Serving the Church and pursuing power are incompatible

18 ottobre 2015

1 min di lettura

(AGI) Vatican City, Oct 18 - To serve the Church while pursuingpower is incompatible, said Pope Francis on Sunday in hishomily during the celebration of the Rite of Canonisation ofthe parents of Saint Teresina of Lisieux, Fr Vincenzo Grossiand a Spanish nun. He said: "There can be no compatibilitybetween a worldly understanding of power and the humble servicewhich must characterize authority according to Jesus' teachingand example. Ambition and careerism are incompatible withChristian discipleship; honour, success, fame and worldlytriumphs are incompatible with the logic of Christ crucified." "Yesterday, today and always, the only authority is theauthority of the service, the only power is the power of theCross," the Pope had said on Saturday, during the solemncelebration of the 50th anniversary of the Synod. He continued:"In this Church, as in an inverted pyramid, the summit islocated below the base. For those who exercise this authoritythey are called 'ministers', because, according to the originalmeaning of the word, they are the least of all." Pastors mustremain connected to the base, Pope Francis explained, to theevery-day problems of the people, thus proceeding to a healthy"decentralisation" which includes reviewing the Petrine Primacyas John Paul II had outlined in the "Ut unum sint". The Popeunderscored on Sunday "that service is the way for authority tobe exercised in the Christian community. Jesus Himself is theideal to be followed. He shows us that He enjoys dominionbecause He is a servant, glory because He is capable ofabasement, kingship because He is fully prepared to lay downHis life." (AGI). .