CARDINAL SODANO CELEBRATES FIFTY YEARS IN THE PRIESTHOOD

VATICAN CITY, OCT 3, 2000 (VIS) - Yesterday in St. Peter's Basilica, Cardinal Secretary of State Angelo Sodano celebrated a thanksgiving Mass for his 50 years in the priesthood. Cardinals and prelates of the Roman Curia participated in the ceremony as well as numerous ambassadors to the Holy See and high-ranking representatives from the Italian authorities.

In his homily, the secretary of state recalled how, on September 23, 1950, "on a bright autumn morning I, together with eight seminary classmates, received priestly ordination in the Cathedral of Asti from the hands of the late Cardinal Umberto Rossi. Thus my apostolic activity began.

"Today, fifty years on, I am here with you to raise a hymn of thanks to the Lord for the gift of the priestly vocation."

"On November 1, 1996, on the 50th anniversary of his own priestly ordination, Pope John Paul II, in the book we know well, "Gift and Mystery," revealed to us the feelings awakened by that event. In the first chapter these words appear and indicate the 'leit-motif' of the entire work: "at its deepest level, each priestly vocation is a great mystery, it is a gift that infinitely surpasses man. Each of us priests feels this clearly throughout his life.

"Consequently, all that remains to us is to adore thrice holy God in silence, prostrating ourselves before Him and proclaiming His eternal mercy. For me, the duty of giving thanks to the Lord for the gift received has become even more pressing since I was called 22 years ago to exercise the priesthood at a higher level, that of the episcopate.

"Around the altar this evening, I see many dear people who have wished to unite with me in prayer. My warm thanks go out to all, especially my fellow cardinals and first of all to the venerable cardinal dean."

"Brothers and sisters, for me 50 years of priestly life have passed in an age full of contradictions and struggles. Now, new horizons of apostolic work open up before us. With the coming of the third millennium of our Christian history, each of us nourishes hopes of a better future. On September 23, celebrating my 50 years as a priest together with my classmates, I reminded them of a page from the classics. It was the episode in which Aeneas fled from the burning city of Troy carrying his aged father Anchises on his back, the symbol of the future.

"We too, children of a troubled century, are preparing ourselves to leave the past behind us, carrying our most precious memories on our backs and extending a hand to the young people of today, that they may have a better future, a future worthy of the children of God."

"The challenges of the third millennium are great. Like Paul in the areopagus of Athens, we must know how to speak with courage to the men of today. Indeed, new areopaghi appear before us: diverse fields of culture, new national and international realities; all of them will have to be illuminated by the light of the Gospel, with the certainty that Christ is 'the Way the Truth and the Light' for everyone."

The Holy Father, in a Letter personally written and signed by him and made public on September 19, expressed his "warmest gratitude (to the secretary of state) for the help given over these years to me and to the Church." The Pope added his "vivid appreciation for the effective work you have carried out and continue to carry out to the benefit of my ministry; the wise counsel, the constant devotion to the Pope and to the Apostolic See. ... This joyous commemoration induces me to congratulate you warmly for such a long period spent at the service of God and of the Church, and to express my appreciation for your tried and tested wisdom in evaluating human events and, what is more, for your profound sensitivity in promoting projects and pastoral initiatives regarding the Church's action in the world."

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