I vividly thank the Cardinal Vicar for the congratulations he has addressed me in the name of all those present. I know how he has helped, faithfully and effectively, my unforgettable Predecessor; I hope he will also continue collaborating with me. I greet warmly the Archbishop Vice-regent, the Auxiliary Bishops, all who work in several centres and offices of the Vicariate; every Priest with cure of souls in the area of the diocese and its district: the parish Priests, in the first place, their collaborators, the monks and, through them, the Christian families and the faithful.
Perhaps you have noticed that when I already spoke to the Cardinals in the Sistine Chapel, I alluded to the " great discipline of the Church " that had " to be kept in the Priests and in the faithful life ". My venerated Predecessor spoke frequently on this subject and I allow myself to speak very briefly to you on the same subject in this first meeting with a brother confidence.
To foment the inner secluded life
There is a "small" discipline, which is limited to the purely external and formal observance of legal norms. But I wanted to speak about " the great " discipline. This one only exists when the external observance is fruit of deep convictions and free and joyful projection of a life lived intimately with God. It is -- Abbot Chautard writes – about the action of a soul, that reacts continuously to dominate its bad inclinations and to be acquiring little by little the custom of judging and of behaving in all the circumstances of life, according to the principles of the Gospel and Jesus' examples. " To dominate inclinations " is discipline. The sentence " little by little " indicates discipline, that requires constant effort, long, not easy. The Angels, that Jacob saw in dreams, did not fly even, but they get on the steps one by one. Let us imagine ourselves, who are poor men without wings!
The " great " discipline requires a suitable climate. First of all, the secluded life. Once, I could see a porter at Milan railway station, who was sleeping peacefully with his head on a coal bag close to a column... trains were departing while whistling and arriving while hissing with their wheels; loudspeakers incessantly gave warnings that stunned; people went and came with noise and commotion, but the man continued sleeping and seemed to say: 'Do what you want, because I am needy of quiet'. We, Priests, should do something similar: there is an incessant movement around us and people, newspapers, radio, television do not stop talking. With moderation and sacerdotal discipline, we must say: 'Beyond certain limits, for me, that I am a Priest of the Lord, you do not exist; I must keep for me a little of silence for my soul; I move away of you to be united to my God'.
To have a talk with God and to have a talk with men
To verify that their Priest is usually united to God is today the desire of many good faithful.
These ones reason as the lawyer of Lyon, when he came back after visiting the Curate of Ars. 'What has you seen at Ars?', he was asked. Answer: 'I have seen God in a man'.
St. Gregory Magnus' reasoning is similar. This one wishes that the souls shepherd has a talk with God without forgetting men, and has a talk with men without forgetting God. And he says: 'Keep away the shepherd from temptation of wanting to be loved by the faithful instead of by God, or from being too weak by fear to lose the affection of men; so that he can' t run the risk that God can reproach him like this: 'Poor of those who put cushions in the elbows' (Ez 13.18). The shepherd -- he ends up saying -- must try to be loved, of course, but in order to be listened, not looking for this affection for his own benefit' (cf. Regula pastoralis 1, II, c. VIII).
To exert the pastoral government as a service
Priests are all guides and shepherds in a certain degree; but, have all they an exact concept of what it is really supposed to be a shepherd of a particular Church, that is, a Bishop?
On the other hand, Jesus, supreme Shepherd, said about Himself: 'I was given all the power in Heaven and in Earth' (Mt. 28, 18), and on another hand, He added: 'I have come to serve' (cf. Mt. 20, 28), and He washed His Apostles' feet. Therefore, power and service were simultaneously joined in Him. Something similar is said about Apostles and Bishops: Praesumas -- Augustinus said -- if prossumus (Miscellanea Augustiniana, Romae 1930, t. I, page 565).
We, Bishops, only govern if we serve: our government is exact if it becomes a service or if it is exerted looking at the service, with spirit and style of service. However, this Episcopal service would fail if the Bishop did not want to exert the received powers. St. Augustinus keeps on saying: 'the Bishop who does not serve people (preaching, guiding) is only foeneus custos, a scarecrow, placed in the vineyards so that the birds do not prick the grapes' (id. 568). For that reason, it is written in the Lumen Gentium: 'Bishops govern... with advices, exhortations, examples, but also with authority and sacred power' (Lumen Gentium, 27).
To fulfil God' s Will
Another element of sacerdotal discipline is the love to the own position. I know it, it is not easy to love the position and stay in it when things are not going well, when oneself has the feeling of being neither understood nor encouraged, when the inevitable confrontation with the position assigned to others would take us to feel sad and discouraged. But, aren' t we working for the Lord? Ascetic teaches us: 'Don' t look at whom you are obeying, but for Whom you are obeying'.
Thinking is also a help. I have been Bishop for twenty years: many times, I have suffered for not being able to award anyone, who really deserved it; but or there was no position-prize, or I did not know how to replace the person, or adverse circumstances happened. On the other hand, St. Francis of Sales has written: 'There is no vocation that does not have its misfortunes, its bitterness and its upsets. Besides those who are totally resigned to God' s Will, each one would wish to change the own condition for the others'. Those who are Bishops would not want to be that; those who are married would not want to be it, and those who are not married would wish to marry. Where is this generalized restlessness of spirits born from?, but from a certain allergy to what it is obligation and from a no good spirit that it makes us suppose the others are better than us' (St. Francis of Sales, Oeuvres, edit. Annecy, t. XII, 348-9).
I have spoken with frankness and I apologize you for that reason. But I can assure you since I have become your Bishop I love you very much. And with the heart plenty of love, I give you the apostolic blessing.
