Hierarchy of the Catholic Church distinct from the general apostolate or ministry of the laity described above. The consultative leadership of the church, in both the diocese and the parish, usually comprises a Pastoral Council and a Finance Council, as well as several Commissions usually focusing on major aspects of the church's life and mission, such as Faith Formation or Christian Education, Liturgy, Social Justice, Ecumenism, or Stewardship. Religious—who can be either lay people or clergy—are members of religious institutes, societies in which the members take public vows and live a fraternal life in common. This is a form of consecrated life distinct from other
Hierarchy of the Catholic Church serves by default as the ecclesiastical court of appeal for suffragans (court of second instance), and the metropolitan has the option of judging those appeals personally. Eastern metropolitans in patriarchal or major archiepiscopal churches have a level of authority similar to that of Latin metropolitans, subject to the specific laws and customs of their "sui iuris" church. Eastern metropolitans who head a metropolitan "sui iuris" church have much greater authority within their church, although it is less than that of a major archbishop or patriarch. All metropolitans have the title of Archbishop, and the metropolitan see is usually referred to