Vatican City (AsiaNews) – The "chain" of apostolic succession, and Episcopal ministry as a "guarantee" of loyalty to faith and the practice of the life of the apostles, through whom it is Jesus who still speaks to His Church today, and who is at work in the sacraments. This was the thrust of today's address of Benedict XVI to more than 40,000 believers present in St Peter's Square for the general audience. Among the crowd, there were 12 much applauded musicians with long alpine horns, and 110 priests, religious and believers from Vietnam, accompanied by the archbishop of Ho Chi Min City, Cardinal Jean-Baptiste Phan Minh Man. The presence of the Vietnamese group is a sign of the improvement in links between the Holy See and Vietnam, although there are no diplomatic ties between them.

Benedict XVI, partly improvising and reading off his prepared speech, highlighted the role of the Church of Rome, "sign, criterion and guarantee of the uninterrupted transmission of the apostolic faith" in the context of apostolic succession. Although no reference, direct or indirect, was made to the illicit Chinese ordinations, the words spoken by the pope today cannot but appear to be a stress on bishops' need for a relationship "with Peter".

Benedict XVI dealt with the theme of apostolic succession, continuing to tackle tradition in the Church. The pope said succession has a "personal aspect". It was started by Jesus, "gathering the Twelve, who represented the future people of God". After the Ascension and the "defection of Judas", others were "associated" with the Twelve and their ministry, so it would continue, and Jesus himself "called" Paul. All of them, as the last expressly said, are concerned with "passing on what I have received". "Just as at first, there is a calling and sending by the Risen Lord to the apostles, in the same way, the call and sending of others, in the strength of the Spirit, by those who are already inserted in the apostolic ministry, will be the way through which Episcopal ministry is entrusted."

The calling and sending of others "will be the path through which the ministry will proceed", the mission of those who, "safeguarding" the teaching received, will be called bishops. "St Peter himself called the Lord shepherd and bishop".

Over time, then, this function was further refined into "the triple office of bishop, presbyterian, and deacon. It is a development guided by the Spirit of God, who assists the Church". "Thus, the succession of Episcopal function presents itself as a guarantee of the perseverance of apostolic tradition. The link between the College of Bishops and the original community of the apostles is understood above all along the lines of historical continuity: in this continuity of succession lies the guarantee to persevere, in current church communities, in the apostolic college that Jesus gathered around himself."

But continuity should be understood "before the historical sense, in a spiritual sense, because apostolic succession of the ministry is considered to be a privileged place of action and transmission of the Holy Spirit."

Benedict XVI emphasised in particular what Irenaeus said in the second century about that "supreme and very old and known to all" Church that had been "founded and constituted in Rome by the most glorious apostles Peter and Paul", that is, the Church of Rome, "highlighting the tradition of faith, that reaches us from the Apostles through the succession of Bishops. In this way, the Episcopal succession of the Church of Rome becomes the sign, criterion and guarantee of the uninterrupted transmission of apostolic faith". "Episcopal succession – verified on the basis of communion with that of the Church of Rome – is therefore the criterion of the permanence of individual churches in the tradition of apostolic faith, which was able to reach us from the beginnings through this very channel."

Through apostolic succession, then, "it is still Christ who reaches us: in the words of the apostles and their successors, it is He who speaks to us; through their hands, it is He who acts in the Sacraments; in their gaze, it is his gaze that is turned on us and makes us feel loved, welcomed in the heart of God". (FP)