The duty of the sacred hierarchy with respect to religious life

8. Careful reflection on the functions and duties of the Roman Pontiff and the bishops in regard to the practical life of religious leads one to discover with particular concreteness and clarity its ecclesial dimension, namely the unquestionable bond of religious life with the life and holiness of the Church (cf. LG 44). Through the action of the sacred hierarchy, God consecrates religious for a more generous service of Him within the People of God (cf. LG 44). Likewise the Church, through the ministry of her Pastors, besides giving legal sanction to the religious form of life and thus raising it to the dignity of a canonical state... sets it forth liturgically also as a state of consecration to God" (LG 45; cf. SC 80, 2).

Bishops, furthermore, as members of the Episcopal College, in harmony with the will of the Supreme Pontiff, are united in this: namely, in wisely regulating the practice of the evangelical counsels (cf. LG 45); in authentically approving Rules proposed to them (cf. LG 45) in such a way that a mission recognized as typically theirs is conferred on Institutes; that a commitment to found new churches is fostered in them, and that specific duties and mandates are entrusted to them; in seeing to it, by their concern, that Institutes "upheld by their supervisory and protective authority... may develop and flourish in accordance with the spirit of their founders"(LG 45); in determining the exemption of some institutes "from the jurisdiction of local ordinaries for the sake of the general good" (LG 45) of the universal Church and to better "ensure that everything is suitably and harmoniously arranged within them, and the perfection of the religious life promoted" (CD 35, 3).