Hierarch and Local Hierarch is Related but non-identical CCEO classifications for authorities who possess ordinary ecclesiastical governance and, more narrowly, those who exercise such authority over faithful or territory at the local level.
The broader category of Hierarch
Canon 984 section 1 identifies as Hierarchs, besides the Roman Pontiff, principally a patriarch, major archbishop, metropolitan who heads a metropolitan Church sui iuris, eparchial bishop, and those who legitimately succeed them temporarily in government. Hierarch therefore names a juridical relation to ordinary governing power, not a separate grade of Holy Orders.[1][2]
Major superiors in institutes of consecrated life are also Hierarchs when their offices carry ordinary power of governance, but canon 984 section 3 expressly says that they are not local Hierarchs. The category can consequently include a religious superior who is not the territorial shepherd of an eparchy and may not even be a bishop.
The narrower category of local Hierarch
Local Hierarchs include the eparchial bishop, exarch, apostolic administrator, legitimate interim successors when those offices are vacant, and the protosyncellus and syncelli. The Roman Pontiff is also included. The term is therefore broader than local bishop, since vicars and some administrators can fall within it, but narrower than Hierarch in every canonical setting.
A patriarch, major archbishop, or metropolitan heading a Church sui iuris is a local Hierarch only with respect to the eparchy that he personally governs, subject to canon 101. His wider authority over the Church sui iuris arises from the distinct provisions governing his office; it does not make him the local Hierarch of every eparchy in that Church.
Why the distinction affects competence
A canon addressed to the local Hierarch does not automatically empower every person who is merely a Hierarch, and a power named specifically to the eparchial bishop may be narrower still. Canon 987, for example, excludes the protosyncellus and syncellus from executive acts expressly assigned to the eparchial bishop unless they have a special mandate. The precise addressee of a canon therefore matters.
Canon 916 combines domicile or quasi-domicile with ascription to identify a person's proper local Hierarch and pastor. Where faithful lack their own exarchy, another Church's local Hierarch, including a Latin ordinary, can become their proper authority according to the Code and the required designation. Such pastoral jurisdiction does not itself transfer their enrollment to that other Church.[3]
References
- 1.Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches — Official text governing Churches sui iuris, patriarchal and metropolitan structures, hierarchs, enrollment, and inter-Church transfer
- 2.Orientalium Ecclesiarum — Vatican II on the equal dignity, proper patrimony, government, synods, and inter-Church relations of the Eastern Catholic Churches
- 3.Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, canons 910–1006 — Official text on domicile, proper pastors and hierarchs, governing power, and the definitions of Hierarch and local Hierarch