VATICAN - Study Seminar for newly appointed Bishops - “Faced with dramatic and persistent divisions and lacerations in the world the Church is called, through her Bishops, to explain the reasons for the hope she bears”: address by Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos

Vatican City (Fides Service) - “Faced with dramatic and persistent divisions and lacerations in the world the Church is called, through her Bishops, Successors of the Apostles, to explain the reasons for the hope she bears as she proclaims and bears witness to the Word of God which saves, the Word of life who brings peace and unity to people of every race and condition”. Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, said this in his address on September 7 to newly appointed Bishops from mission territories taking part in the Study Seminar in Rome organised by the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples. The Cardinal spoke on the subject: “the Bishop and the exercise of Munus docendi”.
In his address the Cardinal reflected on three closely connected themes: the sacramental root of “Munus docendi”, the evangelising, missionary goal of the Bishop’s ministry, and inculturation and interreligious dialogue. “Christ is present in us, visible shepherds for the faithful, so that ‘in eminent and visible manner’ we may fulfil the role of Christ teacher, shepherd and bridge builder, and act in his name” Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos told the Bishops. The Bishop’s teaching ministry “is a gift of the glorified Christ in the Holy Spirit”, “it is a gift to the Church which brings to each member the saving Word which converts and redeems” the Cardinal said. “As we carry out our ministry and plan pastoral activities in our dioceses, we must always remember that the word of the Bishop is not only a message or the transmission of information: it has a redeeming content because Christ works through it”.
One of the Bishop’s most important duties is to proclaim the Word of God to the ends of the earth, always in full union with Christ and his Church: “this is a mission which consists in holily safeguarding the faith and proclaiming it with courage, defending the Christian people from the errors by which it is threatened”.
On the subject inculturation, Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos said that the mission of teaching undertaken by Bishops in mission territories “is inculturation of the Gospel: you proclaim and bear witness to the mystery of Christ, aware that this is the original criteria for all authentic inculturation”. The first rule for inculturation is “to help the Gospel live in a specific culture”: this is a process which goes deep and requires time “which to us may seem too slow or too long affected as we are by the idolatry of efficiency and immediate results and the culture of visible results at any cost”.
Lastly Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos recalled that in the light of Sacred Scripture and the Magisterium, “the Bishop sees no contrast between proclaiming Christ and interreligious dialogue, they are not incompatible, indeed one is the consequence of the other”. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 9/9/2004; Righe 32 - Parole 441)