Advice from a Bishop to his Priests

Priests waiting to get into the game - Photo by Michele Gress

From Rome:

In response to a question on pastoral service, Francis reiterated that one should not “confuse creativity with making something new. Creativity is finding the path to proclaim the Gospel and...this is not easy. It is not simply a question of changing things. It is something different, it comes from the spirit and passes through prayer and dialogue with people, with the faithful”. The Pope recalled an experience he had as archbishop of Buenos Aires, when a priest was seeking a way of making his church more welcoming: “Ah, if many people pass this way, perhaps it would be good if the church were open all day ... Good idea! And it would also be good if there were always a confessor available there. ... Good idea! And so it went on”.

This, he explained, is “courageous creativity”, and it is necessary to “find new paths”. The Church, “and also the Code of Canon Law”, he added, “give us many, many possibilities, so much freedom to look for these things. ... We must find those moments to welcome and receive the faithful, when they enter the parish church for one reason or another”. He severely criticised those who were more concerned about asking for money for a certificate than with the Sacrament and therefore “keep people away”. Instead, there must be a “cordial welcome” so that those “who go to Church feel at home. They feel comfortable and do not feel as if they are being exploited. ... When people feel there are economic interests at work, they stay away”.

Francis proposed to the priests of Rome the figure of the “missionary priest”. A priest should always keep in mind his first love, for Jesus. “For me”, he said, “this is the key point: that a priest has the capacity to return in memory to his first love. ... A Church that loses her memory is an electronic Church, without life”. He advised the priests of his diocese to beware of both severe and lax priests. “Instead, the merciful priest proclaims that 'God's truth is this, so to speak, dogmatic or moral truth', but always accompanied by God's love and patience”, adding “Do not panic – the good God awaits us. ... We must always keep in mind the word 'accompany' – let us be travelling companions. Conversion always takes place on the street, not in the laboratory”.

Before the meeting, a document was given to the priests:

In the paper, the then archbishop of Buenos Aires discussed how in Aparecida one became aware of changing times, “not in the many partial ways that anyone might find in the daily actions one performs, but rather in the meaning that gives unity to all that exists”.

“The defining aspect of this change of epoch is that things are no longer in their place. Our previous ways of explaining the world and relationships, good and bad, no longer appears to work. The way in which we locate ourselves in history has changed. Things we thought would never happen, or that we never thought we would see, we are experiencing now, and we dare not even imagine the future. That which appeared normal to us – family, the Church, society and the world – will probably no longer seem that way. We cannot simply wait for what we are experiencing to pass, under the illusion that things will return to being how they were before”.

In the document, Bergoglio presents the mission as a proposal and challenge in the face of these changes, and encourages the pastor to be “an ardent missionary who lives the constant desire to seek out the remote, not content with simple administration”, and reiterates that “a transformation in pastoral action and a consequent transforming pastoral action can only occur when mediated by the interior transformation of the agents of pastoral care and the members of the community they form. … To become once again a Church driven by evangelical momentum and audacity, we must again become faithful and evangelised disciples”.