VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service
By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The world’s bishops are called to be servants and shepherds who use their position to care for people and the faith, not to seek power and boost their pride, Pope Francis said.
The church has no place for men with a “worldly mentality” who are seeking a career, he said at his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square Nov. 5.
“It’s sad when you see a man who seeks this office and who does so much to get there and when he makes it, he doesn’t serve, but struts like a peacock, living only for his own vanity,” the pope said.
The pope continued a series of talks on the nature of the church, focusing on the Holy Spirit’s gift of the ordained ministries, especially the role of the bishop.
The catechesis began with a reading from St. Paul’s Letter to Titus (1:5-9) in which the apostle lists the virtues the bishop must hold and the vices he must avoid, such as arrogance, irritability and greed.
“We all heard that, right?” the pope said, looking around him with a smile at the bishops who were attending the audience.
“It’s not easy” to live up to St. Paul’s advice “because we are sinners, but we trust in your prayers so at least we can move closer” to these ideals, he told the other pilgrims and visitors.
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