Pope ordains bishops, asks them to serve as 'guardian angels'

Published: 2007-10-01

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Ordaining new bishops for the first time in his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI called six men to be "guardian angels" of the people entrusted to their care. Celebrating the ordinations in St. Peter's Basilica Sept. 29, the feast of Sts. Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, archangels, Pope Benedict told the new bishops that, like angels, their entire beings must be oriented toward God, and their mission is to be messengers of God. Pope Benedict first laid his hands on the head of Coadjutor Archbishop Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki of the Latin-rite Archdiocese of Lviv, Ukraine; he had been the assistant personal secretary of Pope John Paul II and served as Pope Benedict's assistant secretary for the past two years. The others ordained were: Archbishops Francesco Brugnaro of Camerino-San Severino Marche, Italy; Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture; Tommaso Caputo, nuncio to Malta and to Libya; and Bishops Sergio Pagano, prefect of the Vatican Secret Archives, and Vincenzo di Mauro, secretary of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See.

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