"Without me you can do nothing" (Jn 15:5). As Christ’s friend, disciple and apostle, the Bishop is a living branch grafted on the vine which is Christ and bears in himself the personal and ministerial call to communion and mission.

The Bishop’s identity in the Church is grounded in the dynamic action of apostolic succession understood as not only the giving of authority but the extension of Trinitarian communion and mission.

Since the Bishop is chosen by the Lord, called to a constant communion with him and sent forth into the world, he is identified with the Person of Jesus in the transmission of divine life, in the communion of love and in the sacrifice of his life.

The Church is defined at the outset of the Constitution Lumen Gentium as "a sacrament or sign of intimate union with God and of the unity of all humanity."

The concept of communion is "at the heart of the Church’s understanding of herself" and always involves a double dimension: the vertical and the horizontal, communion with God and communion among men, the gift of the Trinity and the duty of faith and love, and the visible and the invisible.

Having its foundation in the Word of God and the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, ecclesial communion is expressed in faith, founded on hope, animated by charity and grounded in the unity of the ministry of teaching and ruling by the Successor of Peter and the Bishops.

The Church is to be always and everywhere, in a growing measure, the participation and sacrament of Trinitarian love for the salvation of the world.

The Church, therefore, is the mystery-sacrament in which everything converges, namely, evangelization and catechesis, the celebration of the mysteries of the faith, ecclesial spirituality, the life of charity of Christians and missionary activity and witness.

Communion and mission enrich each other. The force of communion makes the Church grow in extension and depth. At the same time, mission makes communion grow, extending it outwards in concentric circles, until it reaches everyone.

Communion is the Church’s very being and recalls the goal of all charisms to agape and to communion in unity, in the same plan of salvation and the same ecclesial activity.

The unity of the Church as communion and mission is not only the essence of her mystery and her task in the world, it is also the guarantee and seal of her divine action.

In an Ecclesiology of Communion and Mission

In our times, unity is a sign of hope concerning peoples and human endeavors towards reconciliation for a better world. Unity is also a sign and credible witness of the authenticity of the Gospel. As a result, the unity of the Church, especially that of all disciples of Christ, is also an urgent need in our world, so that the world may believe (cf. Jn 17:21).

The Trinitarian mystery, the mystery of communion in mutual self-giving, is the pattern of life for the Church, her mission, her ministers and, therefore, for the episcopal ministry.

Such an understanding is a hope-filled sign for a world broken by divisions, opposing forces and conflicts. The Church’s strength is her communion; her weakness is division and internal opposition.

The episcopal ministry is set in this ecclesiology of communion and mission which gives rise to an activity, a spirituality and a style of life, all of which are determined by communion.

This ministry expresses the unity of apostolic succession in the College of Bishops under the Petrine ministry.

This communion in unity is sustained through pastoral charity and a supernatural hope of the fulfillment of the divine plan through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Since the Bishop is sent in the name of Christ as Pastor of a particular Church, he cares for a portion of the People of God entrusted to him, making it grow as a communion in the Spirit through the Gospel and the Eucharist.

Each Bishop, in virtue of his being a Pastor of a particular Church, is a member of the College of Bishops through episcopal ordination and hierarchical communion with the head of the college.

The Bishop stands, at one and the same time, in relation to his particular Church and to the universal Church.

As the visible principle and foundation of unity in his particular Church, the Bishop is also the visible link of ecclesial communion between his particular Church and the universal Church; each Bishop stands in watch, with the head of the Episcopal College and its members, over hierarchical communion in its totality giving substance and form to the catholicity of the Church, conferring on the particular Church, over which they preside, the same mark of catholicity.

"For each particular Church to be fully Church, that is, the particular presence of the universal Church with all its essential elements, and hence constituted after the model of the universal Church, there must be present in it, as a proper element, the supreme authority of the Church: the Episcopal College ‘together with their head, the Supreme Pontiff, and never apart from him’."

In the communion of Churches, the Bishop represents his particular Church, and, as a result, represents the communion of Churches.

Through the episcopal ministry, each particular Church, which is also a portio Ecclesiae universalis, lives the totality of the One-Holy Church and the Catholic-Apostolic Church is present in each of them in its totality.

The unity of the college or the fraternal communion of charity or the collegial sense is the basis for the solicitude which each Bishop, in virtue of Christ’s institution and command, is required to have for the whole Church and the other particular Churches.

The celebration of the Eucharist gives rise to the duty of the Bishop, as a legitimate Successor of the Apostles and member of the Episcopal College, of being, in a certain way, guarantor of the whole Church (sponsor Ecclesiae).

In Communion with the Successor of Peter

Christ willed that Peter and his Successors be the principle of visible unity so that they might confirm their brothers in the faith.

The Church’s unity, in communion with the Successor of Peter and under his guidance, is also the source of hope for the future.

Each celebration of the Eucharist is fulfilled in union not only with one’s Bishop but above all with the Pope and with the episcopal order, and thus with the clergy and the entire People of God, as set forth in various versions of the Eucharistic prayer.

The wholehearted acceptance and diffusion of the pontifical magisterium is a sign of authentic communion and a guarantee of the unity of the Church.

Collaboration in the Petrine Ministry

The College of Bishops cannot be conceived without communion with its visible head, the Roman Pontiff, a communion which is exercised in various forms of participation and collegiality.

Precisely because of the active and dynamic principle of communion, the Episcopal College is the meeting place of each Bishop with the Bishop of Rome, Successor of Peter and Head of the College, and with other Bishops scattered throughout the world.

A specific form of collaboration with the Roman Pontiff is the Synod of Bishops

A fruit and expression of this collegial union is the collaboration of Bishops from every part of the globe in the offices of the Holy See.

Ad Limina Visits and Relations with the Holy See

An important manifestation of communion with the Pope and the offices of the Holy See are ad limina visits, which serve as occasions for discernment in which the situations, anxieties, hopes, joys and problems of the particular Churches are brought to the visible center of communion.

As a concrete manifestation of an ecclesiology of communion, relations between the Successor of Peter and the diocesan Bishops, through the various Departments of the Holy See and pontifical nuncios and representatives in various countries, should always display mutual collaboration and fraternal esteem, in respect for each’s competence.

Episcopal Conferences

Bishops live their communion with other Bishops in the exercise of episcopal collegiality expressed in the celebration of councils as seen in the current institution of Episcopal Conferences.

"The Episcopal Conference is established to provide many-sided and fruitful assistance in our times so that ... collegial sense may produce its result."

Given the authority of the each Bishop in his particular Church, the Bishops, "jointly exercise in the Episcopal Conferences the episcopal ministry but, for that exercise to be legitimate and binding on the individual Bishops, there is needed the intervention of the supreme authority of the Church."

Because the doctrinal declarations of the Episcopal Conferences oblige an adherence of the faithful with a sense of religious respect, they must be approved unanimously, or if by a majority, must obtain the recognition of the Apostolic See.

International Meetings of Episcopal Conferences are useful instruments through which collaboration is fostered among Bishops for the common good.

The Sense and Effectiveness of Communion

Relations established among Bishops in Episcopal Conferences must be a true spiritual experience, an exercise of the sense and effectiveness of communion.

Episcopal assemblies take place in a spirit of mutual listening because of the shared responsibility and solicitude for the whole Church.

Mutual assistance among Bishops, especially on the part of Metropolitans, can and ought to be manifested in moments of difficulty by acts of encouragement, support in discernment, reciprocal advice and, at times, fraternal correction according to the Gospel.

Mutual assistance programs be instituted between large dioceses and smaller ones.

II. CERTAIN PROBLEMS

Various Types of Episcopal Ministry

The first in the various types of episcopal ministry comes from Church history and traditions.

Within the Church, the Bishop’s ministry consists in being elected and ordained for the service of a particular Church in which the Lord has given a special role to the Bishop of Rome.

Archbishops and Bishops, diocesan or eparchal, are Pastors of their particular Churches.

Besides residential Archbishops and Bishops of particular Churches, other Archbishops and Bishops, invested with the episcopal dignity and grace, are at the service of the whole Church, with a particular association with the Petrine ministry in governing the Church and in service to the Holy See with responsibilities in the Roman Curia, Nunciatures or Apostolic Delegations.

The Latin Church also has Metropolitans who preside over an ecclesiastical province with proper rights and duties according to the norms of law.

Coadjutor and Auxiliary Bishops, both in a diocese or eparchate, are at the service of their respective dioceses or eparchies, assisting the diocesan Bishop or Eparch.

From a theological point of view and a consideration of the institutional character of the Church, the above listing well illustrates the rich variety in the episcopal ministry in the Universal Church and in the particular Church.

Emeritus Bishops

Today, a considerable number of Bishops, for reasons foreseen in canon law, are relieved of pastoral office, thereby prompting the recurring subject as to their participation in ecclesial life.

Emeritus Bishops continue to be members of the Episcopal College and maintain their right/duty to participate in the acts of the College in the manner foreseen by law.

Emeritus Bishops are to be given appropriate economic support and a living situation which does not isolate them, but rather fosters their participation in ecclesial life.

Due consideration also needs to be given to elderly Bishops and those who are ill.

In light of the Bishop’s special responsibilities, increasing consideration is being given to the timeliness of special initiatives on behalf of newly appointed Bishops to respond to the demands of their ministry in theological, pastoral, canonical, spiritual and administrative matters.

The necessary doctrinal, pastoral and spiritual growth of Bishops ordained for longer periods of time is being promoted through ongoing formation.