Holy Father urges US bishops to shoulder duties

From Catholic World News:

Vatican, Apr. 02 (CWNews.com) - Pope John Paul II (bio - news) today told a group of American bishops that they must renew their own spiritual lives, as the first step toward rebuilding the Church in the US after the devastation of the sex-abuse scandal.

"The history of the Church demonstrates that there can be no effective reform without interior renewal," the Pope said. He continued: "The bishop must be the first to conform his life to Christ in holiness and constant conversion."

The Holy Father met on April 2 with bishops from the metropolitan provinces of Atlanta and Miami: the dioceses that cover Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas. These bishops were the first American prelates to make their ad limina visit this year; the remainder of the US hierarchy will be visiting Rome, in similar groups, during the next few months.

In his addresses to the American bishops, the Pope said that he would "offer a series of reflections on the exercise of the episcopal office." While he voiced confidence in the US hierarchy, the Pontiff also left no doubt that he hoped for more effective leadership from the American bishops. He said that his talks would emphasize the threefold duty of the bishop to teach, to govern, and to sanctify.

John Paul II told his American visitors that he hoped their week-long visit to Rome had afforded them "a pause for reflection and discernment in the light of faith," and that they would return to their dioceses with a new dedication to effective leadership and a "missionary zeal for the spread of the Gospel."

The Pope acknowledged that the ad limina visits are "taking place at a difficult time in the history of the Church in the United States." He said that in private talks, the visiting bishops had spoken to him about "the urgent need for rebuilding confidence and promoting healing" after the sex-abuse scandal. In this context, the Holy Father reminded the bishops that any reform must be based on spiritual renewal, and that the bishops should lead the way through their own personal conversion.

The scandal made it difficult and uncomfortable for American prelates to speak authoritatively on public issues, the Pope acknowledged. But he insisted that the bishops cannot ignore their duty to preach the Gospel, and to promote the moral teachings of the Church, even in a hostile climate. As secularism and selfishness make their inroads into American society, he said, the bishops must do their best to counteract those trends with the truths of the faith.

The Pope said:

The exercise of this prophetic witness in contemporary American society has, as many of you have pointed out, been made increasingly difficult by the aftermath of the recent scandal and the outspoken hostility to the Gospel in certain sectors of public opinion, yet it cannot be evaded or delegated to others. Precisely because American society is confronted by a disturbing loss of the sense of the transcendent and the affirmation of a culture of the material and the ephemeral, it desperately needs such a witness of hope.

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