metropolitan

Greek: metropolis, city

An archbishop who is placed over a certain section of a country, comprising a certain number of suffragan dioceses. Every metropolitan is an archbishop, but not every archbishop is a metropolitan. The metropolitan has all the rights of a bishop in his diocese, and has the authority to

  • call a provincial council, and preside over it
  • preach in any church in his district
  • grant an indulgence of 100 days
  • exercise the right of devolution

He also enjoys the following honorary rights

  • precedence over bishops
  • to have the archiepiscopal cross carried before him throughout his province
  • use of the pallium in his province

When the term is used for a diocese, it means that its metropolitan is the head of its province.