VATICAN CITY, NOV 17, 2005 (VIS) - Benedict XVI sent a Message to the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI), which is meeting in Assisi, Italy, from November 14 to 18 to celebrate its 55th general assembly. During the meeting attention will be given, among other themes, to the formation of future priests and to the presence of the Church in the world of health care.
"The Church today," writes the Pope, "needs priests who are fully aware of the gift of grace they receive with priestly ordination and with the mission entrusted to them in times of swift and profound changes."
After recalling all the priests working in Italy, "who contribute to making our parishes and communities lively and rich in grace," Benedict XVI highlights the concern he shares with the bishops "for the drop in numbers of clergy and for the progressive increase in the average age of priests. There is, therefore, an urgent need to boost vocational pastoral care and to define the formative option ever more clearly, so as to guarantee a human, intellectual and spiritual preparation capable of meeting the new challenges that priestly ministry is called to face. ... It is equally important that such formative activity should be carried out in a community context, in order to reflect that communion of life which Jesus had with His disciples, and to ensure that the various elements of the educational program are unified around the needs of pastoral charity."
Referring to the second principal theme of the CEI meeting, pastoral health care ministry, the Holy Father observes in his Message that "illness certainly poses serious and complex problems of social organization, ... yet first and foremost it constitutes a fundamental dimension of the human experience, one that cries out to the mission of the Church and to the conscience of believers. Indeed, it was not by chance that the Lord accompanied His announcement of salvation with much healing of suffering people; and the Christian community in all times has made the care of the sick an emblem of Christian charity.
"The witness given us by my beloved predecessor John Paul II remains engraved in our hearts. He made the cathedra of suffering the pinnacle of his Magisterium. Illuminated and encouraged by such a great testimony, the Church is called to express solidarity and care towards those facing the trial of sickness."
In closing his Message, Benedict XVI stresses the need for Catholic institutions that operate in the field of health care to be exemplary, "in uniting scientific innovation and competence with primary care for the person and for his or her dignity. ... Faced with the call ... to eliminate suffering, even through recourse to euthanasia, the inviolable dignity of human life must again be reaffirmed."
The Pope concludes by uniting himself to the CEI in recalling the 40th anniversary of the end of Vatican Council II, "in anticipation of the celebration, which I myself will preside on December 8, to commemorate the extraordinary gift that the Church and humanity received through the Council."
MESS/CEI ASSEMBLY/ASSISI VIS 20051117 (520)
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