{"id":212,"date":"2007-09-29T09:39:06","date_gmt":"2007-09-29T09:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2007\/09\/what-is-a-bishop.html"},"modified":"2007-09-29T09:39:06","modified_gmt":"2007-09-29T09:39:06","slug":"what-is-a-bishop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/09\/what-is-a-bishop.html","title":{"rendered":"What is a bishop?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pope today ordained 6 bishops (5 Italians and 1 Pole). His homily, via AsiaNews:<\/a><\/p>\n

The celebration took place on the feast of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael.<\/strong> In his moving homily the pope recalled that in the early Church \u2013 and in Revelations \u2013 bishops are referred to as \u201cangels\u201d.<\/strong> \u00a0<\/span>Just as angels, explained the pope, bishops must lead humanity to God; they must knock on the door to their hearts to announce Christ; they must heal the wounds of relations between man and woman and save them from sin with reconciliation and forgiveness.<\/strong><\/span>
\nThroughout his entire discourse the pontiff referred to this similitude, starting with the names of the three Archangels, which contains the suffix \u201cEl\u201d, which in Hebrew is the name of God.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cGod \u2013 said the pope \u2013 is written in their names, in their very nature\u2026. they are His messengers.\u00a0 <\/span>They bring God to mankind, they reveal the heavens and thus, they reveal earth\u2026.. the Angels speak to man about what constitutes his true being, what is often is often covered or buried in his life. \u00a0<\/span>They call man to himself, touching him on God\u2019s behalf\u201d. \u00a0<\/span>And he added: \u201cIn this way even we humans must become angels for one another \u2013 angels who lead us from the wrong path and guide us once again towards God\u2026..A bishop must be a man of prayer, who intercedes on behalf of mankind with God\u201d.<\/span>
\nBenedict XVI then went on to highlight the characteristics of the three Archangels of the feast (the only ones named in the Bible), illustrating other aspects of the Bishop\u2019s role.<\/span>
\nMichael (\u201cWho is as God?\u201d) \u201cdefends the cause of the one God against the dragon\u2019s presumption, the \u201cancient serpent\u201d as his called by John. \u00a0<\/span>It is the serpent\u2019s continuous attempts to make men believe that God must disappear, in order for making to obtain greatness; that God stands in the way of our freedom and so we must be rid of Him\u201d.<\/span>
\nIn reality, explains the pontiff, \u201che who puts God aside, does not make mankind great, rather he denies mankind his dignity. \u00a0<\/span>And thus, man becomes an unsuccessful product of evolution\u201d.<\/span>
\nThis is why, adds the pope; \u201cit is the Bishop\u2019s duty, as a man of God, to make space in the world for God against those who would negate Him and in doing so defend the greatness of man\u201d.\u00a0 <\/span>And again: \u201cFaith in God defends man from all of his weaknesses and inadequacies: God\u2019s radiance shines on every individual\u201d.<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>Gabriel (\u201cMan of God\u201d) is the archangel who announces the Good News to Mary. \u00a0<\/span>He said the pope \u201cis the messenger of the incarnation of God. \u00a0<\/span>He knocks on Mary\u2019s door \u2026\u2026 repeatedly God knocks on the human heart \u2026.. on the world\u2019s door and on the door to the heart of every individual. \u00a0<\/span>He knocks waiting to enter\u201d. And turning to the candidates the pope added: \u201cDear friends, it is your duty to knock on the man\u2019s hearts in Christ\u2019s name. By entering in union with Christ, you will be able to take on Gabriel\u2019s role: bringing Christ\u2019s call to men\u201d.<\/span>
\nRaphael (\u201cGod heals\u201d) is the archangel healer, protagonist of the Book of Tobias.\u00a0 <\/span>The pope recalls that Raphael heals the relationship between Tobias and Sarah, marked by the curse of death: \u201che heals the wounded union between man and woman. He heals their love.\u00a0 <\/span>He crushes the demons which tine and time again attempt to destroy their love. \u00a0<\/span>He purifies the atmosphere between the two and gifts them the ability to welcome and accept one another always\u201d. \u201cIn the New Testament \u2013 recalls the pontiff \u2013 the order of marriage, established in creation and threatened in a multifaceted way by sin, is healed by the fact that Christ gathers it into his redeeming love.\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>He makes marriage a sacrament: His love, which takes on the cross for us, is the saving strength, which in the midst of confusion, gifts us the ability to be reconciled, purifies the atmosphere and heals all wounds\u201d. \u00a0<\/span>The bishop (and indeed every priest) \u201cis entrusted with the duty of guiding men towards the reconciling power of Christ\u2019s love. \u00a0<\/span>He must be the \u201chealing angel\u201d who helps them to anchor their love to the sacrament and live their love with renewed commitment drawn from the sacrament\u201d.<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>\u201cThe book of Tobias \u2013 added the pope \u2013 speaks of the healing of blind eyes. \u00a0<\/span>We all know that today we are threatened with blindness to God\u2026\u2026 healing this blinded through the message of the faith and witness of love, is Raphael\u2019s service which is entrusted each and every day to priests and in a particular way to bishops. \u00a0<\/span>Thus we are spontaneously led to think of the sacrament of reconciliation and penitence, which in the deepest meaning of the word, is a healing sacrament. \u00a0<\/span>The true wound of the soul, in fact is sin. \u00a0<\/span>And only is a forgiveness in virtue of the power of God, in virtue of the power of Christ\u2019s love exists, can we be healed, can we be redeemed\u201d.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/a>Original in Italian.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Pope today ordained 6 bishops (5 Italians and 1 Pole). His homily, via AsiaNews: The celebration took place on the feast of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. In his moving homily the pope recalled that in the early Church \u2013 and in Revelations \u2013 bishops are referred to as \u201cangels\u201d. \u00a0Just as angels,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat is a bishop? - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/09\/what-is-a-bishop.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What is a bishop? - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Pope today ordained 6 bishops (5 Italians and 1 Pole). 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His homily, via AsiaNews: The celebration took place on the feast of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}