with the daily life of the people. The main duties of the parish priest are to offer the sacrifice of the mass (q.v.) ”