This article explores the historical relationship between the power of orders and the power of governance within the Catholic Church. It details how the Second Vatican Council established a strong link between these powers, requiring cardinals to be ordained archbishops. Pope Francis' recent constitution, Praedicate Evangelium, has broken with this tradition, allowing laypeople to lead dicasteries within the Curia.
Throughout history, there has been a broad, complex, and sometimes controversial reflection on the relationship between the power of orders, which is received with ordination and which enables one to administer certain sacraments — such as presiding over the Eucharist — and the power of governance,Philadelphia archbishop unveils new evangelisation plan with 50 ‘missionary hubs’
For a long time, it was believed that the two powers were distinct and that it was possible to exercise them separately — St Thomas Aquinas shared this position, too. In the past, some abbots had not even been ordained priests and governed an ecclesiastical district, or there were figures who seem strange to us but who responded to this logic, such as the so-called bishops-elect, who governed dioceses without receiving episcopal consecration but did so because of their election. Other examples include the so-called mitered abbesses, “women with the pastoral staff,” who exercised their authority over a territory and the faithful.
Vatican II authoritatively reiterated that the episcopate is a sacrament and that by episcopal consecration, one becomes part of the College of Bishops, which, together with and under the authority of the pope, is the subject of supreme power over the entire Church.
Vatican Curia Pope Francis Holy Orders Governance Second Vatican Council
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