VATICAN CITY, 19 JAN 2008 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received professors and students of the diocesan seminary of Rome, the "Almo Collegio Capranica", for the feast day of their patroness, St Agnes, which falls on 21 January.
In his talk to them, them Benedict XVI gave particular emphasis to the figure of Cardinal Domenico Capranica, who founded the institution 550 years ago and who, a century before the Council of Trent, was able to see "that the desired reform would not only have to involve ecclesiastical structures but, principally, the lives and choices of those people within the Church who were called to be ... guides and pastors of the People of God".
The same cardinal also drew up the "Constitutiones" of the "Almo Collegio" which regulate "the various aspects of the formation of the young students", said the Pope. With those "Constitutiones", the cardinal "demonstrated his concern for the primacy of the spiritual dimension, and his awareness that the profundity of a solid priestly formation - and its consequent durability - depend to a decisive degree on the completeness and overall structure of the educational syllabus.
"These aspects have even greater importance today", the Pope added, "considering the multiple challenges priests and evangelisers must face on their mission. In this context I have, on a number of occasions, reminded seminarians and priests of the urgent need to cultivate a profound interior life, a personal and constant contact with Christ in prayer and contemplation, a sincere longing for sanctity.
"In fact, without a true friendship with Jesus, it is impossible for Christians, and especially for priests, to carry out the mission with which the Lord entrusts them. For priests, it is clear that this also entails serious cultural and theological preparation".
The Holy Father stressed "the decisive impulse" a period spent in Rome can give to priests' educational itinerary, because of "the presence of the Cathedra of Peter, the work of the people and the institutions that assist the Bishop of Rome", and "a more direct knowledge of certain particular Churches".
"Your pastors", the Pope told his audience, "have sent you to the city of Peter's Successor in the hope that you return enriched by a markedly Catholic spirit, and a fuller and more universal awareness of ecclesial matters".
Life in the "Almo Collegio" enables its students, who come from all over the world, "to gain an intimate knowledge of that mix of cultures and mentalities which is so typical of modern life", the Pope concluded. "Furthermore, the presence of students from the Russian Orthodox Church represents a further encouragement to dialogue and fraternity, and gives nourishment to ecumenical hopes".
AC/.../COLLEGIO CAPRANICA VIS 20080121 (450)
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