Question by Abugri Gideon, Kumasi Archdiocese:
My Lord Bishop, according to the law of the Church, auxiliary bishops do not have any right of succession; it is only coadjutor bishops who do. However, I learnt that Bishop Emeritus Francis Anani Lodonu of Ho, Archbishop Emeritus Matthias Nketsiah of Cape Coast and the late Bishop Oliver Bowers of Accra were auxiliary bishops. How come they became bishops of their dioceses automatically?
Answer:
In an earlier write-up on auxiliary bishops, I said that while coadjutor bishops have the automatic right of succession in the event of an episcopal see (diocese) becoming vacant, auxiliary bishops do not have that right. Let me quote the relevant canons here:
Can. 409 §1. When the episcopal see is vacant, the coadjutor bishop immediately becomes the bishop of the diocese for which he had been appointed provided that he has legitimately taken possession of it.
§2. When the episcopal see is vacant and unless competent authority has established otherwise, an auxiliary bishop preserves all and only those powers and faculties which he possessed as vicar general or episcopal vicar while the see was filled until a new bishop has taken possession of the see. If he has not been designated to the function of diocesan administrator, he is to exercise this same power, conferred by law, under the authority of the diocesan administrator who presides over the governance of the diocese.
It is clear from Can. 409 §1 that it is only the co-adjutor bishop who has the right of succession. It is also clear from Can. 409 §2 that an auxiliary bishop keeps only those powers and faculties which he had as an auxiliary bishop until a new bishop has been appointed. This, however, does not mean that an auxiliary bishop cannot be appointed by Rome to become the bishop of a diocese. In the examples given above from Ghana, they were all auxiliary bishops and they were made bishops of their respective dioceses. However, since they were not co-adjutors, they did not have the automatic right of succession, even though Rome found them worthy to make them bishops of their respective dioceses when there was a vacancy. They did not enjoy automatic succession as a coadjutor would do. They had to be appointed bishops of those dioceses by Rome even though they were auxiliary bishops in those dioceses.
Let me give an example from elsewhere. In big dioceses in Europe and the United States, for example, the incumbent bishop or archbishop may have a number of auxiliaries. In New York, for instance, there are five active auxiliary bishops. If the incumbent archbishop (Cardinal) retires or dies, it is not automatic that one of the auxiliary bishops will be chosen to be the new Archbishop. Rome could choose one of them but does not have to, especially if none of them is a co-adjutor. Rome can transfer a bishop from another diocese and make him the Archbishop of New York, even though there are five auxiliary bishops there!
| For further explanations or enquiries, you may contact the author, Most Rev. Joseph Osei-Bonsu, Catholic Bishop of Konongo-Mampong, on this number: 0244488904, or on WhatsApp (with the same number). |