Bishops have responsibility for the local Church that is entrusted to them and a share in the responsibility for the whole -> CHURCH. They exercise their authority in communion with one another and for the benefit of the whole Church under the leadership of the -> POPE. [886-887, 893-896, 938-939]
Bishops must first of all be -> APOSTILES – faithful witnesses of Jesus, who personally called them to follow him and then sent them. So they bring Christ to mankind and mankind to Christ. This happens through their preaching, the celebration of the sacraments, and their governance of the -> CHURCH. As a successor of the apostles, a bishop exercises his ministry by virtue of his own apostolic authority; he is not an agent or a sort of assistant to the Pope. Yet he acts with and under the Pope.
