Bishops need to listen

Thursday, July 28th, 2022

A nun appointed by Pope Francis to help him select bishops says bishops need to listen and that the ideal bishop does not exist.

French Salesian Sr Yvonne Reungoat made the comments to Vida Nueva, a Spanish publication.

Reungoat told the publication that while there is no perfect bishop, he has to be a shepherd who is “close to the people entrusted to him, he has to know how to involve priests, laity and religious, and people of different generations”.

“To be a bishop, one must have the ability to listen, both to those who have the same ideas and to those who protest.

“Is not easy,” she added.

Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, who heads the Dicastery for Bishops, once told Vida Nueva that “30% of those chosen to be bishops reject the appointment”.

Vida Nueva asked Sister Reungoat what might explain this situation.

“There may be a difficulty in accepting the responsibility of being bishop of a particular church with all the joys, challenges and complaints that it entails,” she said.

Sister Reungoat, who headed the congregation of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (Salesians) until October 2021, told Vida Nueva that it is important for women to have a role in naming new bishops.

The presence of women in the dicastery will allow for views and a sensitivity or awareness that are both common among men and women and “complementary”, she said.

Women are more likely to be working very closely and have “direct contact” with people and situations “on the ground,” she said. “We have knowledge that starts from reality. This experience is also about listening and dialoguing with this reality.”

Having this “complementary vision” can help get “closer to reality, which is complex” and varied since bishops serve in different parts of the world. Sr Reungoat said that the dicastery must study and discern much information from the different nunciatures.

Seeing more women represented at high levels of the church may make women feel more involved, she said.

However, having a woman in a particular position “does not mean that the situation will automatically change. There needs to be a reciprocal openness”.

In mid-July, Pope Francis named 14 new members to the dicastery responsible for helping the pope choose bishops. For the first time ever, the members included women: two religious and one lay.

Before Pope Francis’ reform of the Roman Curia took effect in June, members of the dicastery were only cardinals and a few bishops.