The THE HIERARCHICAL AUTHORITIES OF THE CHURCH AND THE RELIGIOUS INSTITUTES

Part I - The Roman Pontiff and the Religious Institutes

Abstract

CCEO c. 410 describes the religious state as a stable mode of common life in an institute approved by the Church. Approval by the competent ecclesiastical authorities and the consequent relationship of the religious institutes to the ecclesial authorities, while keeping the rightful autonomy, are among the essential elements of the ecclesial nature of religious state. In this respect, the hierarchical ordering of the Eastern Churches brings differences between the Eastern code and the Latin code. The existence of patriarchal/major archiepiscopal institutes and the role of the patriarch/major archbishop to the religious members and institutes are foreign to the Latin code. This article presents in a systematic order the various aspects of the relationship of religious institutes and their members to the Apostolic See, patriarch/major archbishop, to the eparchial bishop and to other local hierarchs, as envisaged in the canons of CCEO, in a comparative approach to the norms of CIC.