Leadership: a call to love

As we mentioned on Friday, the bishops meeting in Brazil in May were concerned with the questions of vocations along with many other issues of pastoral importance. These areas of concern are not very different from the ones that face the Church in other parts of the world.

The work of fostering vocations has traditionally been seen as the particular attention given to fostering and nurturing the seeds of God's call which is identified in those who are yet considering the call to service in the Church as priests, deacons or religious men and women. Of equal importance is the need for support of priests, deacons and religious once they have completed the period of discernment and assume the duties of their respective vocations.

This support entails finding creative opportunities for inviting brother priests and those called to service in the Church to deepen their appreciation for the mystery of Christ's call which we have all heard, and which hopefully we continue to hear as we live out our priesthood. Not only priests, deacons and religious, but every baptised person cooperates in this mystery by virtue of our baptism.

Bishops have a special resposibility within this structure. George Weigel reminds us of the age-old wisdom of the Church on this matter: 'When a man receives episcopal ordination, he is not, in the first instance, receiving a promotion. He is accepting, before Christ and the Church, a trust. He pledges himself to be the shepherd of a local church, the chief teacher and guardian of Catholic truth in his diocese ...' (Courage, p. 94).

So what is it that makes an effective leader in the Church. In the latter part of the twentieth century, the world-wide Church was privileged to benefit from the leadership of Karol Wojtyla, Pope John Paul II. His leadership was effective 'because he preached a Gospel without apologies, with compassion but also without compromise ... He became a magnet for young people and a moral reference point for the entire planet precisely because he spoke truth to power ... Moreover, he backed up that truth-telling with the transparently honest witness of his own life. (Courage, p. 90)

As he began is ministry as Bishop of Rome, Benedict XVI also reiterated the responsibility of the Bishop to be a man of love and service. In particular, he spoke of the significance of the pallium (the woolen scarf worn by Metropolitan Archbishops around the world), and the Fisherman's ring.

The pallium, which the Bishops of Rome have worn since the fourth century, may be considered an image of the yoke of Christ, which the Bishop of this City, the Servant of the Servants of God, takes upon his shoulders. God’s yoke is God’s will, which we accept. And this will does not weigh down on us, oppressing us and taking away our freedom ... What the Pallium indicates first and foremost is that we are all carried by Christ. But at the same time it invites us to carry one another.

The Fisherman's ring is a reminder of Christ's call to Peter to be a shepherd, and the preceding story of the miraculous catch of fish (Jn 21:11). It is therefore a symbol of leadership which is born in service to one another. In fact, speaking of the ministry of the shepherd which he was about to undertake, Benedict explained 'One of the basic characteristics of a shepherd must be to love the people entrusted to him, even as he loves Christ whom he serves.'