Vatican City, 20 November 2015 (VIS) –
The Congregation for the Clergy, whose prefect is Cardinal Beniamino
Stella, has organised a congress at the Pontifical Urbanian
University in Rome to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the
promulgation of the Vatican Council II decrees “Optatum totius”
and “Presbyterorum ordinis”, dedicated to the formation of
priests. At the closing of the Congress Pope Francis received the
participants in audience this morning in the Sala Regia. The
following are extensive extracts of his address.
“Given that the vocation to the
priesthood is a gift that God gives to some for the good of all, I
would like to share with you some thoughts, starting form the
relationship between priests and other people, following on from no.3
of 'Presbyterorum ordinis', in which there is a little compendium of
the theology of priesthood, from the Letter to the Hebrews: 'Priests,
who are taken from among men and ordained for men in the things that
belong to God in order to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins,
nevertheless live on earth with other men as brothers' amid brothers.
Let us consider these three moments: 'taken from among men',
'ordained for men', and present among other men”.
“The priest is a man who is born in a
certain human context: there he learns the primary values, absorbs
the spirituality of the people, grows accustomed to relations.
Priests also have a history, they are not 'mushrooms' that suddenly
appear in the Cathedral on the day of their ordination. It is
important for formators and priests themselves to remember this and
to know how to take into account this personal history along the path
of formation. … A good priest, therefore, is first of all a man
with his own humanity, who knows his own history, with its riches and
its wounds, who has learned to make peace with this, achieving the
fundamental serenity proper to one of the Lord's disciples. Human
formation is therefore a necessity for priests, so that they learn
not to be dominate by their limits, but rather to put their talents
to use”.
“We priests are apostles of joy: we
announce the Gospel, which is the quintessential 'good news'; we
certainly do not give strength to the Gospel – some believe this –
but we can favour or hinder the encounter between the Gospel and
people. Our humanity is a the clay vase in which we conserve God's
treasure, a vase we must take care of, so as to transmit well its
valuable contents”.
“A priest cannot lose his roots: he
always remains a man of the people and the culture that have produced
him; our roots help us to remember who we are and to where Christ has
called us. We priests do not fall from above but are instead called
by God, who takes us 'from among men', to 'ordain us for men'. This
is the second step”.
“Responding to God's call, we become
priests to serve our brothers and sisters. The images of Christ we
take as a point of reference for our ministry as priests are clear:
He is the 'Supreme Priest', at the time close to God and close to
man; He is the 'Servant', Who washes the feet and makes Himself close
to the weakest; and He is the 'Good Shepherd', Who always cares for
His flock”.
“They are the three images we must
look to, thinking of the ministry of priests, sent to serve men, to
bring God's mercy to them, to announce His Word of life. We are not
priests for ourselves, and our own sanctification is closely linked
to that of our people, our anointment with theirs. You have been
anointed for your people. Knowing and remembering that we are
ordained for the people, the holy people of God, helps priests not to
think of themselves, to be authoritative and not authoritarian, firm
but not hard, joyful but not superficial: in short, pastors, not
functionaries. St. Ambrose, in the fourth century, said that where
there is mercy, there is the spirit of the Lord; where there is
rigidity there are only His ministers. The minister without the Lord
becomes rigid, and this is a danger for the people of God”.
“Finally, what is born with the
people must stay with the people. The priests is always among other
men: he is not a professional of pastoral ministry or evangelisation,
who arrives and does what he is supposed to do – perhaps well, but
as if it were a profession like any other – before then going away
and living a separate life. One becomes a priest in order to stay in
the midst of the people. The good that priests can do arises above
all from their closeness and their tender love for people. They are
not philanthropists or functionaries, but fathers and brothers”.
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