VATICAN - Benedict XVI is installed in the Chair of the Bishop of Rome: “"The bishop of Rome sits in his cathedra to bear witness to Christ. Thus the cathedra is the symbol of the 'potestas docendi,' that authority to teach which is an essential part of the mandate to bind and to loosen conferred by the Lord on Peter”

Vatican City (Fides Service) - In the early evening of Saturday 7 May the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI presided the celebration of the Eucharist for his installation in the Cathedral of Rome, the Basilica of St John in the Lateran, and in the Chair of the Bishop of Rome. The Cardinals, the diocesan Bishops’ Council, the Canons of the Basilica and the Council of Prefect Parish Priests concelebrated the Mass with the Pope. After the Mass the Pope went to St Mary Major’s Basilica to render homage to the icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary Salus Populi Romani. Here below we give excerpts from the Pope’s homily in St John’s.
“At the centre of this day we find Christ. And only thanks to him, thanks to the mystery of his Ascension can we understand the significance of the Chair, which in turn is the symbol of the Bishop’s authority and responsibility”. The feast of the Lord’s Ascension “does not mean that the Lord has gone to some place far from humanity and the world...but rather that he no longer belongs to the world of corruption and death which conditions our life. It means that he belongs completely to God. He - the Eternal Son - has carried our human being into the presence of the Lord...and since God embraces and sustains the entire cosmos, the Ascension of the Lord means that Christ has not left us, but rather now, since he is with the Father, he is close to each one of us for ever.”
“The Holy Spirit is the power through which Christ makes us feel his closeness”, but “the Risen Christ has need of witnesses who have met him ... through these witnesses the Church was built- starting with Peter and Paul and the Twelve, down to all the men and women filled with Christ who through the centuries rekindled and will rekindle again and again the flame of the faith. Every Christian in his own way can and must be a witness to the Risen Lord.”
“It is the public responsibility of the successors of the Apostles, that is the Bishops, to ensure that this network of witness continues in time … In this network of witness the Successor of Peter has a special task: to be the guide in the profession of faith in Christ, the Son of the Living God. The Chair of Rome is primarily the Chair of this faith … The Pope “must be aware that he is a weak and fragile man," in constant need of "purification and conversion. Yet he may also be aware that from the Lord comes the strength to confirm his brothers and sisters in the faith, and to keep them united in confessing the Crucified and Risen Christ.”.
“"The bishop of Rome sits in his cathedra to bear witness to Christ," said the Pope. "Thus the cathedra is the symbol of the 'potestas docendi,' that authority to teach which is an essential part of the mandate to bind and to loosen conferred by the Lord on Peter and, after him, on the Twelve." On this subject, the Pope affirmed that "where Holy Scripture is disjoined from the living voice of the Church, it falls prey to the disputes of experts. This authority to teach frightens many people, both within and outside the Church. They ask themselves whether it does not threaten freedom of belief, whether it is not a presumption that goes against freedom of thought. It is not so. ... The Pope is not an absolute sovereign whose thoughts and will are law. Quite the contrary, the ministry of the Pope is a guarantee of obedience to Christ and to His Word. He must not proclaim his own ideas, but constantly bind himself and the Church in obedience to God's Word in the face of all attempts to adapt that Word or to water it down, and in the face of all forms of opportunism." Benedict XVI emphasised that this is what John Paul II did "when, in the face of all apparently benevolent attempts, in the face of erroneous interpretations of freedom, he unequivocally underlined the inviolability of the human being, the inviolability of human life from conception to natural death. The freedom to kill is not true freedom, but a tyranny that reduces human beings to slavery.
The Pope is aware of being bound - in his important decisions - to the great community of the faith of all times, to the binding interpretations that have developed during the Church's pilgrim journey." He has the responsibility to ensure that the Word of God "continues to be present in its greatness and to sound forth in its purity, so that it is not dismembered by constant changes in fashion."
“The Chair - let us repeat once more - is a symbol of the authority to teach, an authority of obedience and service so that the Word of God - his truth - may shine among us and show us the way.”
“The Church is none other than this network - the Eucharistic community - in which we all receive the same Lord, we become one body and we embrace the whole world. To preside in doctrine and preside in love, all said, must be one: all the Church’s doctrine, all said, leads to love. And the Eucharist, the love of Jesus Christ present, is the criteria for all doctrine.”
“And now I wish with all my heart to be your Bishop, the Bishop of Rome. And we all wish to be ever more Catholic - ever more brothers and sisters in the great family of God, a family in which no one is a stranger.” (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 9/5/2005; righe 63, parole 938)