2. The saving mission which the Lord entrusted to the Apostles will last until the end of the world.(¹⁵) For this mission to be carried out, in accordance with Christ's will, the Apostles themselves “were careful to appoint successors... Bishops have by divine institution taken the place of the Apostles as pastors of the Church”.(¹⁶) Indeed, in order to carry out the pastoral ministry, “the Apostles were endowed by Christ with a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit coming upon them”,(¹⁷) and by the imposition of hands they passed on to their assistants the gift of the Holy Spirit,(¹⁸) a gift which is transmitted down to our day through episcopal consecration”.(¹⁹)

“Just as, in accordance with the Lord's decree, Saint Peter and the rest of the Apostles constitute one apostolic college, so in like fashion the Roman Pontiff, Peter's Successor, and the Bishops, the successors of the Apostles, are joined to one another”.(²⁰) Thus, all the Bishops in common have received from Christ the mandate to proclaim the Gospel in every part of the world and are consequently bound to have concern for the whole Church. So too, for the fulfilment of the mission entrusted to them by the Lord, they are held to cooperate with one another and with the Successor of Peter,(²¹) in whom the Lord established “the lasting and visible source and foundation of the unity both of faith and of communion”.(²²) The individual Bishops are in turn the source and foundation of unity in their particular Churches.(²³)