Pope speaks to new bishops

(September 21, 2009) Pope Benedict XVI on Monday met new bishops from around the world appointed during the past year and urged them to promote the priestly identity which above all, he said, means being available to God. Some 120 new bishops were undergoing a formation course in Rome conducted by the Vatican’s congregation for Bishops. The Pope said that bishops have a fatherly responsibility to protect and promote the identity of priests who are entrusted to their pastoral care – an identity which today is under great stress from growing secularization. Reminding the bishops of the current Year of Priests, Pope Benedict observed that today the mission of a priest, and more so of a bishop, is an enormous task that absorbs him continually and totally. The Pope noted that difficulties keep growing and tasks keep multiplying as the priest faces new realities and growing pastoral needs but he warned that attention to the everyday problems and the demanding initiatives to lead men to God must never distract him from an intimate and personal relationship with Christ. Being at the service of the people must not diminish or disregard the priest’s availability to the Lord, the Pope stressed. Time that a priest and the bishop dedicates to God in prayer is always well spent, the Pope said, because prayer is the soul of pastoral activity, the life sap that gives strength and support in times of uncertainty and discouragement and is an inexhaustible source of missionary zeal and brotherly love toward all.