Ahhh, Bishops . . . by Bevil Bramwell, OMI

By Bevil Bramwell, OMI, The Catholic Thing, August 11, 2019

Up on the Rock of Cashel in Ireland, there is the ruin of a bishop’s stronghold. Someone once said to me there: “They always take care of themselves.” They were the bishops. At the time of the apostles, bishops were poor and lived risky lives. Yet with the Edict of Milan (313), bishops became state officials as well, controlling lands and towns and provinces. They gained civil dignities and stipends. They were barons and lords.

Nothing in the way they were originally constituted said that they ought to behave in this way. They went along with the culture instead of witnessing to it.  Not all bishops do this, but enough do to make their rate of consumption and longing for class a problem for the Church’s presence in the world.

Bishop’s residences can be a huge problem. Again, some live in modest houses, but for the rest, the houses are a massive counter-witness to the official work of the Church. The Church is a witnessing body. It is a series of corporations for legal purposes. More importantly, the Church is fundamentally a witness of Jesus Christ in the world. Which does not entail having lots of money or a higher social status. ….

Read more at  https://www.thecatholicthing.org