sentences:  Rather, the CBCI is similar to the 'assembly of bishops' described in 322§2 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches.Pope John Paul II in a letter in 1987 directed the three rites to set up their own bishops' conferences.Nevertheless, the CBCI is the face of the Catholic Church in India and addresses the Church's "questions of common concern and of a national and supra-ritual character", while the episcopal body that heads each rite deals with internal issues.