Which one of the following do you know more about, the inner workings of a parish OR that of a diocese? Unless one happens to work at the diocesan offices, most would say the inner workings of a parish since that is what most active Catholics encounter on a regular basis. Even then, perhaps most people are familiar primarily with the pastoral workings of a parish such as Mass and reception of the other sacraments, religious education offerings, and parish life opportunities as well as charitable endeavors that groups within the parish or the whole parish is involved in doing on an ongoing basis.
When it comes to the administration of a parish hopefully you know that the pastor receives and appreciates (as I certainly do), the help of deacons, employees, and volunteer lay persons who are appointed to the finance and administration council as well as those elected (and sometimes a few appointed) to the pastoral council.

What about the administration of a diocese under the leadership of the bishop. Where does he get help in handling the pastoral and administrative duties of his office. It is in fact a similar list as those who help a pastor except unlike many parishes in Arkansas that has only one priest assigned, the bishop has the help a Vicar General (who must be a priest) and is his "right hand person" and also boards of advisors which consists, in some cases of only priests who are voted in by their brother priests for a term of 2 or 3 years, and meet together with the bishop as frequently as once a month. Three of them that I can speak intelligibly about are the "Clergy Personnel Board", "The Clergy Welfare Board" and the "Presbyteral Council" The clergy personnel board discusses and offers council to the bishop about possible changes in the assignment of priests, especially when a priest shows a strong desire to move to a new assignment and/or the bishop wants to move a priest from one assignment to another. The clergy welfare board deals with issues that relate to the care and compensation of both our active and our senior priests and advises the bishop when it comes to these issues. Finally, the Presbyteral Council discusses and advises the bishop on a wide variety of mostly pastoral issues (like observing the Jubilee Year) that come up throughout the year. Like in a parish, a bishop wants to get the opinions and advice of a variety of priests before he makes the final decision that will affect our priests, deacons, our Catholic laity and others as well. Please pray for the priests on these boards and our bishop that inspired by the Holy Spirit we will all be blessed by what comes from these meetings with our bishop. Please say a special prayer for me as I was recently elected to serve on the clergy welfare board.