VATICAN CITY, 7 MAR 2009 (VIS) - This morning in the Vatican's "Redemptoris Mater" Chapel, at the conclusion of the Roman Curia's spiritual exercises, the Pope expressed thanks, in the name of all those present, to the preacher Cardinal Francis Arinze, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. The theme of this year's exercises was: "The priest meets Jesus and follows Him".
The Pope indicated that, through the meditations, Cardinal Arinze had "guided, illuminated and helped us to renew our priesthood".
"You offered us no theological acrobatics", he told the cardinal, "but sound doctrine, the good bread of our faith. ... Your preaching was permeated by Holy Scripture - revealing a great familiarity with the Word of God, seen in the context of the living Church from the Fathers to the Catechism of the Catholic Church - and always contextualised in the readings and in the liturgy. Precisely for this reason, Scripture was present in its full contemporary significance".
The Holy Father explained how he had "admired and enjoyed this tangible experience" of Cardinal Arinze's fifty years of priesthood, "in the light of which you helped us to strengthen our faith. You used the right words, words with real significance for our lives and for our behaviour as priests", he concluded.
AC/THANKS PREACHER/ARINZE VIS 20090309 (230)
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