Rome to rein in bishops' conferences

by Viviane Hewitt
AS theologians continue their work on a document which will define the status of episcopal conferences, remarks by a leading Vatican consultant suggest that the Pope will be using the text to limit the powers of the international bishops' conferences.
Fr Umberto Betti, rector of the Pontifical Lateran University and consultant to the Vatican Secretariat of State, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Congregation for Bishops, told a meeting of southern Italian bishops this week that "the episcopal conference is and will remain outside the Church's constitution".
In a speech that was seen to issue a warning to the more progressive bishops' conferences, such as the one in the US, Fr Betti declared that the "divine right" of bishops could not be "transferred" to the bishops' conference to which they belong.
Observers suggested that Fr Betti's address to the gathering of bishops was an indication of the tone that the paper on episcopal conference powers, scheduled for publication later this spring, was likely to adopt.
"The episcopal conference has no dogmatic foundation proper and so it is not a divinely instituted structure," Fr Betti said.
He further diminished the role of conferences by saying that they were "not necessary to the completeness of the divine constitution of the Church".
A bishops' conference existed and operated exclusively for the "fulfilment of the Church's mission of salvation". Its sole goal was to foster "inter-Church association through its bishop members and in sectors pertinent to episcopal ministry." he said.
It is known that the Vatican does not regard theology as an area pertinent to the episcopal ministry and it is believed that the new paper will focus on drawing a clear boundary for conference activities with the aim of pulling wayward bishops' assemblies into line.
Fr Betti said that episcopal conference decisions were only binding when they were supported by one of the three higher authorities — a Council. the Apostolic See itself or the Code of Canon Law.
In all other cases. "the decisions of conferences are not decisions proper and they are not binding in themselves."