Three "musts" for a bishop

Britain's Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor was recently interviewed by Andrew M. Brown of the Telegraph.

The following exchange caught my eye.

[What is important in a bishop?]

There are clear things that he must have. He must be thoroughly orthodox and therefore well able to express the teaching of the church. He has to have a pastoral mind and heart, so that he gets on with people, his priests and people. He’s a shepherd. And then I think he should have good communication skills. That’s quite important these days.

I think they key things are his orthodoxy, his fidelity to the teachings of the church, his prayer life, spirituality is crucial – you can’t preach what you don’t believe.

So, according to His Eminence, a bishop must

• Be thoroughly orthodox,
• Have a pastoral mind and heart, and
• Have good communication skills.

Let us pray that DOR gets such a shepherd in 2012.