GREATEST NUMBER OF BISHOPS IN ROME SINCE VATICAN COUNCIL

VATICAN CITY, OCT 7, 2000 (VIS) - At noon today in the Paul VI Hall, John Paul II addressed the 1,500 bishops who are in Rome for their Jubilee. He highlighted that "the sight of so many bishops gathered together from all parts of the world has not been seen since the time of Vatican Council II."

"Dear brothers in the episcopate, inasmuch as we are sacramentally modeled on Christ, Pastor and Spouse of the Church," said the Pope, "we are called to 'relive' in our thoughts, in our feelings and in our choices, the love and total self-giving of Jesus Christ for His Church. Love for Christ and love for the Church are, definitively, a single and indivisible love."

He affirmed that "the ultimate aim of all our pastoral activities is the sanctification of the faithful, beginning with that of priests, our direct collaborators." We must awaken in them "the commitment to respond promptly and generously to the call of the Lord."

The Holy Father said it was necessary to "rediscover what Vatican Council II said about the universal vocation to sanctity; ... a sanctity that matures as pastoral charity, finding its model in Christ, the Good Shepherd."

"This pastoral charity," he added, "must give life above all ... to the 'munus docendi,' the office of teaching. ... Today especially, amid so many discordant voices that create confusion and perplexity in the minds of the faithful, the bishop's arduous responsibility is to bring clarity. Announcing the Gospel is the highest act of love towards man, towards his liberty and his thirst for happiness."

The Pope indicated that "in this task, more than in any other, the role of the bishop takes the form of 'munus sanctificandi,' the office of sanctifying, thanks to the presence of He who is the Saint par excellence."

"Finally, the bishop's charity," he concluded, "must shine forth in the broad field of pastoral governing, in the 'munus regendi.' ... This is a service of charity which must overlook no one, rather it must pay particular attention to the 'least'."

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