Suburbicariis sedibus

Suburbicariis sedibus was a motu proprio of Pope John XXIII. It was released on April 11, 1962.

The Pope had already announced the reorganization in the Motu proprio Ad suburbicarias dioeceses the year before. In this letter the Pope stipulated that in the future he would freely appoint the cardinal bishops . Previously, they were filled according to seniority . Thus the seven longest serving cardinals were heads of the Suburbicarian dioceses .

With Suburbicariis sedibus , the Pope stipulated that the Suburbicarian dioceses of Albano , Ostia , Porto and Santa Rufina , Palestrina , Sabina and Poggio Mirteto , Frascati and Velletri should in future have their own resident diocesan bishops . They should have full episcopal power over their dioceses. In the future, the cardinal bishops should only exercise patronage over their titular seats, like the cardinal priests over their titular churches .

The Pope stipulated that the cardinal bishops may celebrate a mass with a throne and canopy in their respective cathedral . In the other churches of their diocese they require the approval of the diocesan bishop. As before, you can be buried in the respective cathedral. They were released from the obligation to celebrate mass for their diocese. The cardinal bishops still solemnly take possession of their respective diocese, but are no longer involved in the administration of the diocese.

For the diocese of Ostia, which the respective cardinal dean also held, no separate bishop has been appointed to this day. The respective cardinal vicar leads the diocese as apostolic administrator .

As a result of industrialization , more and more people moved near Rome. The Suburbikarian dioceses, which until then had few inhabitants, became large settlements. As a result, the episcopal duties also increased. Since the cardinal bishops, as cardinals of the curia, support the Pope in leading the universal Church, this was difficult to agree on. Pope Pius X placed suffragans (titular bishops) at their side , as they were residing in Rome because of the Curia offices (CIC 238 (1917)) . Pope Benedict XV reversed this (CIC 240 (1917)). Auxiliary bishops were assigned to the cardinal bishops who took over most of the pastoral and administrative tasks.

Together with the Motu proprio Cum gravissima , which stipulated that the cardinal deacons should be ordained bishops in the future, Suburbicariis sedibus caused the three cardinal classes to become purely honorary.

Suburbicarian diocese	Then incumbent	Term of office	Successor as Cardinal Bishop	Term of office	Successor as diocesan bishop	Term of office
Albano	Giuseppe Pizzardo	1948-1970	Krikor Bedros XV. Agagianian	1970-1971	Raffaele Macario	1966-1977
Ostia	Eugène Tisserant	1951-1972	Amleto Giovanni Cicognani	1972-1973
Porto and Santa Rufina	Eugène Tisserant	1946-1972	Paolo Marella	1972-1984	Andrea Pangrazio	1967-1984
Palestrina	Benedetto Aloisi Masella	1948-1970	Carlo Confalonieri	1972-1986	Pietro Severi	1966-1975
Sabina and Poggio Mirteto	Giuseppe Ferretto	1961-1973	Antonio Samore	1974-1983	Marco Caliaro	1962-1988
Frascati	vacant	1962	Amleto Giovanni Cicognani	1962-1973	Luigi Liverzani	1962-1989
Velletri	Clemente Micara	1946-1965	Fernando Cento	1965-1973	Dante Bernini	1975-1982

Web links

Original text of the Suburbicariis sedibus

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Martin Bräuer: Handbook of the Cardinals: 1846-2012 . Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 2014, ISBN 978-3-11-026947-5 ( google.de [accessed on July 11, 2020]).
2. ^ Stephan Haering , Wilhelm Rees , Heribert Schmitz : Handbook of Catholic Church Law . Verlag Friedrich Pustet, 2015, ISBN 978-3-7917-7084-0 ( google.de [accessed on July 11, 2020]).
3. ^ Michael Buchberger: Lexicon for theology and church . Herder, 1964 ( google.de [accessed July 14, 2020]).