Bishops ordained to the episcopate in the past year, including five Australian bishops, attended a formation course in Rome this week, which concluded yesterday with an audience with Pope Leo XIV. Source: Vatican News.
In his address, the Pope urged the new bishops to remember that they have been chosen, called, and sent as servants of the faith.
“I wish to recall something as simple as it is not to be taken for granted: the gift you have received is not for yourselves, but to serve the cause of the Gospel,” he said.
Pope Leo then focused on the mission of service entrusted to bishops, saying it touches on their very identity.
Service, he said, is not an external trait or set of actions, but rather a call to “inner freedom, poverty of spirit, and a readiness for service that is born of love, so as to embody Jesus’s own choice, who became poor to make us rich”
God came to us not in power but in the love of a Father, the Pope added, noting that God calls us into communion with Himself.
St Augustine said that bishops, who preside over others, must know that they are the “servant of many,” pointing to Jesus’s admonition of his disciples who had begun to seek greatness for themselves.
“I therefore ask you always,” the Pope said, “to keep watch and to walk in humility and prayer, so as to make yourselves servants of the people to whom the Lord sends you.”
Pope Leo recalled the words of his predecessor, Pope Francis, who invited bishops to draw near to their flock, since their closeness expresses the care of God for His people.
As servants of all, Bishops need to be aware that their ministry should embody the image of Christ and His service. But, the Pope noted, they must also shape their apostolate to reflect Christ’s service, including in their method of pastoral care, proclamation, and governance.
“The crisis of faith and of its transmission, together with the difficulties concerning ecclesial belonging and practice,” he said, “invite us to rediscover the passion and courage for a new proclamation of the Gospel.”
The Australian bishops who attended the formation school were Bishop Rene Ramirez RCJ (Melbourne), Bishop George Kolodziej SDS (Bunbury), Bishop Thinh Nguyen (Melbourne), Bishop Peter Murphy (Armidale) and Bishop Tony Percy (Sydney).
FULL STORY
Pope: Bishops must embody Christ’s service in humility and prayer (By Devin Watkins, Vatican News)
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Being a bishop requires humility, creativity, pope tells new bishops (OSV News)
