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“Prelate” (Ger. Prälat) is a legal term in the Roman Catholic Church to describe all who hold leading offices of different ranking in the church, including honorary prelates without jurisdiction. The term derives from Lat. praelatus, a participle of praefero, here in the sense of giving preference or putting at the head. In the regional churches of Baden and Württemberg, in southern Germany, the title “prelate” originally designated, not a specific church office, but membership in a regional diet, later the Parliament of a federal state. Curren…

1. Biblical The words “visit” and “visitation” often indicate divine involvement with humans, sometimes by way of theophany. God not only observes human life, he also acts in our world. God’s visitation may bring blessing to God’s own people or to the whole earth (Ps. 65:9). More often, divine visitation punishes offenses, as in Job 35:15 and Ps. 59:5 (KJV). The Decalogue contains the familiar reference to God “visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children” (Exod. 20:5 RSV). Isaiah 26:14 (RSV) tells us that God will visit with destruction. ¶ The idea of visitation for punishme…