Pope Leo to Bishops: Continue working for good of Lord’s flock

By Deborah Castellano Lubov

Recalling that the Lord’s work always precedes us, may we conform our minds generously and selflessly and work for the good of the entire Flock of Christ, Pope Leo XIV urged Redemptorist and Scalabrinian Bishops in the Vatican on Thursday.

The Holy Father began his remarks expressing his joy for the meeting bringing together two religious Congregations, promoting dialogue among the Bishops.

The exchange, he said, is an exchange that “certainly enriches the Bishops present, your Communities, and the entire people of God, as taught by the Second Vatican Council.”

Significant sacrifices

“The Church,” Pope Leo stressed, “is grateful to your Institutes, which—through the appointment of Bishops from among your members—have made a significant sacrifice, especially in times of declining vocations.”

“To be deprived of confreres engaged in various ministries,” Pope Leo XIV recognized, “presents no small difficulties.”

“At the same time, however,” he continued, “the Church has made a great gift to your Congregations, because service to the universal Church is the greatest grace and joy for any religious Family, as your Founders would surely affirm.”

Important charisms

In particular, the Pope remembered that Scalabrinian and Redemptorist religious, chosen and consecrated for service in the Episcopate and the Cardinalate, “bring to their ministry the legacy of two important charisms, especially relevant in our times: service to migrants and the evangelization of the poor and those who are distant.”

Turning to the founder of the Redemptorists, Saint Alphonsus Maria de’ Liguori, the Holy Father remembered that, upon encountering the misery in the most neglected neighborhoods of eighteenth-century Naples, he had given up a comfortable life and a promising career to embrace the mission of bringing the Gospel to the least of society.

A century later, Saint John Baptist Scalabrini, the Pope recalled, was able to hear and make his own the hopes and sufferings of so many who left everything behind in search of a better future for themselves and their families in distant lands.

“Both were Founders, both became Bishops, and both responded to the challenges of social and economic systems which, while opening new frontiers on various levels,” who also, he observed, “left behind much unheard misery and many unresolved problems, creating pockets of neglect that no one seemed willing to address.”

“We, too,” the Pope highlighted, “in a historical moment that likewise presents great opportunities as well as difficulties and contradictions, as we celebrate the Jubilee of Hope, want to remember that, today as in the past, the voice we must listen to in order to understand what to do is that of the ‘love of God […] poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.'”

Encouragement for the present

Yet, the Holy Father underscored, “even in our world today, the Lord’s work always precedes us: we are called to conform our minds and hearts to it through wise discernment, and I am convinced that the dialogue you have promoted will be very helpful in this regard.”

“I therefore,” Pope Leo said, “encourage you to maintain and cultivate these fraternal bonds of mutual support also in the future, with generosity and selflessness, for the good of the entire Flock of Christ.”

Pope Leo XIV concluded by thanking them for their great work and imparting upon them and all their communities his Apostolic Blessing.