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Reference code: N/5/2004/1528
Title: Address to the Bishops of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota (USA) on their ad limina visit
Date: 2004-12-10
Place: Vatican
Category: Speeches
Context:
wizyta Ad Limina Apostolorum biskupów amerykańskich (Minnesota, Dakota)
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Dear Brother Bishops,
1. In this, the last of my meetings with the Pastors of the Church in the United States making their quinquennial visits ad limina Apostolorum, I offer a warm greeting to you, the Bishops of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.
In the course of this year, I have engaged with you and your fellow Bishops in a series of reflections on the threefold office of teaching, sanctifying and governing entrusted
to the successors of the Apostles. Through a consideration of the
spiritual gifts and the apostolic mission received at episcopal
ordination, whereby each Bishop is sacramentally configured to Jesus
Christ, the Head and chief Shepherd of his Church (cf. 1 Pet 5:4), we have sought to deepen our appreciation of the mystery of the Church,
the mystical Body of Christ, enlivened by the Holy Spirit and
constantly built up in unity through a rich diversity of gifts,
ministries and works (cf. 1 Cor 12:4-6; Lumen Gentium, 7).
2. In these past eight months, I have been blessed with
an opportunity to meet with each of the American Bishops, and, through
them, to hear the living voice of the Church throughout the United States.
This has been a source of great consolation for me, and an invitation
to give thanks to the Triune God for the rich harvest which his grace
continues to bring forth in your local Churches. At the same time, I
have shared the deep pain which you and your people have experienced in
these last years, and I have witnessed your determination to deal fairly
and forthrightly with the serious pastoral issues which have been
raised as a result. In fulfillment of my ministry as the Successor of
Peter, I have wished to confirm each and every one of you in the faith
(cf. Lk 22:32) and to encourage you in your efforts to be
"vigilant sentinels, courageous prophets, credible witnesses and
faithful servants of Christ" for the People of God entrusted to your
care (cf. Pastores Gregis, 3).
From the beginning of our meetings, I have stressed that
your duty of building up the Church in communion and mission must
necessarily begin with your own spiritual renewal, and I have
encouraged you to be the first to indicate, by your own witness of
conversion to the word of God and obedience to the apostolic Tradition,
the royal way that leads the pilgrim Church to Christ and the fullness
of his Kingdom. In particular, I have called you to adopt a lifestyle
marked by that evangelical poverty which represents "an indispensable condition for a fruitful episcopal ministry" (Pastores Gregis,
20). As the Council itself stated, the Lord himself carried out the
work of redemption in poverty and persecution, and his Church is called
to follow along this same path (cf. Lumen Gentium, 8).
3. Now, at the conclusion of this series of meetings, I leave two charges to you and your Brother Bishops. The first is a fraternal encouragement to persevere joyfully in the ministry entrusted to you,
in obedience to the authentic teaching of the Church. Can we not see in
the pain and scandal of recent years both a "sign of the times" (cf. Mt
16:3) and a providential call to conversion and deeper fidelity to the
demands of the Gospel? In the life of each believer and the life of the
whole Church, a sincere examination of conscience and the recognition of
failure is always accompanied by renewed confidence in the healing
power of God’s grace and a summons to press on to what lies ahead (Phil
3:13). In her own way, the Church in the United States has been called
to begin the new millennium by "starting afresh from Christ" (cf. Novo Millennio Ineunte, 29) and by making the truth of the Gospel clearly the measure of her life and all her activity.
In this light, I once more praise your efforts to ensure
that each individual and group in the Church understands the urgent
need for a consistent, honest and faithful witness to the Catholic faith, and that each of the Church’s institutions and apostolates expresses in every aspect of its life a clear Catholic identity.
This is perhaps the most difficult and delicate challenge which you
face in your role as teachers and shepherds of the Church in America
today, yet it is one which cannot be renounced. In fulfilling your duty to "teach, exhort and correct with all authority" (cf. Tit 2:15), you are first called to be "united in mind and judgment" (1 Cor 1:10), working harmoniously in the proclamation of the Gospel.
4. The second charge is a heartfelt appeal to
keep your gaze fixed on the great goal set before the whole Church at
the dawn of this third Christian millennium: the proclamation of Jesus Christ as
the Redeemer of humanity. If the events of the past few years have
necessarily focused your attention on the interior life of the Church,
this should in no way distract you from lifting your eyes to the great
task of the new evangelization and the need for "a new apostolic
outreach" (Novo Millennio Ineunte, 40). Duc in altum! "The Church in America must speak increasingly of Jesus Christ, the human face of God and the divine face of man" (Ecclesia in America,
67), devoting the best of her efforts to a more compelling proclamation
of the Gospel, the growth of holiness, and the more effective
transmission of the treasure of the faith to the younger generation.
Since a clear sense of mission will naturally bear fruit
in unity of purpose among all the members of the Christian community
(cf. Christifideles Laici, 32), such a missionary outreach will surely promote the work of reconciliation and renewal within your local Churches. It will also consolidate and advance the Church’s prophetic witness in contemporary American society. The Church feels responsible for every human being and for the future of society (cf. Redemptor Hominis, 15), and this responsibility falls in a particular way to the lay faithful,
whose vocation is to be a leaven of the Gospel in the world. As we look
to the challenges lying before the Church in the United States today, two urgent tasks immediately
present themselves: the need for an evangelization of culture in
general, which, as I have stated, is a unique contribution which the
Church in your country can make to the mission ad gentes today,
and the need for Catholics to cooperate fruitfully with men and women of
good will in building a culture of respect for life (cf. Evangelium Vitae, 95).
5. Dear Brothers, I give thanks to God for the many
blessings bestowed during this series of meetings of the Successor of
Peter with the American Bishops. Having come to the heart of the Church
and been confirmed in communion with the Chair of unity, may you now return to your local Churches with renewed enthusiasm for your mission
of teaching, sanctifying and governing the flocks entrusted to your
care. As you bear "the burden of the day and the heat" (cf. Mt
20:12) in the service of the Gospel, may you always be reassured by the
knowledge that, at every step of her earthly journey, "the Church draws
strength from the power of her Risen Lord to overcome, in patience and
in charity, her sorrows and her difficulties, both those from within and
those from without, so that she may reveal in the world, faithfully
albeit amid shadows, the mystery of her Lord, until in the end it shall
be manifested in the fullness of light" (Lumen Gentium, 8).
Our meetings have fittingly come to an end during the
week in which the Church celebrates the sesquicentenary of the
definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the
Blessed Virgin Mary, Patroness of the Church in the United States. As we
lift up the fruits of these visits to the Lord and implore his
blessings upon the Catholic community in America, let us turn our eyes
to Our Lady, who, in the words of the Council, remains "the pre-eminent
and wholly unique member of the Church, and its outstanding model in
faith and love" (Lumen Gentium,
13). May Mary Immaculate guide each of you, together with all the
clergy, religious and lay faithful of your local Churches, along your
pilgrim way to the fullness of the Kingdom, and lift your eyes to the
glorious vision of a creation redeemed and transformed by grace. May
she, the Mother of the Church, assist her children, "who have fallen yet
strive to rise again," to rejoice in the great things which the Lord
has already accomplished (cf. Lk 1:49) and to be faithful witnesses before the world of the hope which will never leave us disappointed (cf. Rom 5:5).
To all of you, with great affection in the Lord, I cordially impart my Apostolic Blessing.
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