Pope Francis, immediately after being elected a pope on March 13, 2013, has been repeating his call for priests and bishops to be shepherds like Christ rather than 'wolves' that scatter or destroy sheep.
Pope Francis addressing the world's priests at the Chrism Mass on Holy Thursday, March 28, 2018, said: “The priest who seldom goes out of himself … misses out on the best of our people, on what can stir the depths of his priestly heart. … This is precisely the reason why some priests grow dissatisfied, lose heart and become, in a sense, collectors of antiquities or novelties — instead of being shepherds living with ‘the smell of the sheep.’ This is what I am asking you — be shepherds with the smell of sheep.”
The Pope in his May 15, 2018 homily in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae residence at the Vatican, said: “A bishop is not a bishop for himself. He is for the people, and a priest is not a priest for himself. He is for the people: to serve, to nurture them, to shepherd them, who are his flock – in order to defend them from the wolves.”
According to the Catholic News Agency (CNA), Pope Francis repeated his prayers for bishops and priests who face temptation. “We are men and we are sinners. We are tempted,” he said.
He cited St. Augustine’s commentaries on the prophet Ezekiel. Augustine warned against the temptations of wealth and vanity, when the bishop and priest “take from the people,” make deals and become “attached to money.”
He also added that "when a priest, a bishop goes after money, the people do not love him -- and that's a sign....he ends badly."
A bishop or priest on "the road to vanity" is one who "enters into the spirit of careerism -- and this hurts the Church very much," the Pope said. Such a man "ends up being ridiculous: he boasts, he is pleased to be seen, all powerful -- and the people do not like that!"
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