Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Fides Service) - Archbishop Pedro Barreto of Huancayo in Peru is one of some newly appointed Metropolitan Archbishops who have come to Rome to receive the sign of office, the pallium from the hands of Pope Benedict XVI during a solemn Mass in St Peter’s tomorrow for the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul. The Archbishop told Fides about his sentiments. “First of all I remember with deep gratitude, not only the incomparable personality of John Paul II, but also his holiness of life which led him to love Christ and to love the Church as Christ did, sparing nothing of himself, making a total gift of his life”. “In this sense - the Archbishop said - to receive the pallium from the hands of Vicar of Christ, today Benedict XVI is above all a call to be loyal to Christ and the Church in the person of the Pope because to love Christ is to love his Vicar, to love Christ is also to love by particular Church of Huancayo. The promise I made to the Holy Father John Paul II, I confirm again to Benedict XVI: my life has meaning only if I love those entrusted to me by Jesus, following his example, even giving my life”.
“To receive the pallium as Archbishop of Huancayo is a new experience for me which comes less than a year since I began my pastoral service here. I am deeply grateful to God and to the Church for giving me the opportunity to be Bishop of this flock which is profoundly Catholic fecund in its religious life and lively for many centuries. To come to receive the pallium in this eternal city of Rome where Saint Peter and Saint Paul gave their lives for the cause of the Kingdom of God and on the feast day of the first Vicar of Christ and the first missionary to the nations, is above all an experience of communion with the Vicar of Christ and a commitment of fidelity to the particular Church to which the Lord has called me”.
Speaking about activity in his church Archbishop Barreto stressed efforts to implement the teaching of Second Vatican Council and more recent Church teaching. “We strive to be faithful to what God through the Holy Spirit is telling us: to live united in the faith - bishops, clergy, religious and laity - in communion with our faith communities, are parishes but open to serve the universal Church. We have many limits and weaknesses but much more abundant is the grace of God who continues to bless our deeply religious people who received the seed of the Gospel in 1533 and since then has born much fruit”.
The Archbishop concluded his talk with Fides recalling that “the pallium is a dignity, not from a human point of view but from the point of view of God. This dignity which Jesus grants to our Church and concretely to me as the archbishop is the dignity of being a shepherd who loves not only in words but also in unconditioned service of all, especially those who suffer”. (R.Z.) (Agenzia Fides 28/6/2005, righe 35, parole 504)
