Pope Leo XIV affirmed Wednesday that clergymen have to be celibate and insisted that bishops take “agency and decisive” motion to take care of intercourse abusers, as he gave marching orders to the world’s Catholic hierarchs.
Leo met in St. Peter’s Basilica with about 400 bishops and cardinals from 38 international locations attending this week’s particular Holy 12 months celebrations for clergy.
A day after he gave an uplifting message of encouragement to younger seminarians, Leo provided a extra complete define of what bishops should do to steer their flocks.
It’s a difficulty the previous Cardinal Robert Prevost would have lengthy contemplated, given his position because the prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Bishops. In that job from 2023 till his election in Could, the Chicago-born Prevost vetted bishop nominations for Pope Francis, figuring out the kind of chief who would additional Francis’ view of a church the place all are welcome and dialogue is the decisive type of governance.
Historical past’s first American pope reaffirmed Wednesday that the first position of bishops is to forge unity in his diocese amongst clergy and to be near his flock in phrase and deed.
Bishops should stay in poverty and ease, generously opening their houses to all and appearing as a father determine and brother to his clergymen, Leo mentioned.
“In his private life, he have to be indifferent from the pursuit of wealth and from types of favoritism primarily based on cash or energy,” he mentioned.
Bishops should stay celibate “and current to all of the genuine picture of the church, holy and chaste in her members as in her head,” he mentioned.
Referring to instances of abuse, he mentioned bishops “have to be agency and decisive in coping with conditions that may trigger scandal and with each case of abuse, particularly involving minors, and absolutely respect the laws presently in power.”
It was the second time in per week that Leo had commented publicly on the abuse scandal. On Friday night time, in a written assertion to a crusading Peruvian journalist who documented gross abuses in a Peruvian Catholic motion, Leo mentioned there needs to be no tolerance within the Catholic Church for any sort of abuse.
He recognized sexual and religious abuses, in addition to abuses of authority and energy, in calling for “clear processes” to create a tradition of prevention throughout the church.
Francis, who in some ways positioned Leo able to succeed him, had additionally reaffirmed celibacy for Latin ceremony clergymen whereas acknowledging it was a self-discipline of the church, not doctrine, and subsequently might change. However he refused appeals from Amazonian bishops to permit married clergymen to handle the priest scarcity within the area.
Prevost spent 20 years as a missionary and bishop in Peru and would know effectively these arguments. However on Wednesday, he reaffirmed the celibate priesthood because the “genuine picture” of the church.
