Metropolitan Archbishop

Petro Mohyla, seventeenth-century metropolitan of Kyiv

Petro Mohyla, seventeenth-century metropolitan of Kyiv

A metropolitan archbishop is the archbishop who presides over an ecclesiastical province composed of neighboring particular churches.

Nature of the office

The metropolitan is ordinarily the diocesan bishop of the province’s metropolitan see. He fosters common ecclesiastical action and vigilance, but he is not the ordinary superior of the suffragan bishops and cannot govern their dioceses at will.

Canonical place

His limited powers include watching that faith and discipline are observed, reporting abuses, and performing certain functions when a suffragan see fails to act. He requests the pallium from the Roman Pontiff as the sign of his metropolitan office and communion.