4/20/2021
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| Giotto, "Vision of the Flaming Chariot" |
RS, in this orderly description of the hierarchical structure of the Church, gives a sort of pride of place to “The Diocesan Bishop, High Priest of his Flock.” This preeminence surpasses the due regard for the conference of bishops. This is an important ecclesiological emphasis which we cannot get into now. Not less important—indeed, I think perhaps more so—is the other emphasis of referring to the bishop as “High Priest.” Efforts to set forth the implications of an ecclesiology of the bishop as a priest could be helpful to both priests and bishops. But, alas, we’re limited, here.
In unfolding its presentation of the Church’s hierarchical order as it pertains to the liturgy, RS initially introduces the role of the Apostolic See and the Bishop. It then proceeds immediately, as has been mentioned to a consideration of the local Bishop’s role.
A quick look at the twenty-two footnotes in RS’s section on the Bishop shows citations mainly from the recent Conciliar Magisterium of the preceding Forty years.
Interestingly, RS 21 refers to a goal of the liberty foreseen by the norms of the liturgical books, namely, the intelligent adaptation of the celebration to the particulars of the local place and community. This liberty, RS goes on, provides for the accommodation of the sacred rite to human understanding. This paragraph cites a dubium from ’65. The Bishop must “take care not to allow the removal of that liberty.”
