Episcopal Conference

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In the Roman Catholic Church, an Episcopal Conference, Conference of Bishops, or National Conference of Bishops is a conference consisting of all the bishops within a given territory. Episcopal conferences have long existed as informal entities, but were first established as formal bodies by the Second Vatican Council (Christus Dominus, 38), and implemented by Pope Paul VI's 1966 motu proprio Ecclesiae sanctae.[1] The operation, authority, and responsibilities of episcopal conferences are currently governed by the 1983 Code of Canon Law (see especially canons 447-459).[2] The nature of episcopal conferences, and their magisterial authority in particular, was subsequently clarified by Pope John Paul II's 1998 motu proprio Apostolos suos.

Episcopal conferences are generally defined by geographic borders, with all the bishops in a given country belonging to the same conference. Certain tasks and authority are assigned to episcopal conferences, particularly with regard to setting the liturgical norms for the Mass. Episcopal conferences receive their authority under universal law or particular mandates. In certain circumstances, as defined by canon law, the decisions of an episcopal conference are subject to ratification from the Holy See. Individual bishops do not relinquish their authority to the conference, and remain responsible for the governance of their respective diocese.

[edit] Episcopal Conferences

This is a partial list of episcopal conferences:

Africa
Asia
Europe
North America
Oceania
  • Australian Catholic Bishops Conference
  • New Zealand Catholic Bishops' Conference
  • Catholic Bishops' Conference of Papua New Guinea & Solomon Islands
South America
  • Argentine Episcopal Conference
  • Conferência Nacional dos Bispos do Brasil
  • Conferencia Episcopal de Colombia
  • Conferencia Episcopal Ecuatoriana
  • Conferencia Episcopal Peruana
  • Conferencia Episcopal del Uruguay
  • Conferencia Episcopal Venezolana
Latin America

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ The Limits of the Papacy, p. 97, by Patrick Granfield, Crossroad, New York, 1987. ISBN 0-8245-0839-4
  2. ^ Pope John Paul II, Apostolos Suos, 5.

[edit] See also