Archbishop Peter Smith of Southwark compared the call to be a bishop to the vocation of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the installation of an auxiliary bishop last week. Bishop Paul Mason, who worked for IT firms Olivetti and Hewlett-Packard before entering the priesthood, was installed in a Mass at St George’s Cathedral. In his homily Archbishop Smith said: “Paul, God’s call to you to be ordained a bishop came to you not through an angelic visitation but through the Church, specifically from Pope Francis, following his consultation with the Congregation of Bishops in Rome. And I suspect your first thoughts on receiving that call, may well have been, ‘But why me? Who am I to be given this great responsibility of shepherding the flock of Christ? I’m not perfect; there are other priests who are holier and much better equipped than me to fulfil this role.’ “But be of good heart! The words of St Bede the Venerable, commenting on the meeting between Mary and Elizabeth, remind us that Mary ‘attributes nothing to her own merits but speaks of all her greatness as the gift of the one who is power and greatness itself, the one who is constantly making his poor weak followers into characters of great strength’. And never forget what Jesus said to his Apostles at the Last Supper: ‘You did not choose me, no, I chose you; and I commissioned you to go out and bear fruit, fruit that will last.’ ” Originally from North Shields, Tyne and Wear, Bishop Mason studied at the Venerable English College in Rome in the 1990s. He served for 10 years as a hospital chaplain and then became pastoral director at Allen Hall seminary. “Southwark is a wonderful diocese with great energy and diversity,” he said earlier this year.