Sunday, February 1, 2009

Tit 1, 7-8 A bishop must be hospitable, lover of goodness

(Tit 1, 7-8) A bishop must be hospitable, lover of goodness
[7] For a bishop as God's steward must be blameless, not arrogant, not irritable, not a drunkard, not aggressive, not greedy for sordid gain, [8] but hospitable, a lover of goodness, temperate, just, holy, and self-controlled,
(CCC 1558) "Episcopal consecration confers, together with the office of sanctifying, also the offices of teaching and ruling.... In fact... by the imposition of hands and through the words of the consecration, the grace of the Holy Spirit is given, and a sacred character is impressed in such wise that bishops, in an eminent and visible manner, take the place of Christ himself, teacher, shepherd, and priest, and act as his representative (in Eius persona agant)" (LG 21). "By virtue, therefore, of the Holy Spirit who has been given to them, bishops have been constituted true and authentic teachers of the faith and have been made pontiffs and pastors" (CD 2 § 2). (CCC 1583) It is true that someone validly ordained can, for a just reason, be discharged from the obligations and functions linked to ordination, or can be forbidden to exercise them; but he cannot become a layman again in the strict sense (Cf. CIC, cann. 290-293; 1336 § 1 3°, 5°, 1338 § 2; Council of Trent: DS 1774), because the character imprinted by ordination is for ever. The vocation and mission received on the day of his ordination mark him permanently. (CCC 1557) The Second Vatican Council "teaches… that the fullness of the sacrament of Holy Orders is conferred by episcopal consecration, that fullness namely which, both in the liturgical tradition of the Church and the language of the Fathers of the Church, is called the high priesthood, the acme (summa) of the sacred ministry" (LG 21 § 2).

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