After the First Vatican Council stated the doctrine of primacy and infallibility of the pope in Vatican II there was a deeper reflection on the role of bishops in the Church and on relations between the bishops and the pope. The core of the Constitution on the Church that was approved at that time, responding precisely to this issue. Although written before, these studies of two great theologians, Karl Rahner and Joseph Ratzinger, now Benedict XVI, marked an important turning point. Your answers will substantially coincide with the council. Bishops and Primate offers interesting material for a theology of the relationship between these two functions. In the first chapter, Karl Rahner sheds light on the question of the essence of the Church as seen from the relationship between local Church and universal Church. In the second chapter, Ratzinger, extends and completes this vision trying to understand the vital relationship between primacy and episcopacy, not part of the sacrament, but the word, and shows that the "apostolic succession" is by its nature, the living presence of the word in the form of testimony. In the third chapter, Karl Rahner addresses the problem of the unique relationship between the bishop and apostolic college.