February 28, 2024 / 06:45 AM
Pope Francis warns that “bishops are not bought on the market, it is Christ who chooses them” during an audience granted to the members of the Synod of Bishops of the Patriarchal Church of Cilicia of the Armenians.
In a speech whose reading, as in the general audience, was read by Mons. Filippo Ciampanelli at the request of the Pope, due to his state of health, the Pontiff pointed out that the new successors of the apostles “should not be chosen according to the sympathies or tendencies of each one”, while asking to avoid “careerists”.
“You must be very careful with men who have a ‘nose for business’ or with those who ‘always have their suitcase in their hand’, leaving the people orphaned,” Pope Francis warned, adding: “A bishop “Who sees his Eparchy as a place of passage to a more ‘prestigious’ one forgets that he is married to the Church and runs the risk – allow me the expression – of committing ‘pastoral adultery’.”