at church....

[ThomasPeter]

a while ago our diocese was honored to have cardinal Arinze(sp?) in town. he and our bishop celebrated mass at the cathedral, but he was seated in out bishops chair. this confused me; i thought only the bishop could sit in that chair, and that infact not even the pope should or could sit in it. doing so would improper because this is not the pope's (or Arinze's) diocese, hence the need for basilicas... which we have one in town anyway. it was my understanding that if in town, the pope would use a basilica and not the local cathedral for the above reason. so why would Arinze sit in the bishops chair while the bishop sat in one to the side of him? just wondering! thanks
tom

[Cam42]

[quote name='ThomasPeter' date='Aug 4 2005, 01:32 PM']a while ago our diocese was honored to have cardinal Arinze(sp?) in town. he and our bishop celebrated mass at the cathedral, but he was seated in out bishops chair. this confused me; i thought only the bishop could sit in that chair, and that infact not even the pope should or could sit in it. doing so would improper because this is not the pope's (or Arinze's) diocese, hence the need for basilicas... which we have one in town anyway. it was my understanding that if in town, the pope would use a basilica and not the local cathedral for the above reason. so why would Arinze sit in the bishops chair while the bishop sat in one to the side of him? just wondering! thanks
tom
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Tom...the Ordinary can give persmission to a visiting prelate to sit in his Cathedra.....

As a matter of protocol, any bishop has obtain permission to pontificate in the diocese of another. So, Cardinal Arinze also had to obtain permission to wear the mitre, pontifical vestments, and carry the crozier.

While it is rare, a bishop occasionally does disallow this....