Bishop

===== Peculiar to the Catholic Church =====
While traditional teaching maintains that any bishop with apostolic succession can validly perform the ordination of another bishop, some churches require two or three bishops participate, either to ensure sacramental validity or to conform with church law. [[Catholic]] doctrine holds that one bishop can validly ordain another (priest) as a bishop. Though a minimum of three bishops participating is desirable (there are usually several more) in order to demonstrate collegiality, canonically only one bishop is necessary. The practice of only one bishop ordaining was normal in countries where the church was persecuted under [[Communist]] rule.

The title of archbishop or metropolitan may be granted to a senior bishop, usually one who is in charge of a large ecclesiastical jurisdiction. He may, or may not, have provincial oversight of suffragan bishops and may possibly have auxiliary bishops assisting him.

Apart from the ordination, which is always done by other bishops, there are different methods as to the actual selection of a candidate for ordination as bishop. In the Catholic Church the [[Congregation for Bishops]] generally oversees the selection of new bishops with the approval of the pope. The papal nuncio usually solicits names from the bishops of a country, consults with priests and leading members of a laity, and then selects three to be forwarded to the [[Holy See]]. In Europe, some cathedral chapters have duties to elect bishops. The Eastern Catholic churches generally elect their own bishops. Most Eastern Orthodox churches allow varying amounts of formalised laity or [[lower clergy]] influence on the choice of bishops. This also applies in those Eastern churches which are in union with the pope, though it is required that he give assent.

The pope, in addition to being the [[Bishop of Rome]] and spiritual head of the Catholic Church, is also the Patriarch of the Latin Church. Each bishop within the Latin Church is answerable directly to the Pope and not any other bishop except to metropolitans in certain oversight instances. The pope previously used the title ''Patriarch of the West'', but this title was dropped from use in 2006,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0601225.htm |title=Catholic News Service |access-date=19 October 2008 |archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20060308013147/http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0601225.htm |archive-date=8 March 2006 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }}</ref> a move which caused some concern within the Eastern Orthodox Communion as, to them, it implied wider papal jurisdiction.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0603382.htm |title=Catholic News Service |access-date=19 October 2008 |archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20060613190031/http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0603382.htm |archive-date=13 June 2006 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }}</ref>