In
preparation for the meeting and to meet the Pope's request, Cardinal
Vicar Agostino Vallini circulated among the priests of the diocese of
Rome a reflection on priestly identity in the light of the Aparecida
Document presented by the then Cardinal Bergoglio during the Fifth
Conference of Latin American Bishops.
In
the paper, the then archbishop of Buenos Aires discussed how in
Aparecida one became aware of changing times, “not in the many
partial ways that anyone might find in the daily actions one
performs, but rather in the meaning that gives unity to all that
exists”.
“The
defining aspect of this change of epoch is that things are no longer
in their place. Our previous ways of explaining the world and
relationships, good and bad, no longer appears to work. The way in
which we locate ourselves in history has changed. Things we thought
would never happen, or that we never thought we would see, we are
experiencing now, and we dare not even imagine the future. That which
appeared normal to us – family, the Church, society and the world –
will probably no longer seem that way. We cannot simply wait for what
we are experiencing to pass, under the illusion that things will
return to being how they were before”.
In
the document, Bergoglio presents the mission as a proposal and
challenge in the face of these changes, and encourages the pastor to
be “an ardent missionary who lives the constant desire to seek out
the remote, not content with simple administration”, and reiterates
that “a transformation in pastoral action and a consequent
transforming pastoral action can only occur when mediated by the
interior transformation of the agents of pastoral care and the
members of the community they form. … To become once again a Church
driven by evangelical momentum and audacity, we must again become
faithful and evangelised disciples”.
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