11 Now, even as the Roman Pontiff is the Teacher and Prince of the Universal Church, so likewise are Bishops the rulers and chiefs of the Churches that have been duly intrusted to them. Each has within his own jurisdiction the power of leading, supporting, or correcting, and generally of deciding in such matters as may seem to affect religion. For they share in the power which Christ Our Lord received from the Father, and transmitted to His Church: and therefore Gregory IX., Our Predecessor, said of Bishops, "We do not hesitate to declare that the Bishops called on to share Our cares are the representatives of God"(2) This power has been given to Bishops for the supreme benefit of those over whom it is exercised; it tends by its very nature to the building up of the Body of Christ; and makes of each Bishop and bond which unites in faith and charity the Christians under his guidance at once with one another and with the Supreme Pontiff, as members with the head. Here is a weighty expression of St. Cyprian's: "The Church is the people united with its pastors, and the flock that follows its Shepherd: "(3) and another, still more weighty: "Know ye, that the Bishop is in the Church, and the Church in the Bishop: and if any one be not with the Bishop, the same is not in the Church"(4) Such, unchangeable and everlasting, is the constitution of the Christian commonwealth; if it be not religiously maintained, a disturbance of rights and duties ensues as a necessary consequence of the broken association of the members whose perfect union constitutes the body of the Church, that body which "by joints and bands being supplied with nourishment and compacted, groweth unto the increase of God"(5 )We see, therefore, that Bishops should have paid to them that respect which the eminence of their charge exacts, and receive in all matters within their office a perfect obedience.
Source: Cum Multa (Vatican.va)