Council of Hierarchs is the episcopal council that assists the metropolitan who heads an Eastern Catholic metropolitan Church sui iuris and exercises the legislative, electoral, and pastoral functions assigned by law.[1]
Government of a metropolitan Church sui iuris
Canon 155 describes a metropolitan Church sui iuris as headed by a metropolitan appointed by the Roman Pontiff and assisted by a Council of Hierarchs. The metropolitan convokes and presides over the council, prepares its business, and may transfer, prolong, suspend, or dissolve it according to law. Before receiving the pallium he may neither convoke it nor ordain bishops.
The council belongs to one metropolitan Church sui iuris; it is not the Synod of Bishops of a patriarchal Church, a national episcopal conference, or the cross-Church Assembly of Hierarchs of Several Churches sui iuris regulated by canon 322. Canon 157 also limits valid exercise of the metropolitan's and council's power to the territorial boundaries of that metropolitan Church.[2]
Membership, vote, and attendance
All and only the ordained bishops of the metropolitan Church sui iuris are summoned wherever they serve, subject to the exclusions stated in canon 164. Bishops of another Church sui iuris may attend only as guests when the required majority agrees. Eparchial and coadjutor bishops possess deliberative vote; particular law may grant it to other bishops of the same Church.
A legitimately summoned bishop has a grave duty to attend unless he has resigned from office or is justly impeded. Members cannot send proxies or accumulate votes. Unless particular law demands more, a majority of those obliged to attend establishes a valid session and scrutiny, and business is decided by an absolute majority of the deliberative votes present under canons 165–166.
Legislation, candidates, and pastoral coordination
The council can make laws and norms wherever the common law grants it competence, including matters referred to the particular law of the Church sui iuris. The metropolitan must promptly inform the Apostolic See, and those laws cannot be validly promulgated until he has received written notice that the Apostolic See received the acts. The council also prepares a confidential list of at least three suitable candidates for each metropolitan or episcopal appointment.
Canon 169 entrusts it with common pastoral needs, growth in faith, coordinated pastoral action, morals, preservation of the proper rite, and common ecclesiastical discipline. It must meet at least annually and whenever special circumstances or reserved business require. Its statutes regulate the secretariat, preparatory commissions, and procedure and are transmitted to the Apostolic See.
References
- 1.Synodality in the Life and Mission of the Church — International Theological Commission account of Eastern Catholic synodal structures and their ecclesiological setting
- 2.Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches — Official text governing Churches sui iuris, patriarchal and metropolitan structures, hierarchs, enrollment, and inter-Church transfer