HOLY FATHER WELCOMES 160 NEWLY ORDAINED BISHOPS

VATICAN CITY, JUL 5, 2001 (VIS) - This morning in the Clementine Hall, Pope John Paul welcomed 160 bishops ordained between January 1, 2000 and June of this year who are taking part in a meeting promoted by the Congregation for Bishops. The Pope thanked the Legionaries of Christ who are hosting the bishops during "these days of prayer, listening, reflection, ... fraternal communion and a serene and profound study of several themes and practical problems."

"My dear brothers," said the Holy Father, "you are the bishops of the beginning of the new millennium! Certainly we are living in a difficult and complex world. The series of questions, reports and debates that you have faced in these days attests to this. A bishop's ministry is not one marked by triumphalism, but rather by the Cross of Christ. With the sacrament of Orders, in fact, you have been more intimately configured to Christ."

He told them that, "in fulfilling your ministry what should animate you is a great spirit of service. Today more than ever the role of the bishop must be understood in terms of service. ... 'The Bishop, Servant of the Gospel for the Hope of the World': this will be the theme of the 10th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod this coming autumn on the life and ministry of bishops."

John Paul II went on to say that "the bishop must exercise his office and his authority as a service to unity and communion. As bishops, we are called to lead the People of God on the paths of holiness; for this reason we must look to Christ as our model. The success of our pastoral ministry cannot be measured in terms of bureaucratic organization or statistical data: holiness has other criteria for being measured." He stressed that "personal holiness is the condition for the fruitfulness of our ministry as bishops of the Church."

The Pope observed that, "as newly ordained bishops you will not fail to return often to that moving moment, recalling the triple 'munus' entrusted to you: being teachers of the faith, ... administrators of the mysteries of God for the sanctification of souls, and pastors and guides for the People of God."

In conclusion, the Holy Father noted that "apostolic service, as we well know, bears within it joys and hopes, but also difficulties, anxieties amd enormous pastoral challenges. But you are not alone in your ministry because you are united, as Successors of the Apostles, to the Pope, Successor of the Apostle Peter, and with all members of the College of Bishops."

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