Serve Church unity, Pope charges new archbishops
June 30, 2009
Pope Benedict XVI held a private audience on June 30 with the 34 new metropolitan archbishops upon whom he had conferred the pallium in a ceremony the previous day at the Vatican basilica. Meeting with the archbishops and members of their families, he exhorted them to "be exemplary pastors, zealous and rich in love for the Lord and for your communities." He added that in their metropolitan roles they should "always be signs of unity among your faithful, strengthening bonds of communion with Peter's successor, with your suffragan bishops and with everyone who collaborates in your evangelizing mission."
Among the new archbishops, the Pope singled out Archbishop Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki, the former secretary to two pontiffs who now heads the Latin-rite Archdiocese of Lviv, Ukraine. He thanked him for "the service he has given the Church, as a collaborator of mine and, prior to that, of my venerated predecessor John Paul II."
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