{"id":1399,"date":"2014-04-23T21:30:02","date_gmt":"2014-04-24T01:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nuntiatura.ca\/en\/?p=1399"},"modified":"2015-02-25T16:02:36","modified_gmt":"2015-02-25T21:02:36","slug":"atlantic-episcopal-assembly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.nuntiatura.ca\/en\/atlantic-episcopal-assembly\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlantic Episcopal Assembly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Address of the Apostolic Nuncio, Msgr. Luigi Bonazzi<\/strong>
\nHalifax, April 23, 2014<\/p>\n

Dear brothers in the Episcopate,<\/p>\n

I greet each of you with great fraternal affection, in the joy of the Risen Lord who\u00a0goes ahead of us into Galilee: \u201cGo quickly\u2013 says the angel to the women at the tomb \u2013\u00a0and tell his disciples, \u2018He has risen from the dead and now he is going ahead of you to\u00a0Galilee; that is where you will see him\u2019<\/em>\u201d (Mt. 28.7). How beautiful, how deep and\u00a0comforting this thought: that the Lord goes ahead of us into the \u2018Galilee\u2019 of our daily\u00a0tasks, in our efforts as pastors, in the questions we have and for which we do not always\u00a0have easy answers, in the joys of ministry\u2026 The Lord always goes ahead of us, so that,\u00a0with him, we might become \u201cwitnesses of the Resurrection<\/em>\u201d (Acts 2:32), of the life that\u00a0has conquered death. An impossible task if it were only dependant upon our own human\u00a0strength; but possible and a source of joy for all humanity by the grace that the Lord\u00a0gives us and by which he sustains us (cf. 2 Cor. 12.9).<\/p>\n

Each time I speak to my brother bishops \u2013 as I have already done with the\u00a0Bishops of Quebec, with the members of the Permanent Council of the Episcopal\u00a0Conference, and with the Bishops of Ontario \u2013 I sense my own smallness. In fact, I have\u00a0only recently arrived in Canada and I am just starting to know some of the pages of the\u00a0long history of the Church in Canada. All of this makes me well aware of the modesty\u00a0and limitedness of what I may say and do. But I have great confidence in the Holy\u00a0Spirit, the gift of the Risen Lord. The Holy Spirit within us (cf. Acts 1:8) is the visible\u00a0proof that Jesus Christ goes ahead of us to Galilee and is always with us (cf. Mt. 28:20).<\/p>\n

I count upon the Holy Spirit, also in this moment, and I count as well and greatly\u00a0upon prayer. Prayer is a great and concrete help that I can give you, or better, that we\u00a0can give each other. To pray, personally and together, so that the Holy Spirit will give\u00a0us the light to see the path on which to walk, the light to know the road on which to lead\u00a0the people entrusted to our care.<\/p>\n

Each day we must ask the Lord for the grace to be \u201cgood shepherds\u201d who are in\u00a0front of, among and behind our people. \u201cTo be in front of the flock to show it the way, in\u00a0the midst of the flock to keep it united, and behind the flock to prevent anyone from\u00a0being left behind and because the flock itself has, so to speak, a \u2018good nose\u2019 for finding\u00a0the way. This is how the pastor must move!<\/em>\u201d (Pope Francis, Address to Pontifical\u00a0Representatives, June 21, 2013).<\/p>\n

We can ask ourselves: with what style, with what interior attitude should we live\u00a0our ministry as Pastors? What immediately comes to our mind is the great pastoral rule\u00a0of the Apostle Peter which he had learned at the school of his Master, Jesus the Good\u00a0Shepherd who \u201ccame not to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for\u00a0many<\/em>\u201d (Mt. 20:28). St. Peter makes concrete the words of his Master with this\u00a0invitation: \u201cgive a shepherd\u2019s care to the flock of God that is entrusted to you: watch\u00a0over it, not simply as a duty but gladly, as God wants; not for sordid money, but because\u00a0you are eager to do it. Do not lord it over the group which is in your charge, but be an\u00a0example for the flock<\/em>\u201d (1 Peter 5:2-3).<\/p>\n

It seems to me that Pope Francis \u2013 who has the charism of confirming his brethren\u00a0in the faith (cf. Luke 10:32) \u2013 insistently calls our attention to a particular aspect of the\u00a0figure of Jesus the Good Shepherd: Mercy. I think I can say that Pope Francis, with his\u00a0words and by his example, offers us every day a luminous lesson on \u201cthe bishop as an\u00a0apostle and witness of mercy\u201d.<\/p>\n

For Pope Francis, the background horizon that explains the figure of the \u201cmerciful\u00a0shepherd\u201d are those emblematic words portraying Jesus\u2019 attitude towards Matthew, a\u00a0public sinner, and revealing God\u2019s attitude towards all of us, because we are all sinners:\u00a0\u201cMiserando atque eligendo<\/em>\u201d. God regards with love his creatures crushed by their needs\u00a0and sin, with that love which is his boundless mercy: miserando; and he gives a concrete\u00a0form to his love by showing immediately boundless confidence: eligendo, that is to say,\u00a0by calling and entrusting a task. As we know, the words \u201cmiserando atque eligendo\u201d\u00a0were chosen by Pope Francis to explain his priestly vocation. They are now on his Papal\u00a0Coat of Arms as a gift for the whole Church.<\/p>\n

Pope Francis sees the bishop as a pastor who \u2013 dwelling among his priests,\u00a0relating with the religious men and women, walking in the midst of his people \u2013 looks at\u00a0them and always treats them \u201cmiserando atque eligendo<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

He has said this expressly: \u201cThe ministers of the Church must be first and\u00a0foremost, ministers of mercy<\/em>.\u201d The Pope dreams of a Church that is \u201cmother and\u00a0pastor.\u201d<\/em> And he adds: \u201cThe ministers of the Church should be merciful, caring for\u00a0people, accompanying them like the Good Samaritan who washes, cleans and relieves\u00a0his neighbor\u2026 The ministers of the Gospel must be people who can warm the hearts of\u00a0the people, who walk through the dark night with them, who know how to dialogue and\u00a0to descend themselves into their people\u2019s night, into the darkness, but without getting\u00a0lost<\/em>\u201d (Interview with Antonio Spadaro, L\u2019Osservatore Romano, September 26, 2013).<\/p>\n

How then should one exercise this ministry of mercy? Firstly, as the Pope says,\u00a0by proclaiming, that is to say by making to resonate strongly the first proclamation:\u00a0\u201cJesus Christ has saved you!<\/em>\u201d Yes, there are many things to be done, Pope Francis\u00a0seems to say, but the most important is the first and principal proclamation: \u201cJesus\u00a0Christ loves you; he gave his life to save you<\/em>\u2026\u201d (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, nos. 164, 165,\u00a0266).<\/p>\n

Mercy must then be witnessed and displayed in our lives. We must use our hands\u00a0to bless, but also to embrace. Let me recall in this connection the moving example given\u00a0by Pope Francis in one of his homilies at Santa Marta: \u201cThe image that comes to mind is\u00a0that of a nurse, of a nurse in a hospital. She heals wounds one by one, but with both\u00a0hands. God gets involved with our misery, he draws close to our wounds and he heals\u00a0them with his hands; he became man in order to have hands with which to heal us.\u00a0<\/em>Jesus\u2019 work is personal: one man committed the sin, one man came to heal it.\u00a0Closeness! God does not save us merely by decree or by law; he saves us with\u00a0<\/em>tenderness, he saves us with caresses, he saves us with his life given for us<\/em>\u201d (Homily,\u00a0October 22, 2013).<\/p>\n

Dear brother bishops, we are in the week after Easter, almost on the eve of Divine\u00a0Mercy Sunday, when in Rome Pope Francis will insert among the saints two great\u00a0witnesses of Mercy: Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II. These same\u00a0circumstances \u2013 I think \u2013 help us, or rather call us \u2013 as Pope Francis prompts us \u2013 to\u00a0regard our Episcopal ministry as a ministry of mercy. We are called to be pastors\u00a0capable of drawing close to every person, walking by their side, as did Jesus with the\u00a0disciples of Emmaus (cf. Luke 24:15). Of course, accompanying men and women\u00a0absolutely does not mean adapting to the spirit of the world, considering as secondary\u00a0moral teachings, or being unaware of the pitfalls of individualism, relativism and\u00a0secularism.<\/p>\n

No, to accompany does not mean to comply or yield, but rather to support. Pope\u00a0Francis asks: \u201cAre we still a Church capable of warming hearts? A Church capable of\u00a0leading people back to Jerusalem? Capable of bringing them home?\u201d<\/em> And he tells us:\u00a0\u201cWe need a Church that kindles hearts and warms them<\/em>\u201d (cf. Address to the Bishops of\u00a0Brazil, July 27, 2013).<\/p>\n

Together let us ask for this grace: for the Church and for each one of us. Thank\u00a0you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Address of the Apostolic Nuncio, Halifax, April 23, 2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[45,22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nuntiatura.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1399"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nuntiatura.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nuntiatura.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nuntiatura.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nuntiatura.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1399"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.nuntiatura.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1658,"href":"http:\/\/www.nuntiatura.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1399\/revisions\/1658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nuntiatura.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nuntiatura.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nuntiatura.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}