Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Arua (Agenzia Fides) - "What kind of priest do I want to be? A priest who testifies to Christ, because he believes, loves, and he shows it in his action and life? " Are some questions that Cardinal Fernando Filoni, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, placed forward to the seminarians of the Ecclesiastical Province of Gulu, at the end of the homily of the Mass celebrated for them this morning in the parish of the vicarage in Moyo as part of the closing celebrations of the centenary of the evangelization of northern Uganda (see Fides 12/12/2012 and following days).
Other questions posed by the Cardinal: "What kind of priest do I want to be for the Church a half a century after the II Vatican Council? Am I ready to take on the heritage gained and built up through the dauntless hard work and the blood shed by so many martyrs, holy missionaries, and men and women of faith? Can Christ and the Church trust me? Am I really ready to serve in celebate chastity - as a total gift to Christ? Do I have the heart of Christ to build up the Church and undertake the evangelization of the twenty-first century?" "The answer now is up to you," concluded the Prefect of the Congregation.
In his homily, Cardinal Filoni highlighted the significance of this time of formation, in which one learns in the first place to "be with Him", to "get to know him, hear what he says, to be formed by Him," and then to " be missionaries who go out, who take with them what they have learned from Jesus, bringing it to others." The time in the Seminary, said the Cardinal Prefect, "is a time for discernment, a time for learning, a time for vocation. Yet, none of this is possible without a continually developing and deepening life of prayer." Finally, the study is an important part of preparation for the priesthood, "vital and essential," stressed the Prefect of the Congregation, citing in a particular way, Africae munus, Pope Benedict XVI’s Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation on the Church in Africa. (SL) (Agenzia Fides 15/12/2012)
