TRADITIONAL LENTEN ENCOUNTER WITH CLERGY OF ROME

VATICAN CITY, MAR 6, 2003 (VIS) - This morning in the Clementine Hall, Pope John Paul held his traditional Lenten encounter with the clergy of Rome and, in his talk to them, noted that this takes place "in the 25th year of my pastoral service as bishop of Rome." Cardinal Camillo Ruini, vicar of Rome, and the clergy presented the Pope with a volume containing all of the talks he has given to them since the first one in 1979.

As he did in his 1996 book, "Gift and Mystery: On the 50th Anniversary of My Priesthood," John Paul II today stressed that the ministerial priesthood is both a great gift from God as well as a mystery, "which finds its truth and identity in being the derivation from and continuation of Christ Himself and the mission He received from the Father."

"In the exercise of our ministry and throughout our life," affirmed the Pope, "we are truly men of God. Not only the faithful who are closest to us, but also those persons who are weak and unsure of their faith and distant from practicing a Christian life are sensitive to the presence and witness of a priest who is truly 'a man of God'."

He said that the "main path" to achieve this holiness is prayer, and at the heart of prayer, especially for priests, is the Eucharist. "In reality, we have no alternative. If we do not seek, humbly and with trust, to proceed on the path of our sanctification, we end up being satisfied with little compromises, that slowly become greater ones and can even end up in the betrayal, open or masked, of that special love with which God loved us, calling us to the priesthood."

The Holy Father underscored that being priests "means loving the Church as Christ did, giving ourselves for her. We must not be afraid to identify ourselves with the Church and consume ourselves for her." Above all, he said, a priest must always be the Good Shepherd, loving and serving his people. He must always be a man of communion.

"When difficulties and temptations weigh on our heart," said Pope John Paul, "let us remember the greatness of the gift we have received, and thus be able in turn 'to give with joy'. We are in fact, above all in the confessional but also in all aspects of our ministry, witnesses and instruments of divine mercy, we are and must be men who know how to infuse hope and perform works of peace and reconciliation."

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