A NEW APPROACH TO DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE POPE AND BISHOPS

The ad limina (to the threshold) visits Bishops are required to make to the Vatican were known for their formality and routine style.  However, Pope Francis launched "a whole new style of such  visits,"  Auxiliary Bishop Fernando Ramos of Santiago, Becretary of the Chilean Bishops' Conference, said.

The Holy See informed the Prelates that they were going to have a group meeting with the Pope and the Prefects of several Vatican Congregations and Offices.  "We were told that this was going to be a new way of doing things that was beginning with us, that looks for a more fruitful, more incisive dialogue between the representatives of the local churches and the pope with his main collaborators," Bishop Ramos said.

After a private meeting with the Pope on February 20, the Chilean bishops met again with the Holy Father on February 23. At the second meeting, the Pope and Bishops were joined by several top officials, including: Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State; Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Bishops and President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America; and Cardinal Gerhard Muller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Also present at the meeting were: Cardinal Kevin Farrell, Prefect for the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life; Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education; Cardinal Beniamino Stella, Prefect of the Congregation for Clergy; and Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

Bishop Ramos told CNS that Cardinal Ouellet began the discussions, which focused on four principal themes: communion and collegiality within the church; the mission of the church in Chile; how to help clergy, religious men and women as well as the laity "in their Christian lives and in their pastoral service"; and pastoral guidelines for the future. "This was more of a way of looking at everything together, for them to listen to our opinions and (we to listen to theirs) on these principal themes.  It was truly something wonderful from the perspective of collegiality, of synodality, of the church walking together. This doesn't just respond to the realities in Chile, it's a whole new (approach) that begins now."

Let us hope that, in these ad limina visits of Bishops to the Vatican, there will be a frank exchange and that the Holy See will listen attentively and sincerely to the Bishops as they make the pastoral needs of their respective dioceses known to the Holy Father.  Too often in the past, these visits were more about Bishops delivering reports as well as financial tributes to the Chair of Peter and less about how the Church needs to more effectively minister to the People of God the Bishops were assigned to provide pastoral care.

Kudos again to Pope Francis for providing the atmosphere within which honest and positive dialogue with his collaborators in the hierarchy can take place.  Let us pray to the Holy Spirit that these encounters will be fruitful in advancing the mission of the Church to be the presence of Christ around the world.