Some consequences

9. These brief considerations on "hierarchic communion" in the Church shed much light on the relations that should be fostered between bishops and religious.

a) Christ is the Head of the ecclesial Body, the eternal Pastor, who has given precedence to Peter and the Apostles and their successors, namely the Roman Pontiff and the bishops, constituting them sacramentally his Vicars (cf. LG 18, 22, 27) and granting them appropriate charisms. No one else has the power to exercise any function, whether of teaching, sanctifying or governing, except by participation and in communion with them.

b) The Holy Spirit is called the soul of the ecclesial body. No member of the People of God, no matter what ministry he may exercise, possesses personally in himself, in their totality, gifts, offices and duties, but must enter into communion with the others. Differences in the People of God, whether of gifts or functions, converge and mutually complement one another, for the unique communion and mission.

c) Bishops, in union with the Roman Pontiff, receive from Christ the Head the duty (cf. LG 21) of discerning gifts and competencies, of coordinating multiple energies, and of guiding the entire People in living in the world as a sign and instrument of salvation. They, therefore, are also entrusted with the duty of caring for religious charisms, all the more so because the very indivisibility of their pastoral ministry makes them responsible for perfecting the entire flock. In this way, by fostering religious life and protecting it in conformity with its own definite characteristics, bishops fulfill a real pastoral duty.

d) All pastors, mindful of the apostolic admonition never to be a "dictator over any group that is put in [their] charge, but [to] be an example that the whole flock can follow" (1 Pt 5:3), will rightly be aware of the primacy of life in the Spirit. This demands that they be at the same time leaders and members; truly fathers, but also brothers; teachers of the faith, but especially fellow disciples of Christ; those indeed, responsible for the perfection of the faithful, but also true witnesses of their personal sanctification.