Find room in your heart for everyone, pope tells new bishops

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Everyone needs to feel there is room for them in their bishop’s heart, Pope Leo XIV said.

“Love the people that the Lord has entrusted to you” and boldly bring the Good News of salvation to everyone, the pope told about 147 bishops from five continents attending a course for bishops ordained in the past year.

“We live in an era of rapid change,” the pope told them Sept. 10 in the Vatican Synod Hall. “Advances in communication technologies and artificial intelligence have opened up possibilities,” but “they certainly cannot free humanity from sin and its consequences: the crises we are currently facing tragically demonstrate this.”

Nonetheless, the Church celebrated the Jubilee of Hope last year, not because she “lives apart from the world” but because “she is sent by Christ, who died and rose again, to proclaim the Gospel of salvation to all,” he said.

“We bishops are the first recipients of this mandate,” Pope Leo, who, as pope, is also the Bishop of Rome, said, and his encyclical “Magnifica Humanitas” is meant to be “a vision and a method for addressing the great challenge of safeguarding humanity in the age of artificial intelligence.”

“I encourage you to promote paths of reflection and dialogue in your dioceses, to form and support those who wish to commit themselves to the service of the civilization of love,” he added.

Pope Leo told the new bishops that their week of meetings and talks with one another and Vatican officials should help them understand that “no bishop walks alone.”

“Know that you are in my prayers, along with your churches: the priests, deacons, men and women in consecrated life, seminarians, families, young people, the elderly, the poor, those who suffer, and those who are still waiting to encounter the joy of the Gospel,” he said.

“Everyone must find a place in the bishop’s heart,” he said, because Christ already has a place in his heart for everyone.

Reflecting on the theme of bishops as servants of communion in the Church and in today’s world, Pope Leo told them that their most important responsibility is to “remain with Jesus.”

“We are bishops, but we are first and foremost disciples. To speak of Him, we need to be with Him; to lead His people, we must allow ourselves to be guided by Him every day, every single day,” he said. “Let us never forget this.”

Also, the pope said, cherish that time of being with the Lord in the Eucharist, the Word of God, prayer and during any moment “when you can be in His presence with the simple heart of a disciple who allows himself to be loved by his Lord.”

“Our ministry springs from there. And when the heart remains close to Him, our service also becomes more serene, more free and more fruitful,” Pope Leo said.

Jesus said the Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep, the pope said. What that means for a bishop is “to learn more and more each day to love his people: to know their joys and sorrows, to share in their dreams and to rejoice in seeing their communities grow.”

By meeting and ministering to everyone, he said, “you will discover more and more how beautiful the people of God are.”

“Learn their names, listen to their stories, visit their homes whenever you can, and pray with them. Especially in young churches, the bishop’s presence often speaks volumes, even before his words,” he said. “A visit, a blessing, time spent with a priest, listening to a family, a conversation with a young person: these are small gestures, but they can remain in a person’s heart for a lifetime.”

“Episcopal fatherhood,” Pope Leo said, is “having a heart large enough to make room for everyone, carrying one’s children within oneself and presenting them to the Lord in prayer every day.”

“Our preaching is an act of love, as are listening, prayer, discernment, the time we give to people and our very presence,” he said. “It is pastoral charity that allows Christ the Shepherd to reach the people He loves through our humble selves.”

“May people feel, through our presence, something of God’s tenderness and fatherhood!” the pope said.

“Dear brothers, as you return to your churches, take this certainty with you: the Lord, who has called you, is faithful,” Pope Leo said. “He will go before you on the road, accompany you on your journey, and, through the gift of his Holy Spirit, enlighten you every day. And may Mary, Mother of the Church, always watch over you and the people entrusted to your care.”

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