Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – The Holy Father Benedict XVI has issued a Letter to all priests, for the opening of the Year for Priests, on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (June 19, 2009), proclaimed by him on the 150th anniversary of the death of Saint John Mary Vianney, the Cure of Ars.
In the Letter, the Pope highlights that the Year for Priests is “deepen the commitment of all priests to interior renewal for the sake of a more forceful and incisive witness to the Gospel in today’s world,” invites us to consider “the immense gift which priests represent, not only for the Church, but also for humanity itself,” highlighting “their apostolic labors, their tireless and hidden service, their universal charity...the courageous fidelity of so many priests who, even amid difficulties and incomprehension, remain faithful to their vocation.”
Benedict XVI then recalled the memory of his first parish priest, at whose side he esercised his ministry as a young priest, and the numerous fellow brother priests that he has met and continues to meet, even on his apostolic journeys to various nations, who are “generously dedicated to the daily exercise of their priestly ministry.” The Pope then recalled “the countless situations of suffering endured by many priests, either because they themselves share in the manifold human experience of pain or because they encounter misunderstanding from the very persons to whom they minister. How can we not also think of all those priests who are offended in their dignity, obstructed in their mission and persecuted, even at times to offering the supreme testimony of their own blood?”
There are also, sad to say, “situations which can never be sufficiently deplored where the Church herself suffers as a consequence of infidelity on the part of some of her ministers. Then it is the world which finds grounds for scandal and rejection. What is most helpful to the Church in such cases is not only a frank and complete acknowledgment of the weaknesses of her ministers, but also a joyful and renewed realization of the greatness of God’s gift, embodied in the splendid example of generous pastors, religious afire with love for God and for souls, and insightful, patient spiritual guides.”
The teaching and example of Saint John Mary Vianney can offer a significant point of reference for us all: “The Curé of Ars was quite humble, yet as a priest he was conscious of being an immense gift to his people...He spoke of the priesthood as if incapable of fathoming the grandeur of the gift and task entrusted to a human creature...He seemed overwhelmed by a boundless sense of responsibility.”
He arrived in Ars, a village of 230 souls, warned by his Bishop beforehand that there he would find “religious practice in a sorry state.” He dedicated all his energy to the conversion of his parish, “The Curé devoted himself completely to his parish’s conversion, setting before all else the Christian education of the people in his care.” In the Letter, the Holy Father then invites the priests to ask the Lord “the grace to learn for ourselves something of the pastoral plan of Saint John Mary Vianney! The first thing we need to learn is the complete identification of the man with his ministry.”
The Holy Cure of Ars, who made his parish church his home as soon as he arrived, “he regularly visited the sick and families, organized popular missions and patronal feasts, collected and managed funds for his charitable and missionary works, embellished and furnished his parish church, cared for the orphans and teachers of the 'Providence' (an institute he founded); provided for the education of children; founded confraternities and enlisted lay persons to work at his side.” To this proposal, the Pontiff highlighted the “sectors of cooperation which need to be opened ever more fully to the lay faithful. Priests and laity together make up the one priestly people,” recalling the “hearty encouragement” of the II Vatican Council to “be sincere in their appreciation and promotion of the dignity of the laity and of the special role they have to play in the Church’s mission.”
The Holy Cure taught the parishioners above all through the witness of his life: “ It was from his example that they learned to pray, halting frequently before the tabernacle for a visit to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament...He was convinced that the fervour of a priest’s life depended entirely upon the Mass...the growing numbers of penitents from all over France would keep him in the confessional for up to 16 hours a day.”
“From Saint John Mary Vianney we can learn to put our unfailing trust in the sacrament of Penance, to set it once more at the centre of our pastoral concerns, and to take up the “dialogue of salvation” which it entails. The Curé of Ars dealt with different penitents in different ways...In his time the Curé of Ars was able to transform the hearts and the lives of so many people because he enabled them to experience the Lord’s merciful love. Our own time urgently needs a similar proclamation and witness to the truth of Love: Deus caritas est (1 Jn: 4:8).”
Although he often trembled from a conviction of his personal inadequacy, to such a point that he even wished to withdraw from the responsibilities of the parish ministry, “with exemplary obedience he never abandoned his post, consumed as he was by apostolic zeal for the salvation of souls. He sought to remain completely faithful to his own vocation and mission through the practice of an austere asceticism...Aside from the actual penances which the Curé of Ars practiced, the core of his teaching remains valid for each of us: souls have been won at the price of Jesus’ own blood, and a priest cannot devote himself to their salvation if he refuses to share personally in the 'precious cost' of redemption.”
Benedict XVI then highlighted that “in today’s world, as in the troubled times of the Curé of Ars, the lives and activity of priests need to be distinguished by a forceful witness to the Gospel” and recalled how the Cure of Ars knew how to live out the “evangelical counsels” in his priesthood. “His poverty was not the poverty of a religious or a monk, but that proper to a priest: while managing much money (since well-to-do pilgrims naturally took an interest in his charitable works), he realized that everything had been donated to his church, his poor, his orphans, the girls of his “Providence”,[36] his families of modest means...His chastity, too, was that demanded of a priest for his ministry. It could be said that it was a chastity suited to one who must daily touch the Eucharist, who contemplates it blissfully and with that same bliss offers it to his flock...Saint John Mary Vianney’s obedience found full embodiment in his conscientious fidelity to the daily demands of his ministry.”
In the final portion of the Letter, the Holy Father said he wished to “invite all priests, during this Year dedicated to them, to welcome the new springtime which the Spirit is now bringing about in the Church, not least through the ecclesial movements and the new communities” and exhorted them to live in communion with the Bishop: “This communion between priests and their Bishop, grounded in the sacrament of Holy Orders and made manifest in Eucharistic concelebration, needs to be translated into various concrete expressions of an effective and affective priestly fraternity.[49] Only thus will priests be able to live fully the gift of celibacy and build thriving Christian communities in which the miracles which accompanied the first preaching of the Gospel can be repeated.”
At the end of the letter, the Pope mentioned how St. Paul, in recalling the closing of the Year of St. Paul, is “a splendid example of a priest entirely devoted to his ministry” and entrusted the Year for Priests to the Virgin Mary, asking her to “awaken in the heart of every priest a generous and renewed commitment to the ideal of complete self-oblation to Christ and the Church which inspired the thoughts and actions of the saintly Curé of Ars.” “Dear priests, Christ is counting on you. In the footsteps of the Curé of Ars, let yourselves be enthralled by him. In this way you too will be, for the world in our time, heralds of hope, reconciliation and peace!” This was the Pope's final exhortation. (SL) (Agenzia Fides 19/6/2009)
