Bishop or Archbishop?

Icemoon SG

I wonder who is higher in the hierarchy.

The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, Augustine was Bishop of Hippo etc. but how come our bishop is called archbishop?

Gasfene SG

bishop higher.

ours not fit to be bishop

Kuali Baba SG

Our archdiocese isn’t large enough to be called a diocese, hence we have an archbishop instead of a bishop.

Icemoon SG

then anglican is the other way? their boss is archbishop of cantebury.

Icemoon SG

doesn't make sense in english.

if I ask you, angel or archangel higher in hierarchy?

Kuali Baba SG

I'm somewhat mistaken...after checking Catholic Encyclopedia and Wiki, I learnt that an archdiocese represents a particularly significant diocese, and an archbishop is indeed an elevated bishop. Embarassed

Icemoon SG

wah .. so elevated .. higher than Augustine siah. Laughing

Icemoon SG

Singapore is significant diocese? Laughing

It is just a small red dot for goodness sake.

Kuali Baba SG

Maybe not in size, but perhaps in terms of geography, proportion or history? Razz

It's a good question, and I'll post it to veritas.org.sg.

Icemoon SG

You must emphasize, even the Pope is traditionally called the Bishop of Rome only. Mr. Green

Kuali Baba SG

Strangely though, Rome is considered a metropolitan archdiocese. Razz Maybe the title of Bishop wasn't renamed because of tradition, but that's just my conjecture. He still holds the titles of Pope, Supreme Pontiff and Vicar of Christ anyway.

Kuali Baba SG

I got the reply today:

"This was due to the historical development of the diocese. We were part of the Archdiocese of Malacca-Singapore with the bishop being based here.

Roughly speaking, after we split from Malacca, it was not the norm to 'downgrade' the bishop's see and so the designation of 'archdiocese' remains.

Please see here for some details: http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/dsngp.html

Regards,
Veritas Webmaster"

ObiterDicta SG

Wah, I didn't know that the Veritas service is used for trivial pursuit.

ObiterDicta SG

Perhaps this will go some ways towards answering you:

"Besides the bishopric of the Roman Diocese, certain other dignities are held by the pope as well as the supreme and universal pastorate: he is Archbishop of the Roman Province, Primate of Italy and the adjacent islands, and sole Patriarch of the Western Church."

From the Catholic Encyclopedia.

Icemoon SG

i suppose they have nothing else to do anyway.

ObiterDicta SG

I happen to be on the team running the service. We are all volunteers who have regular jobs. And some of us serve in multiple ministries within the Church. So it is definitely not the case of us having nothing else to do.

Icemoon SG

Opps .. so it is staffed by volunteers. Embarassed

I thought priests answer those questions. Then if nobody sends in questions, it might seem nobody is interested in the Catholic faith.

ObiterDicta SG

Well, even if the service were run by priests, we still can't say that 'they have nothing else to do', since priests are so swamped with work.

The unfortunate fact in the Catholic Church is that there is a constant shortage of people willing to serve in ministries, so that volunteers often have multiple roles.

And I am sad to say that the Church in Singapore is filled with people who think that the Church owes them a big favour by the mere fact that they are Catholics. The 'ugly Singaporean' syndrome manifests itself rather starkly in an ecclesial context.

Rolling Eyes

Icemoon SG

Actually what do priests do beside conducting Mass and hearing confessions?

Catholic Church commitment very sin nang liao compared to Protestant churches. Mass is only 1 hour and from what I can see, there are less ministries to serve in. Maybe not very visible to me.

For example, I can't seem to see any church choir or camera man or ushers.

ObiterDicta SG

Besides hearing confessions and celebrating Masses, priests' work include:

- Visiting parishioners who invite them to help with various matters, including house blessing
- Conducting weddings
- Counselling for people in trouble
- Managing the parish's finances
- Ensuring that the physical infrastructure of the parish is properly maintained, with the help of other lay people
- Planning of activities
- Providing spiritual guidance to parish-level ministries (including the choirs) as well as be the final authority for making certain decisions and resolving conflicts
- Teaching RCIA
- Being on standby 24x7 to respond to calls to minister to those who are dying
- Being spiritual director for diocese-level ministries, and taking part in their activities

In addition, for their own spiritual well-being, priests are required to pray the Divine Office each day.

On the other separate points, choirs are present during Sunday Masses. Weekday Masses do not usually have choirs present due to the fact that all choir members are volunteers. As for ushers, each parish would have a hospitality ministry where ushers volunteer to serve during the weekend Masses.