Question by Nana Kwame Ofori:
“My Lord, I would like to ask the following questions:
- In the event of a diocese becoming vacant, whose name should be mentioned in the Eucharistic Prayer in the place where the name of the local ordinary is normally mentioned?
- When an Apostolic Administrator or a Diocesan Administrator is appointed for a vacant Archdiocese or Diocese, and then later, a substantive Local Ordinary is appointed for that vacant Archdiocese or Diocese, prior to his taking Canonical Possession, whose name should be used in the Eucharistic Prayer? Should the name of the Bishop Elect, or the Apostolic Administrator or Diocesan Administrator or both the Bishop Elect and the Apostolic Administrator or Diocesan Administrator be used? If both should be mentioned, would it not appear as if two people are in charge of one Archdiocese or Diocese at the same time? It becomes a little confusing and complicated, especially when the Bishop Elect, is already a Local Ordinary, who should be prayed for in the Diocese from which he is being transferred”.
Answer:
Question 1 deals with the name of the bishop that should be mentioned when a diocese becomes vacant. When a diocesan bishop resigns or is transferred to another diocese, or is removed by Rome or dies, the seat becomes vacant (cf. canon 416). This is what is meant by sede vacante in Latin. In that case, an administrator is normally appointed to take charge of the diocese from that time until a new bishop is appointed. If the administrator is a priest, he is referred to as “Diocesan Administrator”. According to Canon 421 §1, “Within eight days of receiving notification of the vacancy of an Episcopal see, a diocesan Administrator is to be elected by the college of consultors, to govern the diocese for the time being…”.
In some cases, the Pope, having full governmental power, can pre-empt this choice of a Diocesan Administrator who is a priest and appoint an Apostolic Administrator instead. Sometimes a retiring, promoted or transferred archbishop or bishop is designated to be Apostolic Administrator until his successor is appointed and takes office; sometimes the Metropolitan or a fellow suffragan bishop is appointed. Until a new bishop is appointed and takes canonical possession of the diocese, the administrator bishop (Apostolic Administrator) remains the connection within the apostolic communion, not because he is administrator (because a priest could be appointed administrator) but because he is successor to the Apostles as bishop. The title “Apostolic Administrator” is not a liturgical title, nor does it have any bearing on his ability to be a source of communion, which comes rather from his ordination as bishop.
Whose Name is mentioned in the Eucharistic Prayer?
The name of a “Diocesan Administrator” who is a priest is not mentioned in place of the local ordinary bishop. The Apostolic Administrator, on the other hand, is named in the Eucharistic Prayer as “N. our Bishop”. It needs to be pointed out that in mentioning the name of the bishop during the Eucharistic Prayer, it is only the first name that is mentioned. Thus, in the case of the Archdiocese of Accra now, it will be “Charles our Bishop”. The full name “Charles Gabriel Palmer-Buckle” should not be given at this point. Other distinctions are not applied within the Eucharistic Prayer; thus, it is never “Charles our Archbishop”, or, in the case of Cape Coast when Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson was there, “Peter, our Cardinal”; neither should we say in the case of Accra Archdiocese now, “Charles, our Apostolic Administrator”. It should simply be “Charles our bishop”; (in the case of Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, it would have been “Peter our Bishop”). Eventually, when Most Rev. John Bonaventure Kwofie takes canonical possession of the Accra Archdiocese, his name will be mentioned in the Eucharistic Prayer as “John our bishop”.
It should be noted also that it is permitted (though not required) to mention a Coadjutor Bishop and/or Auxiliary Bishop in the Eucharistic Prayer, but not other Bishops who happen to be present at that particular celebration of the Mass. When several are to be mentioned, this is done with the collective formula: “N., our Bishop and his assistant Bishops”. A resident Bishop Emeritus is not mentioned in the Eucharistic Prayer.
With regard to Question 2, when a new bishop or archbishop is appointed, his name is not mentioned in the Eucharistic Prayer until after he has taken canonical possession of the diocese or archdiocese. We must remember that at any given time, there is only one bishop or archbishop in a diocese or archdiocese, and it is his name that should be mentioned in the Eucharistic Prayer. Thus, in the case of the Archdiocese of Accra, it is the (first) name of Most Rev. Charles Gabriel Palmer-Buckle, who is currently the Apostolic Administrator, that should be mentioned until Archbishop-Elect, Most Rev. John Bonaventure Kwofie, has taken canonical possession of the Archdiocese of Accra and has been installed on 1 March 2019. In the meanwhile, it will not be correct to mention the names of both Archbishop Palmer-Buckle and Archbishop-Elect John Bonaventure Kwofie in the Eucharistic Prayer. As has been said above, there is only one bishop or archbishop at any given time in any diocese or archdiocese. It needs to be pointed out also that as soon as Most Rev. John Bonaventure Kwofie takes canonical possession of Accra, his name will not be mentioned any longer in the Eucharistic Prayer said in the Sekondi-Takoradi Diocese.