Bishops

I know some of you went to St. Paul's Cathedral last year, but did you know that its actually the second Cathedral in the diocese of Pittsburgh? It goes without saying that the Cathedral is the main Church in the diocese, and its also pretty well known that a cathedral is the bishop's Church.

I think a lot of times we think that the bishop is just a special kind of priest, the one in charge of the diocese and the one that reports to the Pope. This is actually untrue. You do have to be a priest to become a bishop, but a bishop something different than a priest, not just a priest plus.

To understand why this is the case we have to back to the apostles. After Jesus sent them out, the apostles established Churches all over the ancient world, and they set up bishops to be in charge. We know this because we have some of the letters that these very early bishops wrote. The bishops saw themselves as carrying on the work of the apostles after they died, and not as priests with some extra abilities. The bishops provide a line that stretches all the way back to Jesus (this is one of the nice things about Catholicism, history backs up many of our beliefs).

In fact, this situation with bishops is part of the reason the Pope is so important. The Pope isn't something other than a bishop. He's a bishop, but because he is the bishop that was appointed by the leader of the apostles, St. Peter, he has a special role to play in the Church. Just like Peter was able to coordinate where the apostles went and what they taught, the Pope helps organize the Church and makes sure everybody is on the same page.