- 11 September, 2025
Vatican, September 11, 2025: Pope Leo XIV urged Bishops ordained in the past year to live as servants of their people’s faith, since the Church sends them as caring shepherds to share their journey.
The newly ordained Bishops attended a Formation Course in Rome this week, which concluded on Thursday with an audience with the Pope.
In his address, Pope Leo reminded them that they had been chosen, called, and sent for service. “I wish to recall something as simple as it is not to be taken for granted: the gift you have received is not for yourselves, but to serve the cause of the Gospel,” he said.
Reflecting on the mission entrusted to Bishops, he stressed that service belongs to their very identity. It is not merely a function or a set of actions, but a call to “inner freedom, poverty of spirit, and a readiness for service born of love, so as to embody Jesus’ own choice, who became poor to make us rich.”
God, he continued, revealed Himself not in power but in the love of a Father, calling humanity into communion. Citing St Augustine, he reminded the Bishops that though they preside, they remain the “servant of many,” echoing Jesus’ warning against seeking greatness.
“I therefore ask you always,” said the Pope, “to keep watch and to walk in humility and prayer, so as to make yourselves servants of the people to whom the Lord sends you.”
He also recalled the words of Pope Francis, who invited Bishops to draw close to their flock, showing God’s care through their presence. Bishops, he added, must ensure their apostolate reflects Christ’s service in pastoral care, proclamation, and governance.
“The crisis of faith and of its transmission, together with the difficulties concerning ecclesial belonging and practice,” he said, “invite us to rediscover the passion and courage for a new proclamation of the Gospel.”
He urged them to welcome all who knock on the Church’s doors while addressing wider challenges such as war, violence, poverty, ethical concerns, and the longing for fraternity and solidarity.
“The Church,” he said, “sends you as shepherds who share the journey, the questions, the anxieties, and the hopes of the people; shepherds who seek to be guides, fathers, and brothers to priests and to our sisters and brothers in the faith.”
Concluding, Pope Leo XIV prayed that the new Bishops may “never lack the wind of the Spirit, and that the joy of your Ordination, like a sweet fragrance, may also spread over those whom you are going to serve.”
Courtesy: Vatican News
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