During my recent time in Rome with some 200 other new bishops from around the world, I had an opportunity on a warm afternoon to have some lunch outdoors at a favorite restaurant.

After the meal was underway, a young couple arrived at the restaurant with their two young children, a daughter of about four years old and an infant son in a carriage. The father was a very large man, with prominent tattoos on his arms. While an initial perception might have led one to wonder about this large man’s tenderness, his actions quickly overcame any doubt about this good father.

The man’s large hands worked tenderly to position his son in the carriage, making sure he was shaded from the sun. In a final kind gesture, the father located a small battery-powered fan, clipped it on this carriage, and sent a soothing stream of moving air across the body of his son.

Later, amid the meal, the little boy began to fuss and softly cry. The father, this good father, this holy father, reached down to touch and soothe the child, who did soon become peaceful. While I have no knowledge about this father’s faith, what I could see was a good, holy father, in that he was other directed and concerned for his son. Since we see the height of holiness in the heavenly Father, who directed Himself totally towards his children in sending his Son Jesus out of eternal concern for them, I think I can say that this human father acted with a holy instinct.

October 11, Bishop Scott Bullock is vested to join the procession for the canonization of St. Carlo Acutis and St. Pier Giorgio.

The next encounter with a holy Father was with THE Holy Father, as we call him, Pope Leo XIV. St. Peter’s Square, with an estimated capacity of 300,000 persons, was filled to overflowing with pilgrims from all over the world, who had gathered for the canonization of two saints who died in their youth, Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis.

Some 20 minutes before the Mass of Canonization began, Pope Leo emerged humbly from the central loggia of the Basilica and went to the microphone to welcome everyone with warm words of hospitality. He then invited the throng to enter into the sacred work ahead, to celebrate the great Mass of Thanksgiving for the two radiant saints, Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati.

The Holy Father was a true father to the many young people who gathered in the square when, after greeting them specifically before the Mass, he said to them in the homily, “Dear friends, Saints Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis are an invitation to all of us, especially young people, not to squander our lives, but to direct them upwards and make them masterpieces. They encourage us with their words: ‘Not I, but God,’ as Carlo used to say. And Pier Giorgio: ‘If you have God at the center of all your actions, then you will reach the end.’ This is the simple but winning formula of their holiness. It is also the type of witness we are called to follow, in order to enjoy life to the full and meet the Lord in the feast of heaven.”

His invitation was that of a true father, cautioning his “children” not to squander their lives but, instead, to live the fullness of life (cf. Jn 10:10) by choosing to set God at the center of all their lives and to find the fullness of life along the path of holiness.

Finally, we new bishops had a meeting with the Holy Father on September 11 when he greeted us warmly as a father and then invited us to be good shepherds and fathers to the people of our dioceses: “… the Church sends you (to your diocese) as caring, attentive pastors, who know how to share the journey, the questions, the anxieties and the hopes of the people; pastors who wish to be guides, fathers and brothers for the priests and for sisters and brothers in faith.

Dear friends, I pray for you, that the breath of the Spirit may never be lacking, and that the joy of your Ordination, like a gentle fragrance, may spread to those you will serve.” The Holy Father reminded us to be holy fathers to the people we serve by calling upon the one who called us to this service, the Holy Spirit, to fill us with the love we need for this sacred work.

Holy fathers … the kind father at the restaurant … the Holy Father himself, who wishes for the fullness of life for the youth gathered for the canonization of two heroic youth…and the holy fathers that, with the help of the Holy Spirit, all the new bishops aspire to be. Let us pray for all our fathers — those who head families, those who head spiritual families of dioceses, our bishops, and the Holy Father in Rome — that we might all receive the love of the Father through the Holy Spirit and share that love for the life of all God’s children!