The Bishops' Heavy Burden and Their Need for Our Prayers

If we can gain a deeper appreciation of the importance of the bishops’ vocation, and the heavy cross that they carry, perhaps we will be inspired to help bishops even more with our prayers and sacrifices, and to support the many bishops throughout the world who are doing so much to serve the Church. In 2003, Pope John Paul II met with some 100 newly appointed bishops. His Holiness told them that their pastoral mission was “particularly arduous and difficult,” due to problems and uncertainties and the fact that many Christians today seem to be “disoriented and without hope.”

To understand just how difficult the vocation of a bishop is, we only need to open a copy of The Code of Canon Law, and look in the index under the word “bishop.” The list of a bishop’s functions is long and challenging. In fact, a C.E.O. of any large company would be hard-pressed to handle all of the duties of a bishop. Here is a list of just some of the obligations of a diocesan bishop, who is responsible before God to teach, to sanctify and to govern his flock: first of all, he must preach the word of God and protect his flock from error; he is also responsible for the catechesis of the faithful and catholic education; he must ensure the availability of the sacraments and their proper administration; he is obliged ordinarily to confer the Sacrament of Confirmation; he must oversee his priests and seminarians and provide for their formation; he is responsible for deciding which men will be ordained to the diocesan priesthood and deaconate; he must promote the institutes of consecrated life in his diocese, and work to awaken vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life; he must foster Christian unity; he is responsible for the finances, goods and properties of his diocese; he must show care for the missions; he must supervise the different apostolic works and means of communications in his diocese; and, more than anything else, the bishop has, as his main duty, the obligation to grow in holiness. Pope John Paul II reaffirmed this when he told a group of bishops what their first priority is: “Be holy!” he said. The Holy Father called holiness “the urgent pastoral need of our times.” He told the bishops: “May you be the living and visible image of the Good Shepherd. Be vigilant over your flock...Love the Church more than yourselves! Live in it and for it, giving yourselves entirely to pastoral service.” “...Be men of prayer!”

It is significant that Pope John Paul devoted so much of his energy in his final years reflecting on the importance of the vocation of bishops, even writing a book on the topic. One of the reasons why this vocation is so crucial has to do specifically with the dignity of the human person, which was also a theme very dear to the Holy Father. God created human beings with intelligence, and the proper object of the intellect is truth. Man, then, was born for truth and, as Our Lord explains, it is truth that sets us free. Error is slavery. Truth is freedom. Now it is precisely through the official teaching of the Vicar of Christ and the bishops in communion with him that we can know the objective truth about faith and morals, and be certain that we are not in error. As the official Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, “The Church is...upheld infallibly in the truth: Christ governs her through Peter and the other apostles, who are present in their successors, the Pope and the college of Bishops.” “...The pastoral duty of the Magisterium is aimed at seeing to it that the people of God abides in the truth that liberates. To fulfill this service, Christ endowed the Church’s shepherds with the charism of infallibility in matters of faith and morals.” As members of a culture that holds up freedom as one of its highest ideals, we cannot afford to ignore the vocation of bishops as “witnesses of divine and Catholic truth.”

Indeed, bishops whose teaching about faith and morals is in communion with the Vicar of Christ are authentic bearers of objective truth. They are the teachers of “the truth that liberates” – the truth that gives man freedom from the slavery of error. Freedom from error is a precious gift, and it is precisely this gift which, under specific conditions, the Holy Spirit gives to the Successor of St. Peter and the bishops in communion with him when they teach definitively about faith and morals. This is the charism of infallibility, and the Church’s doctrine on the infallibility of her pastors is something we need to understand well. As Vatican II explains, “Bishops, taken individually, do not enjoy the privilege of infallibility…[They] do, however, proclaim infallibly the doctrine of Christ on the following conditions: namely, when, even though dispersed throughout the world but preserving for all that amongst themselves and with Peter’s successor the bond of communion, in their authoritative teaching concerning faith and morals, they are in agreement that a particular teaching is to be held definitively and absolutely. This is still more clearly the case when, assembled in an ecumenical council, they are, for the universal Church, teachers of and judges in matters of faith and morals, whose decisions must be adhered to with the loyal and obedient assent of faith.” “...Bishops who teach in communion with the Roman Pontiff are to be revered by all as witnesses of divine and Catholic truth...”

We see, then, that it is their bond of communion with Peter’s successor which is a great source of strength and security for bishops, and which aids them in carrying the heavy burden which they must carry. Communion with the Pope and submission to the authority of official papal teaching guarantees that what individual bishops teach about faith and morals is, in fact, the objective truth, free from error. And Vatican II emphasizes how much the authority of the Pope does in fact strengthen the authority of bishops. A Bishop’s “authority, far from being damaged by the supreme and universal power [of the Pope], is much rather defended, upheld and strengthened by it, since the Holy Spirit preserves unfailingly that form of government which was set up by Christ the Lord in His Church.”

The Council sums up the vocation of bishops in three words: teacher, shepherd and priest.

And just as the apostles were united with St. Peter and under his authority, the bishops also find their support and security in being in communion with the Pope. And this is true for all Catholics. “Sentire cum Ecclesia, Sentire cum Petro.” Contained in this ancient Latin saying is an essential element of the Faith: “To think with the Church, to think with Peter.” May each of us become great lovers of the Church, and loyal supporters of our Holy Father and the Bishops in communion with him.

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