The following speech was delivered by Pope Leo XIV in St. Peter’s Basilica, where 400 bishops and cardinals from 38 countries gathered on June 25 for the Jubilee of Bishops.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Peace be with you!
Dear brothers, good morning and welcome!
I deeply appreciate the effort all of you have made to come on pilgrimage to Rome, since I realize how pressing are the demands of your ministry. Yet each of you, like myself, before being a shepherd, is a sheep, a member of the Lord’s flock. So we too, even before others, are asked to pass through the Holy Door, the symbol of Christ the Saviour. If we are to lead the Churches entrusted to our care, we must let ourselves be profoundly renewed by Jesus, the Good Shepherd, in order to conform ourselves fully to his heart and to the mystery of his love.
“Spes non confundit,” “Hope does not disappoint” (Rom 5:5). How often did we hear Pope Francis repeat those words of Saint Paul! They became one of his trademark phrases, so much so that he chose them to be the opening words of the Bull of Indiction of this Jubilee Year.
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 the message that hope does not disappoint means swimming against the tide, even in certain painful situations that appear to be hopeless. Yet it is precisely at those times when it becomes all the more apparent that our faith and our hope do not come from ourselves, but from God. 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 (cf. Bull Spes Non Confundit, 3).
Dear friends, a Bishop is a witness to hope by his example of a life firmly grounded in God and completely devoted to the service of the Church. This will be the case only insofar as he is conformed to Christ in his personal life and in his apostolic ministry. The Spirit of the Lord will then shape his way of thinking, his feelings and his actions. Let us stop for a moment and together consider a few aspects of this witness.
First, the Bishop is the visible principle of unity in the particular Church entrusted to him. It is his duty to build communion among its members and with the universal Church by fostering the variety of gifts and ministries given for its own growth and for the spread of the Gospel. In this service, as in his entire mission, the Bishop can count on the special divine grace conferred on him at his episcopal ordination. This grace sustains him as a teacher of the faith, a minister of sanctification and a spiritual leader; it strengthens his commitment to the Kingdom of God, to the eternal salvation of souls and to the transformation of history by the power of the Gospel.
The second aspect I would like to consider, again in the light of Christ as the model of the Bishop’s life, could be put this way: the Bishop is a man who lives the theological life. In a word, he is a person completely docile to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, who fills him with faith, hope and charity, and fans them into flame amid the various situations and challenges of daily life.
The Bishop, then, is a man of faith. Here I think of that marvelous passage in the Letter to the Hebrews (cf. Heb 11), where the author lists an entire genealogy of “witnesses” of faith, beginning with Abel. I think specifically of Moses, who was called by God to lead the people to the promised land, and who, we are told, “remained steadfast, as if seeing him who is unseen” (Heb 11:27). Here we have a magnificent portrayal of a man of faith: he is one who, by the grace of God, sees ahead, glimpses the goal, and perseveres in times of trial. Think of all the times that Moses interceded for the people before God. So too, the Bishop in his Church acts as an intercessor, because the Spirit keeps the flame of faith alive in his heart.
Then too, the Bishop is a man of hope, since “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Heb 11:1). Especially at moments of difficulty in people’s lives, the Bishop, by this theological virtue, helps them not to despair: not simply by his words but by his closeness. When families are greatly burdened and public institutions fail to provide adequate support; when young people are disillusioned and fed up with empty promises; when the elderly and those with grave disabilities feel abandoned, the Bishop is close to them, not offering easy solutions, but rather the experience of communities that strive to live the Gospel in simplicity and solidarity.
Faith and hope then come together in him as a man of pastoral charity. The whole life of the Bishop, his entire ministry, diverse and multifaceted as it is, finds its unity in what Saint Augustine calls the amoris officium. Here his theological life is expressed and shines forth in the highest degree. Whether preaching, visiting communities, listening to priests and deacons, or making administrative decisions, all that he does is inspired and motivated by the charity of Christ the Shepherd. With the help of God’s grace, drawn daily from the celebration of the Eucharist and his prayer, the Bishop gives an example of fraternal love to his Coadjutor or Auxiliary, to the Bishop Emeritus and to the Bishops of neighboring dioceses, to the priests, his closest collaborators, particularly those experiencing moments of difficulty or illness. His heart is open and welcoming, and so is his home.
Dear brothers, this is the theological core of the life of a Bishop. Centered on these aspects, and always awakened by the same Spirit, a number of other essential virtues can be added: pastoral prudence, poverty, perfect continence in celibacy, and human virtues.
Pastoral prudence is the practical wisdom that guides the Bishop in his decisions, in his governance, in his relations with the faithful and with their associations. A clear sign of prudence is his exercise of dialogue as a style and method, both in his relationships with others and in his presiding over participatory bodies: in other words, in his overseeing of synodality in his particular Church. Pope Francis taught us much in this regard, insisting with pedagogical wisdom on synodality as a dimension of the life of the Church. Pastoral prudence also enables the Bishop to guide the diocesan community by cherishing its traditions and by promoting new directions and initiatives.
To bear witness to the Lord Jesus, the Bishop lives a life of evangelical poverty. His is a simple, sober and generous lifestyle, dignified and at the same time suited to the conditions of the majority of his people. The poor must find in him a father and a brother, and never feel uncomfortable in meeting him or entering his home. In his personal life, he must be detached from the pursuit of wealth and from forms of favoritism based on money or power. The Bishop must never forget that, like Jesus, he has been anointed with the Holy Spirit and sent to bring good news to the poor (cf. Lk 4:18).
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 (cf. Mt 19:12). Here, it is not just a question of living as a celibate, but of practicing chastity of heart and conduct, and in this way living a life of Christian discipleship and presenting to all the authentic image of the Church, holy and chaste in her members as in her Head. 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.
Finally, the Bishop is called to cultivate those human virtues which the Council Fathers also chose to mention in the Decree Presbyterorum Ordinis (No. 3). These are of great help to him in his ministry and in his relationships with others. They include fairness, sincerity, magnanimity, openness of mind and heart, the ability to rejoice with those who rejoice and to suffer with those who suffer, as well as self-control, delicacy, patience, discretion, great openness to listening and engaging in dialogue, and willingness to serve. These virtues, which each of us possess to a greater or lesser extent by nature, can and must be cultivated in conformity to the Lord Jesus, with the grace of the Holy Spirit.
Dear brothers, may the prayers of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saints Peter and Paul obtain for you and your communities the graces that you most need. In particular, may they help you to be men of communion, always promoting unity in the diocesan presbyterate. May every priest, without exception, sense the fatherhood, brotherhood and friendship of his Bishop. That spirit of communion encourages priests in their pastoral outreach and makes the particular Church grow in unity.
Thank you for remembering me in your prayers! I am also praying for you and from my heart, I offer all of you my blessing.
