The appointment of my Provincial, Fr Emmanuel Barbara OFM Cap, as the second bishop of the Diocese of Malindi in Kenya, made me reflect deeply on the nature and mission of the bishop.

As the traditional Church’s doctrine says, the bishop teaches, sanctifies and governs God’s People within a particular Church. The fourth point of the Lineamenta, that is the preparatory text which preceded the convocation of the special assembly of bishops of 2001, entitled “The Bishop: Servant of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the Hope of the World”, thoroughly explains the bishop’s identity and mission.

“Every Bishop, because he possesses the fullness of the Sacrament of Orders, is the principle and visible source of unity in the Church entrusted to his pastoral service. By means of the three-fold office, which the Bishop is called to exercise, namely, to teach, to sanctify and to govern, he works to increase the growth of his particular Church as the Family of the Father, the Body of Christ and the Temple of the Spirit. In this way, he brings about the real, living presence of Christ, ‘Pastor and Bishop’ of souls (1 Pt 2:25); he stands as Christ’s vicar in the particular Church not only in speaking for him but also in his very person.

At the same time, since the Church is the communion of all the particular Churches, the Bishop, in building his particular Church, contributes to the building of the whole Church, which in Christ is a kind of sacrament or sign of the intimate union of humanity with God, and of the unity of the whole human race.

As the Church grows so does the body of a new human family, a body which even now is able to give some kind of foreshadowing of the new age”.

The heart and soul of the episcopal office is its Trinitarian spirituality. The Lineamenta document explicitly states that the episcopal spirituality “views the Bishop in relation to the Father for whom he stands, to the Son to whose mission of Shepherd he is configured, and to the Holy Spirit who guides the Church with diverse hierarchical and charismatic gifts” (§ 89). Thanks to its ecclesial substance, the episcopal spirituality renders the bishop as the weaver, restorer and defender of the ecclesial communion. Up to the point of giving his life for the sheep he is called to pastor, on the model of Christ who said: “I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep” (Jn 10, 14-15).

The fulcrum of the episcopal spirituality resides in the bishop’s particular solicitude of the poor and needy in mind, body and spirit. Pope Benedict XVI told the bishops of Eastern Region II of the Brazilian episcopal conference: “Receive with open heart all those who call at your door. Counsel them, comfort them and support them on the

path of God, seeking to guide all of them to that unity in the faith and in love of which, by the will of the Lord, you must be visible principle and basis in your dioceses”.

Fr Emmanuel, I pray that you live up to the calling you have been entrusted with!

Ad Multos Annos!

■ Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap

San Gwann