Vatican City, Sep 18, 2005 / 22:00 pm
Earlier today, Pope Benedict XVI met with a group of recently ordained bishops who have just completed a period of prayer and reflection over their upcoming duties and new roles. He called on them to be teachers of the faith, and to announce to people the profound good news of the Gospel--a reason, he said, for which to live.
In his address to the bishops, all of whom have been ordained within the last 12 months, the Pope said that "this meeting is part of initiatives for the permanent formation of bishops. ... If many reasons call for a commitment to an aggiornamento on the part of bishops, then it is all the more appropriate that they should have, at the very start of their mission, the opportunity to pass an adequate period of reflection upon the challenges and problems awaiting them."
"Taking your first steps in your episcopal role," he told them, "you have already become aware of the necessity for a humble trust in God and for the apostolic courage that is born of faith and of a bishop's sense of responsibility."
"Among your duties," he stressed, "I would like to underline that of being teachers of the faith. The announcement of the Gospel lies at the origin of the Church and of her development in the world, as well as being at the roots of the expansion of faith among the faithful. ... As successors to the Apostles, you are 'doctores fidei,' true doctors who, with the same authority as Christ, announce to the people a faith in which to believe and which to live."