Address by Archbishop Faustino Sainz Munoz
Papal Nuncio to Great Britain
On the occasion of Bishop Drainey’s Episcopal Ordination
Dear Bishop Drainey, dear Archbishop Kelly, my brother bishops, priests, religious and people of Middlesbrough, dear sisters and brothers in Christ, dear friends, it is a great joy for me to be here today to represent our Holy Father, Pope Benedict the Sixteenth, at the Episcopal Ordination of your new Bishop.
My first words must be of congratulations to you dear Bishop Terry as you begin your Episcopal ministry here in Middlesbrough. I bring you the thanks and prayers of the Bishop of Rome, our Holy Father, and my own prayers and support to you – and to the Holy Father, thanks and support.
It is very appropriate that your ordination (should) take place today on the Feast of the Conversion of St Paul, certainly the starting point is not the same but I think you will find that life is suddenly very different and in that regard, I suspect that I can say, in the company of my brothers in the priesthood and the Episcopate, that at moments such as this, is not my experience (that there are) two apparently conflicting possibilities, a sense of the immense power of God and on the other side, with one’s own human frailty and imperfection. Everyone has this experience. Trust today, dear Bishop Terry, in the power of him who has called you, who loves you and is closer to you than you realise but also never fail to stay close to him in prayer.
Speaking to newly appointed bishops, the Holy Father said in a bishop’s ministry today, your organisational aspects are (sought), the commitments many, underneath always – but the first place in the life of a successor of the apostles must be kept for God. We will help our faithful, especially in this way and the Pope (who followed) and remember the thought of St Gregory the Great who held that (one who experiences) pastoral rapture and contemplation is able to regard the needs of others as his own in prayer. Prayer teaches us to love people and opens our hearts to pastoral charity in order to welcome all who turn to the bishop, mothered from within by the Holy Spirit. The bishop consults also with (the wholesome), with divine grace, (elected) with the light of the world and reconciles fraternal communion, finished with the protection of the Holy Father. By doing everything in your power to strengthen that fraternal communion, especially among and with your priests, I would like to pray for the people of Middlesbrough. Trust dear Bishop too in their prayer and in the love for you and treasure the support that this will bring to you.
Dear Bishop Terry, pray for your people, for your priests and for your religious in this Diocese.
Dear people of Middlesbrough, dear priests and dear religious in this Diocese, please pray also for your bishops as well as your priests – I should like to briefly express thanks to Mgr Dasey who has serviced the Diocese as Administrator and to all those persons today, fellow priests and religious who have served the Diocese faithfully these last few months and in his presence. It is also good to take this opportunity to offer a particular thanks to Bishop John and to assure him for gratitude for all that he has done here as well as promising to give him our prayers in his future years of ministry.
God bless you all and God keep you.