THE TITLE OF VICAR-APOSTOLIC.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVII, Issue 45, 9 November 1899, Page 10

THE TITLE OF VICAR- APOSTOLIC.

Whiting editorially a few weeks ago on the South African war we incidentally mentioned that the affairs of the Catholic Churoh in Natal, the Orange Free State, and Transvaal were presided over by Vicars-Apostolic. As many of our readers might not know the origin of this title, the following account of it. contributed to the New Era by the Very Rev. Dr. Casartelli, will be o? interest : — A 'Vicar- Apostolic' — which title rdally means a Vicar of the Apostolic See, or in other words, a Vicar of the Pope — is defined to be ' a prelate, ordinarily invested with episcopal rank, delegated by the Pope to govern certain portions of the Church which have not ordinary bishops.' In early centuries the title seems to have been applied to special delegates of the Holy See sent to certain provinces, either to watch over and guide the administration of the Canons, or to act as representatives or interpreters of the Sovereign Pontiff, much in the same way as Legates, Delegates-Apostolic, or Nuncios of the present day. Thus in 380 Pope Damasus I. appointed Aoolius, Bishop of Thessalonica, to be ' Vicar- Apostolic ' in Eastern Illyria. In 417 Pope Zozimua appointed a 'VicarApostolic ' over the Gauls, and in 482 Pope Simplioiua nominated the Bishop of Seville his ' Vicar- Apostolic ' in Spain, to watoh over the due observation of the Canons. And when in 440 St. Leo I. sent Julian, Bishop of Cos, to reside at the Court of the Emperor Marcian, in Constantinople, as his ' Vicar-Apostolic ' to check the growth of Nestorianism, we have an early instance of an office which afterwards was known as that of ' Apocrisarius,' the modern 'Nuncio' at Christian Co arts. Quite different to these * Vicars- Apostolic' are the modern prelates who bear that name. The Popea have the government of the Universal Church and the right and duty of promoting the Catholic religion wherever there are men separated from the fold by infidelity, heresy, or schism. Wherever the ordinary form of ecclesiastical government, with provinces presided over by a metropolitan and with suffragan bishops, cannot be established, the Holy See retains such regions directly under its own control, and commits the care of them to prelates. These are the Prefects- Apostolic, or, of a higher rank, the Vicars- Apostolic, who are bishops. The first institution of such Vicars-Apostolic of the modern type goes back to Pope Alexander VII., who in 1658-59, at the suggestion of the newly-founded Society of the Missions- Etranghrea of Paris, nominated three members of that society as his 'VicarsApostolic,' with episcopal rank, for the missions of the Far East. These were Francois Pallu, Bishop of Heliopolis and Vicar-Apostolic of Tonkin ; Pierre de Lamothe-Lambert, Bishop of Berytus and Vicar-Apostolic of Cochin-China ; and Ignace Cotolendi, Bishop of Metellopolis and Vicar- Apostolic of Nankin. The same Pontiff in 1658 nominated Mgr. de Laval, Bishop of Petra, as Vioar-Apostolio of Canada ; and in 1659 Mgr. Sebastiani, D.C., Bishop of Hierapolis, as ■ Delegate and Vicar-Apostolic ' for the East Indies. From that time forward the government of the Church in the 'foreign missions,' that is in heathen and non-Catholic countries, has, as a regular thing, been carried on by means of ' Vicars- Apostolic' A few missions are ruled by ' Prefects- Apostolic. ' These are priests, not bishops, though possessing ordinary powers of jurisdiction of a quasi-episcopal character, and also the faculty of administering the Sacrament of Confirmation. Vicars- Apostolic are all consecrated bishops of some ' titular ' See, as it is called, that is to say with the title of some ancient bishopric or archbishopric which formerly existed in certain portions of the Roman Empire, East or West, but which was eventually swept aw *y in the cataclysm of the Moslem invasions. Hence up to recent years these Sees were called in part i bus infldeliiirn, or simply in 2>ai'tibu.t, i.e., in the countries of the Mohammedanß. This title was abolished by a decree of Propaganda, approved by the Pope on March 3, 1882 — it was said at that time, Oil account of the objection taken to it by the Sultan. Of course, by no means all 'titular' Archbishops and Bishops are Vicars-Apostolic. Nuncios and Delegates, as well as Auxiliary or Coadjutor Bishops, and Prelates who have retired, receive ' titular ' Sees. Such, at the present, are Bishops Brindle, Auxiliary to Cardinal Vaughan, and Bishop Butt, the former Bishop of Southwark. It remains to add that there are just a few Vicariates- Apostolic — only eight in all — which do nob depend on Propaganda, but on the Congregation of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs. All are in Spauish America.