VATICAN CITY (NC) — A Catholic bishop must be, as was Jesus Christ, virtually all things to all men, according to Cardinal Sebastiano Baggio, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops.
In an interview with Vatican Radio Cardinal Baggio said:
«The bishop knows that he is father but not ‘paterfamilias’ in the classic sense of Roman law, that is to say, absolute, distant and not open to question. Paternal yes, but not paternalistic.
“He feels drawn into the life and the travail of his people, whom he calls flock, according to an evangelistic imagery, but which is composed of the sons of God, free and equal to the pastor through baptism.»
“The continual presence of the bishop, the center and axis of the community to which I referred cannot make one think that he is the only person responsible, that all must stem from him to the point of exhaustion, of collapse…
“It seems to me that the contrast between the bishop and the sense of coresponsibility, of participation, are surpassed today by the knowledge, ever more precise, that the bishop is the principal promoter of coresponsibility and of participation within the Church, in which all assume personal responsibility.»
