Where a diocesan has not been elected or appointed, a bishop or senior priest may act as vicar general through the vacancy.

Auxiliary bishops do not govern in their own right but act only as directed by their diocesan bishop.

The bishop is therefore acting in a manner deemed illicit or illegal.

Local priests and bishops, Professor Jenkins said, often act as buffers against unpopular decisions from the hierarchy.

The bishop acts as the Presiding High Priest of the ward.

Another ruling confirmed that the Roman calculation for the date of Easter should be adopted, and that bishops should act only in their own dioceses.

The American bishops acted several days after they saw their power to act as an independent body curbed by the Vatican.

When the bishop acted on the information, he was able to take over the murderer's lands and add them to his bishopric.

It is a non-diocesan appointment in which an experienced bishop acts as head of staff to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Pro-Kerry Catholics may still want to argue that the Bush-backing bishops acted inappropriately as church leaders.