TO NEW BISHOPS: BE HOLY, GUIDE PRIESTS, PROMOTE VOCATIONS

VATICAN CITY, SEP 23, 2002 (VIS) - This morning in Castelgandolfo, the Holy Father welcomed young bishops from around the world who are participating in the annual meeting held in the Vatican for new bishops. In his talk the Pope focussed on four priorities: being models of holiness, being close to the priests in their diocese, promoting vocations to the priesthood and communicating Christ to modern man.

"The efficacy and the fruitfulness of our ministry," he said, "depend to a great extent on our configuration to Christ and on our personal holiness. ... A bishop's primary duty is to make an authentic desire for holiness grow in all believers, a holiness to which we are all called and in which culminate the aspirations of human beings."

"Another of your priorities," he went on, "is attention to your priests, who are your closest collaborators in the ministry. The spiritual care of priests is a primary duty for every diocesan bishop." He noted that when a bishop takes the hands of a newly ordained priest into his own hands, "the young priest chooses to entrust himself to the bishop and, for his part, the bishop commits himself to caring for those hands."

John Paul II then urged the prelates to "dedicate yourselves with passion to promoting authentic vocations to the priesthood through prayer, witnessing with your life and pastoral concern."

In conclusion, the Pope underscored the mission entrusted to bishops "to communicate Christ to the men of today in the world of today. Every day we experience how our times, so rich in technical means, material means and comfort, are so dramatically poor in purpose, values and ideals. Modern man, deprived of references to values, turns often to restricted and relative horizons. In this agnostic, and at times hostile context, a bishop's mission is not easy. We must not, however, give in to pessimism or discouragement, because the Holy Spirit guides the Church and gives her ... the courage to dare to seek new methods of evangelization in order to reach up-to-now unexplored spheres."

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