In Church governance there is the principle of delegation. For example, when we say “The Holy See” or “The Apostolic See” it refers to the pope. However, in reality, the pope rarely deals with any of these issues or hears about them. Most popes have their own work to do and can’t take care of 20 million issues that occur each day around the world. Therefore, the Holy See has congregations, commissions, institutes, departments, etc to deal with very specific issues. As long as each of these does what has been delegated to it by the Pontiff, until the Pontiff says differently, one assumes that whatever comes out of them is his will. They have been “deputized” to speak authoritatively for him. Observe quotation marks. I couldn’t think of a better word in English.
