‘Meek and merciful’: Does that sound like your bishop or the kind of bishop you hope might be appointed to your diocese? How’d you like a local ordinary you could describe as ‘gentle, patient … animated by inner poverty … and also by outward simplicity and austerity of life’? What would you think of a bishop who was not ambitious and wasn’t looking for a bigger, more prestigious see? How about a bishop without ‘the psychology of princes’? This is not a wish list from progressive Catholics. These are qualities that episcopal candidates should have, Pope Francis told a gathering of papal ambassadors June 21.”

Read this entire editorial from National Catholic Reporter by clicking here.

Spoilers’ Alert — The editorial concludes:

[Benedictine Abbot Peter] Von Sury [of Mariastein Abbey in Switzerland] said that during the first millennium, three authorities were decisive in nominating a new bishop to a diocese, namely, the local faithful, the local clergy and the neighboring bishops, which today would be the equivalent of the local bishops’ conference. ‘That is a procedure that makes sense,’ he said. We (National Catholic Reporter editorial staff) agree.”