Vicar General

In the Diocese of Madison, the Office of the Vicar General handles:

• Requests for dispensations and permissions for marriages (see side navigation)
• Letters of suitability (see below)
• Questions regarding canonical issues and concerns
• Updates to the Official Catholic Directory and Wisconsin Pastoral Handbook
• Serving the many priests and deacons in this diocese as they fulfill their sacred duties

• Priest Letter of Suitability--Incoming
• Deacon Letter of Suitability--Incoming

• Applying for a Papal Blessing
• Tickets for Papal Audiences

Msgr. James Bartylla, Vicar General, announces the annual priest appointments made by Most Reverend Donald J. Hying, Bishop of Madison, effective Saturday, July 1, 2023.  Please click here.

The vicar general is a priest (of at least 30 years of age) who has been appointed by the diocesan bishop to assist him in the governance of the faithful entrusted to his care.  The vicar general is, by reason of his office, granted ordinary administrative power and jurisdiction over the whole diocese, a power which he exercises vicariously in the name of the diocesan bishop, whom he serves.  The large scope and executive nature of the office requires that the vicar general be of sound doctrine, of integrity, of prudence, and well versed in both canon law and theology.  While the historical origins of this office date back to the 4th century, the Second Vatican Council spoke of it as "the most important office in the diocesan curia", and the 1983 Code of Canon Law established it as a mandatory office in the organizational structure of a diocese.  In handling many of the day-to-day canonical operations of the diocese, the vicar general maintains frequent communication with the bishop so that he may always act in harmony with the intention and mind of the Successor of the Apostles [can. 475-481].

"For the nurturing and constant growth of the People of God, Christ the Lord instituted in His Church a variety of ministries, which work for the good of the whole body.  For those ministers, who are endowed with sacred power, serve their brethren, so that all who are of the People of God, and therefore enjoy a true Christian dignity, wrking toward a common goal freely and in an orderly way, may arrive at salvation.

"This Sacred Council, following closely in the footsteps of the First Vatican Council, with that Council teaches and declares that Jesus Christ, the eternal Shepherd, established His holy Church, having sent forth the apostles as He Himself had been sent by the Father; and He willed that their successors, namely the bishops, should be shepherds in His Church even to the consummation of the world.  And in order that the episcopate itself might be one and undivided, He placed Blessed Peter over the other apostles, and instituted in him a permanent and visible source and foundation of unity of faith and communion.  And all this teaching about the institution, the perpetuity, the meaning and reason for the sacred primacy of the Roman Pontiff and of his infallible magisterium, this Sacred Council again proposes to be firmly believed by all the faithful.  Continuing in that same undertaking, this Council is resolved to declare and proclaim before all men the doctrine concerning bishops, the successors of the apostles, who together with the successor of Peter, the Vicar of Christ, the visible Head of the whole Church, govern the house of the living God."

The Second Vatican Council
Lumen Gentium (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church)
Article 18

On the Governing Office of the Bishop

"Bishops, as vicars and ambassadors of Christ, govern the particular churches entrusted to them by their counsel, exhortations, example, and even by their authority and sacred power, which indeed they use only for the edification of their flock in truth and holiness, remembering that he who is greater should become as the lesser and he who is the chief become as the servant.  This power, which they personally exercise in Christ's name, is proper, ordinary and immediate, although its exercise is ultimately regulated by the supreme authority of the Church, and can be circumscribed by certain limits, for the advantage of the Church or of the faithful.  In virtue of this power, bishops have the sacred right and the duty before the Lord to make laws for their subjects, to pass judgment on them and to moderate everything pertaining to the ordering of worship and the apostolate.

"The pastoral office for the habitual and daily care of their sheep is entrusted to them completely; nor are they to be regarded as vicars of the Roman Pontiffs, for they exercise an authority that is proper to them, and are quite correctly called "prelates," heads of the people whom they govern.  Their power, therefore, is not destroyed by the supreme and universal power, but on the contrary it is affirmed, strengthened and vindicated by it, since the Holy Spirit unfailingly preserves the form of government established by Christ the Lord in His Church."

The Second Vatican Council
Lumen Gentium (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church)
Article 27