LIMINA APOSTOLORUM. - All residential bishops are obliged, at fixed periodic times, to visit and venerate the tombs (limina) of the Apostles and to present themselves before the successor of Pietro.
This practice is of very ancient origin, dating back to the first Christian centuries; at first it expressed devotion to the relics of the Apostles, then, with the gradual definition and intensification of the exercise of pontifical authority, the duty of reporting to the Supreme Pastor on the condition of one’s flock and receiving appropriate directives from him became predominant. Sisto V, by the bull Romania Pontifex of 20 Dec. 1585, established this periodic visit as a juridical obligation.
The visits ad limina, beginning on 1 Jan. 1911, are quinquennial and fall in the years in which the bishop is required to submit to the Holy See (Sacred Congregation of the Consistory) reports on the state of the diocese. The first year of each five-year period is assigned to the reports, and consequently to the visits, of the bishops of Italy; the second to the bishops of Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium, Holland, England, Sweden, and Ireland; the third to the remaining bishops of Europe; the fourth to the reports of the bishops of America; the fifth to those of Africa, Asia, Australia, and the adjacent Islands. For non-European bishops, the obligation of the visit is limited to every ten years. All are obliged, save for serious impediment, to fulfil it personally or through their coadjutor (cann. 341-42), except apostolic vicars who, as missionaries and ordinarily impeded, may delegate a procurator in Rome (can. 299).