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“This comprehensive collection of texts by Pope Francis is an absolute gem. I highly recommend it to every bishop, priest, seminarian, and pastoral agent. It offers us profound insights into the mind and heart of the Bishop of Rome, a pastor who truly has the smell of the sheep.”
– Fr. Thomas Rosica, CSB, CEO, Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation
From the first days of his papacy, Pope Francis described his wish for pastors “with the smell of the sheep.” In this moving and often intimate volume, consisting of all Pope Francis’s addresses to priests and bishops, he shares his vision of the priesthood, ministry, and service to the People of God.
Confiding personal stories from his own ministry and warning against the sins of “self-referentiality,” clericalism, careerism, and worldliness, he stresses the importance of mercy, of drawing strength from prayer and intimacy with the Heart of the Good Shepherd. In addition to his addresses to seminarians, bishops, members of the curia and religious orders, he also shares words of compassion with victims of clergy sexual abuse.
With the Smell of the Sheep provides a deeply spiritual call to follow the example of Christ in the service of the church. It is a wonderful gift for seminarians, priests and clergy, and all those discerning their vocation in the twenty first century.
