Pope Benedict XVI has declared a ÒYear for PriestsÓ beginning with the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on June 19, 2009. The year will conclude in Rome with an international gathering of priests with the Holy Father on June 19, 2010. With the announcement of this Year for Priests, the Pope has declared St. John Vianney the Universal Patron of Priests on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the death of the CurŽ dÕArs.
And while praying for our priests, including bishops and the pope himself, the lay faithful should remember that they are all called to participate with ordained leaders in joining themselves in the sacrifice of Christ, and that they, too, should embark on the quest for spiritual perfection.
How can you celebrate?
¥ Pray for priests
¥ Support vocations to the priesthood and religious life
¥ Read about the vital role of priests in the life of the Church
¥ Study the life of St. John Vianney
We have listed a few of the many resources available about the Year for Priests.
ÒThe Church in the world of today has an
enormous need of the witness of a life given without reserve to God: the
witness of that nuptial love of Christ himself, which, in a particular way,
will make the Kingdom of God present among people and bring it near to the
world.Ó
-
Pope John Paul II
Links:
http://www.usccb.org/yearforpriests/
www.facebook.com/yearforpriests
http://yearforpriests.blogspot.com
Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI
Announcing the Year for Priests
June 16, 2009
Your Eminences,
Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood,
I am
glad to be able to welcome you at a special Audience on the eve of my departure
for Africa, where I am going to present the Instrumentum
Laboris of the Second Special Assembly of the
Synod for Africa that will be held here in Rome next October. I thank Cardinal Cl‡udio Hummes for the kind words
with which he has interpreted the sentiments you share and I thank you for the
beautiful letter you wrote to me. With him, I greet you all, Superiors,
Officials and Members of the Congregation, with gratitude for all the work you
do at the service of such an important sector of the Church's life.
The
theme you have chosen for this Plenary Assembly "The missionary identity
of the priest in the Church as an intrinsic dimension of the exercise of the tria munera" suggests some
reflections on the work of these days and the abundant fruit that it will
certainly yield. If the whole Church is missionary and if every Christian, by
virtue of Baptism and Confirmation quasi ex officio (cf. Catechism of the
Catholic Church, n. 1305), receives the mandate to profess the faith
publicly, the ministerial priesthood, also from this viewpoint, is
ontologically distinct, and not only by rank, from the baptismal priesthood
that is also known as the "common priesthood". In fact, the apostolic
mandate "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to the whole of
creation" (Mk 16: 15) is constitutive of the ministerial priesthood. This
mandate is not, as we know, a mere duty entrusted to collaborators; its roots
are deeper and must be sought further back in time.
The
missionary dimension of the priesthood is born from the priest's sacramental
configuration to Christ. As a consequence it brings with it a heartfelt and
total adherence to what the ecclesial tradition has identified as apostolica vivendi
forma. This consists in participation in a "new life",
spiritually speaking, in that "new way of life" which the Lord Jesus
inaugurated and which the Apostles made their own. Through the imposition of
the Bishop's hands and the consecratory prayer of the Church, the candidates
become new men, they become "presbyters". In this light it is clear
that the tria munera
are first a gift and only consequently an office, first a participation in a
life, and hence a potestas. Of course, the
great ecclesial tradition has rightly separated sacramental efficacy from the
concrete existential situation of the individual priest and so the legitimate
expectations of the faithful are appropriately safeguarded. However, this
correct doctrinal explanation takes nothing from the necessary, indeed
indispensable, aspiration to moral perfection that must dwell in every
authentically priestly heart.
Precisely
to encourage priests in this striving for spiritual perfection on which, above
all, the effectiveness of their ministry depends, I have decided to establish a
special "Year for Priests" that will begin on 19 June and last until
19 June 2010. In fact, it is the 150th anniversary of the death of the Holy CurŽ d'Ars, John Mary Vianney, a true example of a pastor at the service of
Christ's flock. It will be the task of your Congregation, in agreement with the
diocesan Ordinaries and with the superiors of religious institutes to promote
and to coordinate the various spiritual and pastoral initiatives that seem
useful for making the importance of the priest's role and mission in the Church
and in contemporary society ever more clearly perceived.
The
priest's mission, as the theme of the Plenary Assembly emphasizes, is carried
out "in the Church". This ecclesial communal, hierarchical and
doctrinal dimension is absolutely indispensable to every authentic mission and,
alone guarantees its spiritual effectiveness. The four aspects mentioned must
always be recognized as intimately connected: the mission is
"ecclesial" because no one proclaims himself in the first person, but
within and through his own humanity every priest must be well aware that he is
bringing to the world Another, God himself. God is the only treasure which
ultimately people desire to find in a priest. The mission is "communional" because it is carried out in a unity and
communion that only secondly has also important aspects of social visibility.
Moreover, these derive essentially from that divine intimacy in which the
priest is called to be expert, so that he may be able to lead the souls
entrusted to him humbly and trustingly to the same encounter with the Lord.
Lastly, the "hierarchical" and "doctrinal" dimensions
suggest reaffirming the importance of the ecclesiastical discipline (the term
has a connection with "disciple") and doctrinal training and not only
theological, initial and continuing formation.
Awareness
of the radical social changes that have occurred in recent decades must
motivate the best ecclesial forces to supervise the formation of candidates for
the ministry. In particular, it must foster the constant concern of Pastors for
their principal collaborators, both by cultivating truly fatherly human
relations and by taking an interest in their continuing formation, especially
from the doctrinal and spiritual viewpoints. The mission is rooted in a special
way in a good formation, developed in communion with uninterrupted ecclesial
Tradition, without breaks or temptations of irregularity. In this sense, it is
important to encourage in priests, especially in the young generations, a
correct reception of the texts of the Second
Ecumenical Vatican Council, interpreted in the light of the Church's entire
fund of doctrine. It seems urgent to recover that awareness that has always
been at the heart of the Church's mission, which impels priests to be present,
identifiable and recognizable both for their judgement
of faith, for their personal virtues as well as for the habit, in the contexts
of culture and of charity.
As
Church and as priests, we proclaim Jesus of Nazareth Lord and Christ, Crucified
and Risen, Sovereign of time and of history, in the glad certainty that this
truth coincides with the deepest expectations of the human heart. In the
mystery of the Incarnation of the Word, that is, of the fact that God became
man like us, lies both the content and the method of
Christian proclamation. The true dynamic centre of the mission is here: in
Jesus Christ, precisely. The centrality of Christ brings with it the correct
appreciation of the ministerial priesthood, without which there would be
neither the Eucharist, nor even the mission nor the Church herself. In this
regard it is necessary to be alert to ensure that the "new
structures" or pastoral organizations are not planned on the basis of an
erroneous interpretation of the proper promotion of the laity for a time in
which one would have "to do without" the ordained ministry, because
in that case the presuppositions for a further dilution of the ministerial
priesthood would be laid and possible presumed "solutions" might come
dramatically to coincide with the real causes of contemporary problems linked
to the ministry.
I am
certain that in these days the work of the Plenary Assembly, under the
protection of the Mater Ecclesiae, will be able to examine these brief
ideas that I permit myself to submit to the attention of the Cardinals,
Archbishops and Bishops, while I invoke upon you all an abundance of heavenly
gifts, as a pledge of which I impart a special, affectionate Apostolic Blessing
to you and to all your loved ones.
Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI
to the Members of the Congregation for the Clergy
on the Occasion of their Plenary Assembly
Monday, 16 March 2009
(www.vatican.va)