A bishop is a man of deep faith who is filled with hope and stays close to his people, Pope Leo XIV said yesterday. Source: CNS.
He is “not offering easy solutions,” but rather, he is helping his flock be a community that strives “to live the Gospel in simplicity and solidarity,” he said in a reflection with bishops celebrating the Jubilee of Bishops.
The heart of a bishop “is open and welcoming, and so is his home”, he said. But he “must be firm and decisive in dealing with situations that can cause scandal and with every case of abuse, especially involving minors, and fully respect the legislation currently in force.”
More than 400 bishops from 38 countries gathered for the Pope’s reflection at the Altar of the Chair in St Peter’s Basilica after taking part in a pilgrimage through the Holy Door and concelebrating Mass presided over by Cardinal Marc Ouellet, retired prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery of Bishops.
The Holy Year dedicated to a hope that “does not disappoint,” he said, is a reminder that “we, as bishops, are the primary heirs of that prophetic legacy, which we must preserve and transmit to the people of God by our words and the way we live our lives.”
At times, preaching that message “means swimming against the tide, even in certain painful situations that appear to be hopeless,” he said. Yet, “if we are truly close to those who suffer, the Holy Spirit can revive in their hearts even a flame that has all but died out.”
Pope Leo told bishops their life and ministry needed to be marked by some essential virtues: pastoral prudence, poverty, perfect continence in celibacy and human virtues.
“To bear witness to the Lord Jesus, the bishop lives a life of evangelical poverty,” marked by “a simple, sober and generous lifestyle, dignified and at the same time suited to the conditions of the majority of his people,” he said.
“In his personal life, he must be detached from the pursuit of wealth and from forms of favouritism based on money or power,” he said, because, like Jesus, the bishop has been anointed and sent “to bring good news to the poor.”
“Together with material poverty, the life of the bishop is also marked by that specific form of poverty which is celibacy and virginity for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven,” Pope Leo said.
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Bishops live simply, guiding their flock through life’s joys, trials with hope, Pope Leo says (By Carol Glatz, CNS)
