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Sao Paulo – There are currently 162 Bishops Emeritus alive in Brazil, according to data collected by Professor Fernando Altemeyer Junior, of the Department of Religious Sciences of the Pontifical Catholic University of Sao Paulo, who has been doing work for more than 20 years. update of the statistics and names of the Brazilian episcopate. The Code of Canon Law defines an “emeritus” as a bishop who loses “his office because of the age limit or an accepted renunciation”. The Church sets 75 as the age at which to submit a resignation request to the Pope, who can accept it immediately or postpone it depending on pastoral needs.
If the Bishops Emeritus no longer have to exercise their functions of government of their diocese, they nevertheless continue to participate in pastoral activities and to collaborate in the evangelizing mission of the Church. An example of this collaboration is given by Monsignor Francisco Biasin, Bishop Emeritus of Barra do Piraí, Volta Redonda, who assumed the presidency of the Episcopal Commission of Bishops Emeritus of the Brazilian Episcopal Conference, CNBB, in 2019. In a statement reported by the CNBB portal, he declared that emeritus is “a gift for the Church, because being emeritus is an opportunity to reinvent life, it is a new way of being a bishop”.
The Episcopal Commission for Bishops Emeritus has a special character, different from other episcopal commissions, implementing what is established by the Code of Canon Law, according to which the Episcopal Conference “must seek to provide adequate and worthy support to a bishop. who resigns, taking into account the primary obligation to which the same diocese in which he served is subject ”. Created in 2012 by the CNBB, the Commission therefore supports emeritus Bishops by ensuring to support and assist them. In addition to Monsignor Biasin, the Commission is made up of Monsignor Nelson Westrupp, Bishop Emeritus of Santo André, and Monsignor Paulo Antônio de Conto, Bishop Emeritus of Monte. Father João Cândido Neto is the advisor.
Since its creation, the Commission has strengthened the link between Bishops Emeritus, by organizing meetings, such as the National Meeting of Bishops Emeritus, or through communication tools between pastors who have left diocesan governance.
The last national meeting of Bishops Emeritus, in its fifth edition, was held in September 2019, at the Missionary Cultural Center, in Brasilia. At the time, Father João Cândido Neto declared that the objective was above all to show that the Bishops Emeritus are not alone: ”The CNBB is with them and this is the moment when each bishop was able to share a part of his life experience and his pastoral experience, because each of them, especially those who are here, still does pastoral work. ”
Due to the pandemic, the 6th national meeting, which was scheduled to be held in 2020, has been postponed. For this year 2021, the Commission is planning a meeting with the Bishops Emeritus of the regions in which the CNBB is located. The idea is to bring them together virtually for a moment of reflection and sharing on the theme: “The role of the bishop emeritus in a Synodal Church, in the light of the Ecclesial Assembly of Latin America and the Caribbean and of the next Synod of Bishops ”.
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