Leo XIV jokes about his election as pope: “I still wonder why.”
Vatican City, Sep 11 (EFE)
Pope Leo XIV joked Thursday about his election as pontiff last May and said he still wonders “why” he was chosen, during a Vatican audience with bishops ordained in the last year, inviting them to “rediscover the passion and courage” of their work.
“I was thinking of coming to this course also dressed in black, but…” he told them, before adding: “Perhaps some of you are still wondering why I was chosen. I, at least, am still wondering.”
The American and Peruvian pontiff, who was elected pope on May 8, following the death of Pope Francis, received the 192 bishops from around the world who are currently participating in various training courses at the Vatican, urging them to opt for “diverse and creative” forms of apostolate and new “languages.”
“The crisis of faith and its transmission, together with the difficulties related to ecclesial belonging and practice, invite us to rediscover the passion and courage for a new proclamation of the Gospel,” he asserted, before insisting that being a bishop is “something that has to do with our identity” because “service is not an external characteristic or a way of exercising the role.”
The Pope also asked them to ask themselves “what it means to be servants of the faith of the people,” which “must be translated into the style of the apostolate, in the various forms of pastoral care and governance, in the desire to proclaim it, in very diverse and creative ways according to the concrete situations you will encounter.”
Regarding the crisis of faith, in addition to “passion and courage,” it is necessary to keep in mind that “many people who seem distant from the faith often return to knock on the doors of the Church or open themselves to a new search for spirituality, which sometimes does not find adequate languages or forms in the usual pastoral proposals.”
“And we must not forget the other challenges, of a more cultural and social nature, that affect us all and that are of particular interest to some territories: the drama of war and violence, the suffering of the poor, the longing of so many for a more fraternal and supportive world, the ethical challenges that challenge us about the value of life and liberty, and the list could go on.”
Leo XIV wished to recall the words his predecessor, Francis, dedicated to the bishops: “Closeness to the people entrusted to us is not an opportunistic strategy, but our essential condition.”
The 192 new bishops from the five continents will participate in September in the formation courses promoted by the Dicastery for Evangelization and the Dicastery for Bishops.
