Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Seoul (Agenzia Fides) - The last meeting of the pastoral visit in Korea of Cardinal Fernando Filoni, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, was reserved for seminarians, on Saturday afternoon, October 5.
"This meeting ideally embraces all of the students of our Seminaries in Korea, to whom I give my affectionate greetings - the Cardinal said the Seminarians gathered in the Major Seminary in Seoul along with their formators - . The Church in Korea responds today with more than 1,500 young men to its future pastoral needs, preparing you for priestly ministry".
The Cardinal then paused to reflect on discernment and orientation: "the time that you spend in the Seminary - he said - is a time of discernment, of orientation, and of preparation for the service of God and the Church. In this context, I want to highlight the responsibility that falls to your Bishops and formators, who may not give to this duty only a small part of their time or a partial attention".
Then outlining the characteristics that a priest must have, the Prefect of the Congregation pointed out: "be a man of God, be a man of prayer, a man of noble virtues and of charity, who loves the Gospel, a man truly formed by the word and by Divine Wisdom. Not, therefore, bureaucrats or administrators of religious questions like any other non-governmental organization (NGO), not ideologues of an evangelical message of a type socialized according to a reading consonant with political and social sciences; even less a sort of immanent and self-referential psychiatrist, deprived of transcendence and sense of mission; and even less a kind of elitist, that is, standing far away from reality in a context of disembodied pessimism, far away from God and from humanity". After thanking the Bishops, formatord and teachers, Cardinal Filoni concluded: "I want to assure you, dear Seminarians, that our Congregation follows your progress with much attention. You represent the hope of the Church in Korea, a Church that is alive and very much admired in the Catholic world, as well as in this Asiac Region". (SL) (Agenzia Fides 07/10/2013 )
