PRESENTATION OF POPE'S HOLY THURSDAY LETTER TO PRIESTS

VATICAN CITY, MAR 30, 2000 (VIS) - The Holy Father John Paul II's Letter to Priests for Holy Thursday 2000 was presented today in the Holy See Press Office by Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos and Archbishop Csaba Ternyak, respectively prefect and secretary of the Congregation for the Clergy.

Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos referred to reflections the Pope had made when - on March 23, during the course of his Jubilee pilgrimage to the Holy Land - he signed the document in the Cenacle or Upper Room. John Paul II asks priests to "always celebrate the Holy Eucharist with fervor. May we dwell long and often in adoration before Christ in the Eucharist." The Pope also expresses the hope that priests find in the Eucharist the secret to overcoming all difficulty, the nourishment to make a new beginning after every discouragement. In helping the faithful to rediscover the treasure of Holy Mass and the presence of Christ in His sacraments, much depends "upon our own personal relationship with the Eucharist."
Archbishop Ternyak spoke of the Jubilee of Priests, which will be held on May 18 to coincide with the Holy Father's 80th birthday. On that day, the Pope will preside at a Mass in St. Peter's Square which "will thus become," said the archbishop, "another Cenacle. The icon of this Cenacle will be the great Eucharistic celebration and although as an image, it may prove 'spectacular', the substance will remain the 'mystery'."

The Mass of May 18 will be preceded by liturgical celebrations, confessions, testimonies and meditations to take place on May 16 and 17 in the Basilicas of St. John Lateran and St. Paul's Outside-the-Walls. On the evening of Tuesday May 16, there will be a 'Via Crucis' (Way of the Cross) for priests in Rome's Circus Maximus.

Archbishop Ternyak added that the participants in the priests' Jubilee will also be able to "reflect on their own identity and ministry," finding support in the figures of St. Catherine of Siena and St. Therese of Lisieux, who "are well known in the Catholic world for their special commitment to priests. St. Catherine wrote many letters in which, with some energy, she reminds priests (the 'ministers of the Redeemer's Blood') of their dignity, of their condition as 'other Christs' and of the consequent moral and spiritual qualities and zeal they must have. ... St. Therese of Lisieux shows herself as a fervent admirer of the priesthood. ... She supports the apostolate of ministers of the altar through prayer, through the offer of herself, through sacrifice."

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