-Q: (Seminarian) (Pope Francis Q&A With Seminarians in Rome, Vatican City, May 13, 2014 (Zenit.org) Hail Jesus, Hail Mary! Thank you, Holy Father, for your words on Our Lady. My name is Don Ignacio and I come from Manila, the Philippines. I am doing my doctorate in Mariology at the Marianum Pontifical Theological Faculty, and I reside in the Philippine Pontifical College. Holy Father, my question is: the Church needs pastors who are able to guide, govern and communicate as required in today’s world. How does one learn and exercise leadership in priestly life, assuming the model of Christ who lowered Himself assuming the cross, death on a cross? Assuming the condition of servant to death on the cross? Thank you. --Pope Francis: But your Bishop is a great communicator! --Seminarian: He is Cardinal Tagle … --Pope Francis: Leadership … this is the center of the question … There is only one way – then I will speak of the pastors – but for leadership there is only one way: service. There is no other. If you have many qualities – to communicate, etc. but you are not a servant, your leadership will fail, it doesn’t serve, it’s unable to convoke. Only service: to be at the service … I remember a very good spiritual Father. People went to him, so much so that sometimes he couldn’t pray the whole Breviary. And, at night, he would go to the Lord and say: “Look, Lord, I didn’t do your will, or even mine! I did the will of others!” Thus both, the Lord and him, consoled one another. Service is to do, very often, the will of others. A priest who works in a very humble district – very humble! – a villa miseria, a slum, says: “I would need to close the windows, the doors, all of them, because at a certain point there are many, so many who come to ask of me: this spiritual thing, this material thing, that in the end I would have wanted to close everything. But this isn’t from the Lord,” he said. It’s true: you cannot guide a people where there is no service -- the service of the pastor. The pastor must always be at the disposition of his people. The pastor must help the people to grow, to walk. Yesterday, in the Reading I was curious because the word “spingere” was said in the Gospel. The pastor spinge the sheepso they are enticed to look for grass. I was curious: he makes them go out, he makes them go out with force! The original has a certain tone of this: makes them go out but with force! It’s like sending them away: “Go, go!” It is the pastor who makes his people grow and who always goes with his people. Sometimes, the pastor must go in front, to indicate the way; at other times, in their midst, to know what is happening; often behind, to help those that are last and also to follow the scent of the sheep that know where the good grass is. The pastor … Saint Augustine says, taking up Ezekiel, must be at the service of the sheep and he stresses two dangers: the pastor who exploits the sheep to eat, to make money, for economic, material interests and the pastor who exploits the sheep to dress well. The meat and wool, Saint Augustine says. Read that beautiful sermon De pastoribus. It is necessary to read it and reread it. Yes, they are the two sins of pastors: money, they become rich and do things for money – sharp businessmen pastors. And vanity, pastors who believe they are in a superior state to their people, detached … we think of prince-pastors. The sharp businessman-pastor and the prince-pastor. These are the two temptations that Saint Augustine, taking up the passage of Ezekiel, says in his sermon. It’s true, a pastor who seeks himself, be it by way of money or by way of vanity, isn’t a servant, has no true leadership. Humility must be the pastor’s weapon: humble, always at one’s service. He must seek service. And it’s not easy to be humble; no, it’s not easy! Desert monks say that vanity is like the onion: when you take an onion, and begin to peel it and you feel vain, you begin to peel off your vanity. And you go, and go, to another layer, and another, and another, and another … and at the end you arrive at …nothing. “Ah, thank God, I’ve peeled the onion, I have peeled off my vanity.” Do this, and you will smell like an onion! So say the desert Fathers. Vanity is like this. Once I heard a Jesuit -- he was good, a good man --, but he was so vain, so vain … And we all said to him: “You are vain!” but he was so good that we all forgave him. And he went to do the Spiritual Exercises, and when he returned, he said to us, in the community: “What beautiful Exercises! I spent eight days in Heaven, and I found that I was so vain! But, thank God, I have overcome all my passions!” Vanity is like this! It’s so difficult to take away vanity from a priest. But the people of God forgive you so many things: they forgive you if you have had an emotional slip, they forgive you. However, they don’t forgive you if you are a pastor attached to money, if you are a vain pastor who does not treat people well, because a vain person doesn’t treat people well. Money, vanity, pride: the three steps that lead you to all the sins. The people of God understand our weaknesses, and forgive them; but these two they don’t forgive! The don’t forgive attachment to money in a pastor. And if they aren’t treated well, they don’t forgive this. It’s curious, no? These two defects – we must struggle not to have them. Then, leadership must go by the way of service, but with personal love for the people. I once heard this from a parish priest: “That man knew the name of all the people of his district, even the names of the dogs!” It’s beautiful. He was close, he knew each one, he knew the history of all the families, he knew everything. And he helped. He was so close … Closeness, service, humility, poverty and sacrifice. I remember the old parish priests of Buenos Aires, when there were no mobile phones or answering machines; they slept with the telephone beside them. No one died without the Sacraments. They were called at any hour, got up and went. Service, service. And as Bishop, I suffered when I called a parish and the answering machine answered … there is no leadership this way! How can you lead a people if you don’t hear them, if you are not at their service? These are the things that come to me, somewhat, not in order, but to answer your question …
Posted on: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 01:16:16 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015