Doctors of the Faith

It's become a fall tradition in Rome -- the weeklong workshop hosted by the Congregation for Bishops for bishops appointed within the last year. This morning, B16 received the group in audience, with another round of precise, pointed remarks.

"Among your tasks, I'd like to underscore that of being Teachers of the faith," the Pope said (my translation). "The proclamation of the Gospel is at the origin of the Church and its development of the world, as it increases in the faith of the faithful.... As successors of the apostles, dear Brothers, you are doctors of the Faith ("doctores Fidei"), authentic doctors who announce to the people with the same authority of Christ the faith that believes and lives. To the faithful entrusted to your pastoral care, you must make rediscovered the joy of faith, the joy of being loved personally by God, who gave us Jesus his Son for our salvation."

Benedict spoke of the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, that its "dialogic genre is in the use of images to help bring each member of the faithful closer personally to the call of God, that etches it in the conscience to establish an intimate and personal dialogue with Him."

It's all about the munus docendi, and we'll see that more as the bishop-making apparatus comes in for its Benedictine makeover. Stay tuned.

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