The Basic Hierarchy of the Church

A while back, I was asked about how the hierarchy of the Church works. We as Catholics sometimes hear the terms that are thrown around and we know them, but we don’t always know how it works. For the clergy, we know about deacons, priests, and bishops, but there are different titles that are also used, like pastor, parochial vicar, associate pastor, arch-bishop, etc. For the priest, there are a few terms, while I am a priest, I am also the pastor here at St. Luke’s. This means that in the end, I am responsible for the parish and the care of the Sacraments here. I also have final say in the decisions that happen here, yes, I do rely on the committees that we have to help me make those decisions. Fr Ryan is the associate, or parochial vicar, which pretty much mean the same thing. This means that he is a help to me and one who assists me in this duty of the parish as well as performing his priestly duties of the care of the Sacraments. Some of the other priests of the diocese have the title of Monsignor, this is an honorary title given to them, it does not hold any other duty, but is given to a priest who has distinguished himself in the service of the Church.

Each diocese has a bishop in charge of it and is also called an “Ordinary” and this comes from the fact that he has ordinary powers, authority, and care of the people within the diocese. The authority for both Fr. Ryan and I to perform the Sacraments comes from the “Ordinary” of the diocese. Not all bishops are Ordinaries, there are Auxiliary Bishops as well, these are priests who have been ordained a bishop, but are not in charge of a diocese, but help out in a very large diocese, for example, the Archdiocese of Chicago has a Cardinal Arch-Bishop and 6 Auxiliary Bishops. To be ordained a bishop, a priest would be recommended to Rome for ordination, and then the recommendation gets researched and then the Holy Father makes the final decision. The bishop is the one who is the shepherd of all of the people within the diocese and is like the pastor, but the pastor of the entire diocese. Another title you will hear is Arch-bishop, and that is given to a bishop of an Arch-Diocese, which is a diocese of special significance, the Arch-Diocese for Des Moines is Dubuque. The Arch-bishop does not really hold any authority over the other bishops, but is because of the special significance of the diocese. You will also hear the title of Cardinal, and this is given to bishops of diocese of special significance or size, the closest Cardinal is Cardinal Cupich of Chicago. Currently, there are seven active Cardinals in the United States. One of the benefits of being a Cardinal, is that as long as they are under the age of 80, they vote on who will be the next Pope. Now, there are many other titles that we have within the Church, but most of them you will not come across around here, but mostly in Rome and other parts of the world. Keep all of us clergy in your prayers.

God bless,
Fr. Ken