Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 144 - Part I.

YOUCAT Question n. 144 - Part I. What is the task of the bishops?

(Youcat answer) 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.       

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 893) The bishop is "the steward of the grace of the supreme priesthood" (LG 26), especially in the Eucharist which he offers personally or whose offering he assures through the priests, his co-workers. The Eucharist is the center of the life of the particular Church. The bishop and priests sanctify the Church by their prayer and work, by their ministry of the word and of the sacraments. They sanctify her by their example, "not as domineering over those in your charge but being examples to the flock" (1 Pet 5:3). Thus, "together with the flock entrusted to them, they may attain to eternal life" (LG 26 § 3).     

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) Bishops must first of all be apostles—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.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 894) "The bishops, as vicars and legates of Christ, govern the particular Churches assigned to them by their counsels, exhortations, and example, but over and above that also by the authority and sacred power" which indeed they ought to exercise so as to edify, in the spirit of service which is that of their Master (LG 27; cf. Lk 22:26-27).    

(This question: What is the task of the bishops? is continued)