This morning's General Audience began at 10:00am local time in Saint Peter's Square where the Holy Father, Pope Francis met with groups of the faithful and with pilgrims who had gathered there from all parts of Italy and from every corner of the world.
During his catechesis, the Pope continued the cycle of teachings dedicated to the Church, adding a meditation on the hierarchy of Holy Mother Church.
Following the completion of the catechesis, summaries of the meditation were also offered in various languages, and the Holy Father spoke greetings to the pilgrims who were gathered.
The General Audience concluded with the chanting of the Pater Noster and the imparting of the Apostolic Blessing.
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning.
We have just some advice that the apostle Paul offered to the bishop Titus. But what does this mean for us who are bishops? We have all heard it, no? It is not easy, it is not easy because we are sinners, but we confide ourselves to your prayer, so that we may at least be able to come close to the things that the apostle Paul offered as counsel to all the bishops. OK? Will you pray for us?
In previous catecheses, we have already had an occasion to point out how the Holy Spirit has always filled the Church with its gifts, in great abundance. Now, in the power and grace of the Spirit, Christ does not fail to awaken various ministries, in order to build up the Christian community which is his body. Among these ministries, is that of a bishop. In the bishop, assisted by priests and deacons, Christ himself is made present and continues to take care of his Church, assuring its protection and its guidance.
In the presence and ministry of the bishop, the priests and the deacons we can see the true face of the Church: it is the hierarchical Holy Mother Church. Truly, through these brothers, chosen by the Lord and consecrated with the Sacrament of Ordination, the Church exercises her maternity: she grows through Christians who are baptized, reborn in Christ; she watches over our growth in faith; she accompanies us with the embrace of the Father as we receive his forgiveness; she prepares for us the Eucharistic meal where we are fed with the Word of God and the Body and Blood of Jesus; she invokes over us the blessing of God and the strength of his Spirit, supporting us throughout our lives and surrounding us with tenderness and warmth especially in the most delicate moments of trial, suffering and death.
This maternity of the Church is expressed especially in the person of the bishop and in his ministry. In fact, just as Jesus chose the apostles and invited them to proclaim the gospel and to feed his sheep, so the bishops, their successors are placed at the head of the Christian community, as guardians of the faith and as living signs of the presence of the Lord in its midst. In this way we understand that it is not a position of prestige or a place of honour. The episcopacy is not a reward, it is a service. Jesus wanted it this way. There should never be a place in the Church for worldly mentalities. The thinking of the world would say: This man has built an ecclesiastical career; he has become a bishop. No, no, in the Church there should never be room for this kind of thinking. The episcopacy is a service, not a place of honour to be taken advantage of. To be a bishop means always holding before our eyes the example of Jesus who, as the Good Shepherd, came not to be served, but to serve (cf Mt 20:28; Mk 10:45) and to give his life for his sheep (cf Jn 10:11). The holy bishops - there have been so many through the history of the Church, so many holy bishops - show us that this ministry is not something for which we strive, not something we ask for, not something we can purchase, but something that must be welcomed with obedience, not as an elevation but as a source of self-abasement, like Jesus who humbled himself, being obedient even to the point of death, dying on a cross (Phil 2:8). It is sad to see a man who seeks this office and who dos so many things in order to achieve it, and when he achieves it, he does not serve, he strides, he lives solely for his own vanity.
There is another precious element which merits being placed into evidence. When Jesus chose and called the apostles, he thought of them not as being separated one from another, each of them concerned only with his own affairs, but together. They were meant to be together with him, united, like a family. The bishops too make up a unique college, assembled around the Pope who is the keeper and the guarantor of this profound communion which was so much at the heart of Jesus' desire for his apostles. How beautiful it is when the bishops, with the Pope, express this collegiality and seek to always be more devoted and better servants of the faithful, servants of the Church! I recently experienced this very thing during the Assembly of the Synod on the family. Let us consider all the Bishops throughout the world who, even though they live in diverse locations, cultures, realities and traditions and at times at great distances from one another - one bishop said to me the other day that in order for him to come to Rome, it was necessary, from where he was, to spend more than 30 hours in a plane - still have a sense of being together, side by side with one another and becoming an expression of an intimate bond in Christ, which binds their communities together. In the communal prayer of the Church, all the bishops are placed together as they listen to the Lord and to the Spirit, being therefore capable of paying attention more deeply to humanity and to the signs of the times (cf Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Constitution Gaudium et spes, 4).
Dear friends, all of this helps us to understand why the Christian community recognizes in the bishop a great gift, and is called to nourish a sincere and profound communion with him, with the priests and with the deacons. The Church is not healthy if the faithful, the deacons and the priests are not united to their bishop. A Church which is not united to its bishop is a sick Church. Jesus desired this union of all the faithful with the bishops, even deacons and priests. And this we do with the knowledge that it is the bishop who makes visible the relationship of each local Church with the Apostles and with all the other communities, united with their bishop and with the Pope in the one Church of the Lord Jesus, which is our Holy Mother, the hierarchical Church.
Thank you.
Syntheses of this catechesis were then shared in various languages, and the Holy Father offered greetings to each group of the faithful who were gathered in Saint Peter's Square. To English-speaking pilgrims, he said:
I greet the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, including the various groups from England, Malta, Denmark, Japan and the United States of America. Upon all of you, and your families, I invoke joy and peace in the Lord Jesus. God bless you all!
During his catechesis, the Pope continued the cycle of teachings dedicated to the Church, adding a meditation on the hierarchy of Holy Mother Church.
Following the completion of the catechesis, summaries of the meditation were also offered in various languages, and the Holy Father spoke greetings to the pilgrims who were gathered.
The General Audience concluded with the chanting of the Pater Noster and the imparting of the Apostolic Blessing.
Catechesis of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
for the General Audience
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning.
We have just some advice that the apostle Paul offered to the bishop Titus. But what does this mean for us who are bishops? We have all heard it, no? It is not easy, it is not easy because we are sinners, but we confide ourselves to your prayer, so that we may at least be able to come close to the things that the apostle Paul offered as counsel to all the bishops. OK? Will you pray for us?
In previous catecheses, we have already had an occasion to point out how the Holy Spirit has always filled the Church with its gifts, in great abundance. Now, in the power and grace of the Spirit, Christ does not fail to awaken various ministries, in order to build up the Christian community which is his body. Among these ministries, is that of a bishop. In the bishop, assisted by priests and deacons, Christ himself is made present and continues to take care of his Church, assuring its protection and its guidance.
In the presence and ministry of the bishop, the priests and the deacons we can see the true face of the Church: it is the hierarchical Holy Mother Church. Truly, through these brothers, chosen by the Lord and consecrated with the Sacrament of Ordination, the Church exercises her maternity: she grows through Christians who are baptized, reborn in Christ; she watches over our growth in faith; she accompanies us with the embrace of the Father as we receive his forgiveness; she prepares for us the Eucharistic meal where we are fed with the Word of God and the Body and Blood of Jesus; she invokes over us the blessing of God and the strength of his Spirit, supporting us throughout our lives and surrounding us with tenderness and warmth especially in the most delicate moments of trial, suffering and death.
This maternity of the Church is expressed especially in the person of the bishop and in his ministry. In fact, just as Jesus chose the apostles and invited them to proclaim the gospel and to feed his sheep, so the bishops, their successors are placed at the head of the Christian community, as guardians of the faith and as living signs of the presence of the Lord in its midst. In this way we understand that it is not a position of prestige or a place of honour. The episcopacy is not a reward, it is a service. Jesus wanted it this way. There should never be a place in the Church for worldly mentalities. The thinking of the world would say: This man has built an ecclesiastical career; he has become a bishop. No, no, in the Church there should never be room for this kind of thinking. The episcopacy is a service, not a place of honour to be taken advantage of. To be a bishop means always holding before our eyes the example of Jesus who, as the Good Shepherd, came not to be served, but to serve (cf Mt 20:28; Mk 10:45) and to give his life for his sheep (cf Jn 10:11). The holy bishops - there have been so many through the history of the Church, so many holy bishops - show us that this ministry is not something for which we strive, not something we ask for, not something we can purchase, but something that must be welcomed with obedience, not as an elevation but as a source of self-abasement, like Jesus who humbled himself, being obedient even to the point of death, dying on a cross (Phil 2:8). It is sad to see a man who seeks this office and who dos so many things in order to achieve it, and when he achieves it, he does not serve, he strides, he lives solely for his own vanity.
There is another precious element which merits being placed into evidence. When Jesus chose and called the apostles, he thought of them not as being separated one from another, each of them concerned only with his own affairs, but together. They were meant to be together with him, united, like a family. The bishops too make up a unique college, assembled around the Pope who is the keeper and the guarantor of this profound communion which was so much at the heart of Jesus' desire for his apostles. How beautiful it is when the bishops, with the Pope, express this collegiality and seek to always be more devoted and better servants of the faithful, servants of the Church! I recently experienced this very thing during the Assembly of the Synod on the family. Let us consider all the Bishops throughout the world who, even though they live in diverse locations, cultures, realities and traditions and at times at great distances from one another - one bishop said to me the other day that in order for him to come to Rome, it was necessary, from where he was, to spend more than 30 hours in a plane - still have a sense of being together, side by side with one another and becoming an expression of an intimate bond in Christ, which binds their communities together. In the communal prayer of the Church, all the bishops are placed together as they listen to the Lord and to the Spirit, being therefore capable of paying attention more deeply to humanity and to the signs of the times (cf Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Constitution Gaudium et spes, 4).
Dear friends, all of this helps us to understand why the Christian community recognizes in the bishop a great gift, and is called to nourish a sincere and profound communion with him, with the priests and with the deacons. The Church is not healthy if the faithful, the deacons and the priests are not united to their bishop. A Church which is not united to its bishop is a sick Church. Jesus desired this union of all the faithful with the bishops, even deacons and priests. And this we do with the knowledge that it is the bishop who makes visible the relationship of each local Church with the Apostles and with all the other communities, united with their bishop and with the Pope in the one Church of the Lord Jesus, which is our Holy Mother, the hierarchical Church.
Thank you.
Syntheses of this catechesis were then shared in various languages, and the Holy Father offered greetings to each group of the faithful who were gathered in Saint Peter's Square. To English-speaking pilgrims, he said:
I greet the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, including the various groups from England, Malta, Denmark, Japan and the United States of America. Upon all of you, and your families, I invoke joy and peace in the Lord Jesus. God bless you all!
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