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> Furthermore, Bishops are not franchisees. While the Pope does exercise a kind of special authority over the Bishops, they are largely independent, especially so financially. For all the pomp surrounding the pope, like most apostolic churches the bishops in their individual capacities hold most of the control and power. And while in theory the pope can depose bishops, in practice it can very difficult unless there's a consensus or at least acquiescence among other bishops. Upsetting too many bishops for too long is how you get schisms, and the whole point of the church as an institution is to avoid schisms. Outright deposing bishops is very rare (thus the molestation controversies); usually what happens is a bishop is enticed into taking a titular see, or strong-armed into retiring. The Roman Church has seen a lot of political consolidation over the millennia, but you can't get too far away from traditional episcopal authority without contradicting scripture (or developing a radically different interpretive model, as some more modern churches have done). Most non-Catholics, and many Catholics, see the church as a monolith, but the pope has de facto and de jure limitations to his authority, and that's before you even get into the complexity of civil law in all the jurisdictions around the world. As you point out, most property and assets are generally held under local civil law by individual dioceses, parishes, monasteries, schools, etc, with the local bishop in turn having direct or indirect control of those organizations, ecclesiastically if not civilly. It follows that an archbishop doesn't control any of this, either, unless it's organized under his regular bishopric. I believe the same is true of the pope--anything he controls directly (like Pontifical Universities) is incorporated as part of his territorial jurisdiction as bishop of Rome--but I'm not a canon law scholar and at this point the general rule might succumb to nuance and exception. Monastic orders can also be exceptional--they developed in parallel to the regular church and I believe abbots and even abbesses often hold some powers independent of episcopal authority, presumably sometimes including control over property and other assets. In apostolic Christianity there's a strong tradition of practicing obedience, however. Obedience to civil authority, ecclesiastical authority, etc; of individual parishioners to the clergy, of the clergy to the bishop, of the bishops to the patriarch, etc. It's couched in terms of practicing humility. All the politics and back-stabbing notwithstanding, that tradition does operate to grease the wheels in terms of compliance with papal commands, but the pope has to stay in his lane, so to speak. From a game theoretic perspective it's all incredibly fascinating, whether you're religious or not ;) |