The Bishop is Neither Manager Nor Bureaucrat!

Benedict XVI. on the Shepherd's Responsibilities of the Successors of the Apostles -- by Armin Schwibach/ Rome

Rome[kath.net/as] The Bishop is not a pure manager, he is not a bureaucrat or a simple moderator and organizer of the life of the diocese. Much more, he must be a "father, brother and friend" and be on the "Christian and human path", who knows he has to create, "an atmosphere of trust, acceptance, sympathy, but also uprightness and justice".

With these words Pope Benedict XVI. addressed a second group of newly ordained Bishops this morning, who participated in a course organized by the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

In his speak the Pope adumbrated a proper life program, that has validity for every Bishop. For that he went to some "enlightening" words of St. Thomas Aquinas. "Authority" and "Love" as "caritas" are says Thomas the fundamental requirements for a Bishop, which is also defined in the Dogmatic Constitution of the Second Vatican Council, "Lumen Gentium". The Council explains: "A bishop, since he is sent by the Father to govern his family, must keep before his eyes the example of the Good Shepherd, who came not to be ministered unto but to minister,(comp. Mt 20,28; Mk 10,45) and to lay down his life for his sheep (comp. Joh 10,11).

Taken from among men and compassed with weakness, he can have compassion for them, who are in ignorance and error (comp. Hebr 5,1-2). He should not refuse to hear his subordinates, who he cares for like true sons and be exhorted work eagerly with them. For he will give an account for your souls before God (comp. Hebr 13,17), should you observe through prayer, preaching and cared for him with any kind of charitable work, the same for any, who are still not of the same flock and are yet really commended by the Lord.

That he is as the Apostle Paul the most sinful, he is ready, to preach the Gospel to all (comp. Röm 1,14-15) and encourage his faithful to missionary zeal. (Lumen Gentium, 27)

The assignment of Bishops, according to the admonitions of Benedict VI., may never be understood within a mentality, in which efficiency an effectiveness are understood as the the center points. The attention of the Bishops may not valid in the first line to consider "what is to be done"; it is much more necessary, "to always keep the ontological dimension, which stands on the basis of the functional dimension."

So the office of the Bishop is located "within a deep perspective of faith and not simply in a human, administrative or sociologically certain perspective".


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