Holy Mass for the Faithful of Kinshasa with Ordination of Eight Bishops (4 May 1980)

On Sunday, 4 May 1980, the Holy Father celebrated Holy Mass for the Faithful of Kinshasa with the ordination of eight Bishops. In his homily, the Pope outlined the responsibilities of the new Bishops, to preach the Gospel, sanctify the people of God, and govern their dioceses.

Dear Brothers in Christ,

On this day of great joy, on this solemn occasion, I address myself first to you who are about to receive the grace of the episcopate: "I no longer call you servants..., I have called you friends" [ 1 ]. This is what Christ says to the Apostles, this is what he is telling you.

1. You have long been intimately associated with the life of Christ. Your faith has grown on this African soil, in your family or in your Christian community, and it has produced its fruits. You then followed Christ who made a sign to you to devote yourself entirely to his mission. You have received the ministerial priesthood of priests to be stewards of the mysteries of God. You have endeavored to exercise it with wisdom and courage.

And now you have been chosen to "feed the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you guardians", as Saint Paul said to the elders of Ephesus, bishops to preside over it in the name and in the place of God, and to walk at his head. . You receive, as Saint Ignatius of Antioch said, “the ministry of the community”. For this, like the Apostles, you are enriched by Christ with a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit which will make your ministry fruitful; you are invested with the fullness of the priesthood, a sacrament which imprints its sacred character on you; thus, in an eminent and visible way, you will take the place of Christ himself, Doctor, Priest and Shepherd [ 2 ]. Give thanks to the Lord! And sing: hallelujah!

It is a great joy and an honor for the communities where you have your roots or which receive you as pastors, for Zaire, Burundi, Sudan, Djibouti, and also for the religious communities which formed you. You were “taken from among men and appointed to mediate for men in their dealings with God” [ 3 ]. When young Churches see their sons taking on the work of evangelization and becoming bishops of their brothers, it is a particularly eloquent sign of the maturity and autonomy of these Churches! On this day, let us take care not to forget also the merits of all the pioneers who have prepared from afar or from near these new leaders, and in particular the missionary priests and bishops. For them too, let us give thanks to the Lord!

2. It is the risen Christ, glorified by the hand of God and placed by his Father in possession of the promised Holy Spirit [ 4 ], this Christ whom we contemplate with particular joy in this Easter season, it is he who acts through our ministry. For he is the Principle, he is the Head of the Body which is the Church [ 5 ]. In the Holy Spirit, Christ continues his work through those whom he has established as pastors and who continue to transmit this spiritual gift through the laying on of hands. They are “the branches by which the apostolic seed is transmitted” [ 6]. Thus the line of the episcopate continues without interruption from the origins. You therefore enter the episcopal college which succeeds the college of the Apostles. You will work alongside your elders, with your elders: more than fifty Zairians have already been incorporated into the episcopal body since the first episcopal ordination in 1956, and the other countries represented here are experiencing a similar situation. You will work in communion with your brothers spread throughout the whole universe, and who form but one whole in Christ, united around the Bishop of Rome, successor of Peter. You will be all the more attached to this indispensable communion as you are ordained by him to whom the Holy Spirit has entrusted, as to Peter, the charge of presiding over unity. Yes, give thanks to the Lord! And sing: hallelujah!

3. You receive a great grace for exercising a demanding pastoral charge. You know the three aspects that are usually designated by "the doctrinal magisterium, the priesthood of sacred worship, the ministry of government" [ 7 ]. The conciliar constitution “ Lumen Gentium ” (nn. 18-27) and the decree “ Christus Dominus ” (nn. 11-19) remain the charter of your ministry which you will often have to meditate on.

You are first responsible for the preaching of the Gospel, the book of which will be imposed on your head during the consecrating prayer, then placed in your hands. Here, in Africa, we first ask the men of the Church: give us the Word of God. Yes, it is a marvelous thing to see the thirst of your compatriots for the Gospel: they know, they sense that it is a message of life. For this, you will not be alone. Your priests, your deacons, your men and women religious, your catechists, your laity are also very deserving, daily, tenacious evangelizers, very close to the people, and sometimes even pioneers, in places or in circles where the Gospel does not exist. has not yet fully penetrated. Your role will be to support their zeal, to harmonize their apostolate, to ensure that the proclamation, preaching and catechesis are faithful to the authentic meaning of the Gospel and to all the doctrine, dogmatic and ethical, that the Church has made explicit in her twenty centuries from the Gospel. At the same time, you will have to seek to ensure that this message really reaches hearts and transforms behavior, by using the language that suits your African faithful. As the liturgy will tell you: in time and out of time, “preach the word of God yourselves with great patience and the concern to instruct”. You are first and foremost the witnesses of divine and Catholic truth. At the same time, you will have to seek to ensure that this message really reaches hearts and transforms behavior, by using the language that suits your African faithful. As the liturgy will tell you: in time and out of time, “preach the word of God yourselves with great patience and the concern to instruct”. You are first and foremost the witnesses of divine and Catholic truth. At the same time, you will have to seek to ensure that this message really reaches hearts and transforms behavior, by using the language that suits your African faithful. As the liturgy will tell you: in time and out of time, “preach the word of God yourselves with great patience and the concern to instruct”. You are first and foremost the witnesses of divine and Catholic truth.

You are commissioned to sanctify the people of God. In this sense, you are fathers and you transmit the life of Christ through the sacraments, which you celebrate, or whose regular, worthy and fruitful dispensation you entrust to your priests. You will have at heart to prepare your faithful for these sacraments, and to encourage them to live them in perseverance. Your prayer will never cease to accompany your people on the paths of holiness. You will contribute to preparing, with the grace of the Lord, a Church without spot or wrinkle, which announces the new Jerusalem, of which the Apocalypse speaks to us, “the bride adorned for her Bridegroom” [ 8 ] .

4. Finally, you receive the pastoral government of a diocese, in which you participate as auxiliary bishop. Christ gives you authority to exhort, to distribute ministries and services, according to needs and abilities, to see to their fulfillment, to rebuke those who stray from them in need with mercy, to watch over the whole flock and defend it , as Saint Paul said [ 9], to foster an ever more missionary spirit. Seek in everything the communion and edification of the Body of Christ. You rightly wear on your head the emblem of the chief and in your hand the cross of the pastor. Remember that your authority, according to Jesus, is that of the Good Shepherd, who knows his sheep and is very attentive to each one; that of the Father who imposes himself by his spirit of love and devotion; that of the steward, ready to give an account to his Master; that of the “minister”, who is in the midst of his own “like one who serves” and is ready to give his life. The Church has always recommended to the head of the Christian community the particular care of the poor, the weak, those who suffer, the marginalized of all kinds. She asks you to give special support to your fellow servants who are priests and deacons:10 ].

The rigorous administration entrusted to you requires of you, with the authority, prudence and wisdom of the "elders"; the spirit of fairness and peace; fidelity to the Church of which your ring is the symbol; an exemplary purity of doctrine and life. It is ultimately a question of leading clerics, religious and laity to the holiness of our Lord; it is a question of leading them to live the new commandment of fraternal love, which Jesus left us as his testament [ 11 ]. This is why the recent Council reminds all bishops of the primordial duty to “show the example of holiness, by their charity, their humility and the simplicity of their life” [ 12]. Saint Peter wrote to the "elders": "Feed the flock of God...in the spirit of God...Show yourselves the models of the flock" [ 13 ].

5. Thus you will provide for the good of souls, for their salvation. In this way you will continue building up the Church which is already so well established in the heart of Africa and particularly in each of your countries.

In this way you will contribute a precious part to the vitality of the universal Church, by carrying with me and with all the bishops the concern of all the Churches.

Moreover, by forming consciences according to the law of God and by educating them to responsibilities and to communion in the Church, you will help to form the honest and courageous citizens that the country needs, enemies of corruption, lies, and injustice, artisans of harmony and fraternal love without borders, concerned with harmonious development and especially of the poorest categories. In doing so, you exercise your mission which is of a spiritual and moral nature: it allows you to speak out on the ethical aspects of society, whenever the fundamental rights of individuals, fundamental freedoms and the common good so require. All this with respect for the civil authorities who, at the political level, and in the search for ways to promote the common good, have their specific skills and responsibilities. Thus you will prepare in depth the social progress, the well-being and the peace of your dear fatherland and will deserve the esteem of your fellow citizens. You are here the pioneers of the Gospel and of the Church, and at the same time the pioneers of the history of your people.

6. Dear Brothers, this ideal should not overwhelm you. On the contrary, it must attract you, serve as a springboard and hope. Certainly, we all carry this treasure in clay vessels [ 14 ], including the one that speaks to you and to which we reserve the name of “Holiness”. It takes a lot of humility to bear this name! But by humbly submitting your whole person to Christ, who calls you to represent him, you are sure of his grace, his strength, his peace. Like Saint Paul, “I entrust you to God and to the word of his grace” [ 15 ]. May God be glorified in you!

7. And now I turn more directly to all those who surround you with their sympathy and prayer. Dear brothers and sisters of Kinshasa, Zaire, Burundi, Sudan, Djibouti, welcome with joy our Brothers who become your Fathers and Pastors. Have for them the respect, the affection, the obedience that you owe to the ministers of Christ who is Truth, Life and Way. Listen to their testimony, for they come to you as the first witnesses of the Gospel. Their message is the message of Jesus Christ. Open your souls to the blessings of Christ, to the life of Christ that they bring to you. Follow them on the paths they mark out for you, so that your conduct will be worthy of the disciples of Christ. Pray for them. With them, you will build the Church in Africa, you will develop Christian communities,

By the Providence of God, this great hour touches also English speaking Africa, and in particular the Sudan. In the person of the new auxiliary bishop of Juba, I greet the entire Archdiocese and all the sons and daughters of the Church in that land: grace and peace to all of you in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, whose through the ministry of bishops continues the Pastoral care of His entire Church. May the love of the Savior be in your hearts today and always!

And you, dear friends who do not share the Christian faith but wanted to accompany Catholics to this liturgical celebration, I thank you and I invite you too to welcome these new bishops as religious leaders and defenders of the human , as artisans of the common good and of peace.

And now we are preparing for the rite of ordination. Like the Apostle Paul with the elders of Ephesus to whom he had just made his urgent recommendations, we are going to pray.

Blessed be the Lord who thus prolongs his work among us! May all the Apostles intercede for us! May the Virgin Mary, mother of the Saviour, mother of the Church, Queen of the Apostles, intercede for us! We consecrate these new servants of the Church to him. Let us give thanks to the Lord, in faith, charity and hope! And sing: Alleluia! Amen.

 [ 1 ] Jn 15, 15.

 [ 2 ] Cf. Lumen Gentium , nn.20-21.

 [ 3 ] Heb 5, 1.

 [ 4 ] Cf. Ac 2, 33.

 [ 5 ] See Col 1, 18.

 [ 6 ] Cf. Lumen Gentium , n.20, citing Tertullian.

 [ 7 ] Cf. Lumen Gentium , n.20.

 [ 8 ] Rev 21, 2.

 [ 9 ] Ac 20, 29-31.

 [ 10 ] Cf. Christus Dominus , n.16.

 [ 11 ] Jn 13, 34.

 [ 12 ] See ibid ., n. 15.

 [ 13 ] 1 P 5, 2-3.

 [ 14 ] Cf. 2 Cor 4, 7.

 [ 15 ] Ac 20, 32.

© Copyright 1980 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

 Copyright © Dicastero per la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana