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| In the latest edition of Rejoice in the Lord, Cardinal Tobin writes: If anyone had told me when I was ordained a priest on June 1, 1978, that 32 years later I would be ordained a bishop, I would have assured them it would never happen. Never mind my feelings of inadequacy (I had a hard enough time feeling ready to serve as a priest), I was a member of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (Redemptorists), and I believed that my calling was to be a missionary. What I didn’t realize then was that all of us, including bishops, are called to be missionary disciples of Jesus Christ our Redeemer. And in fact, the Church needs bishops who are keenly aware of their role as missionaries. Since before he was elected pope more than 11 years ago, Pope Francis has been urging the Church, which is all of us, to “get out of ourselves and go toward the periphery.” In other words, the Holy Father challenges all of us—bishops, priests, deacons, Consecrated Religious, and lay faithful—to acknowledge our respective roles as missionary disciples who proclaim the Gospel to the ends of the earth, including the “peripheries”… Read Cardinal Tobin’s full letter to the faithful in English or Spanish. |