Vatican City (Fides Service) - "On various occasions I have expressed my appreciation for those who devote themselves to the penitential ministry in the Church: the Catholic priest, is truly first of all a ministry of the redeeming sacrifice of Christ in the Eucharist, and minister of divine pardon in the sacrament of Penance. I would like, under the circumstances, to dwell in particular on the privileged connection that exists between the priesthood and the sacrament of Reconciliation, which from the priest must be received first of all with faith and humility, as well as with convinced frequency" Pope John Paul II said this in his address on 28 March to participants at the internal Forum promoted by the Apostolic Penitentiary.
"As a minister of the sacrament of Penance the priest, aware of the precious gift of grace placed in his hands, must offer the faithful the charity of kind reception, with no avarice in giving his time or asperity or coldness in his dealing - the Pope underlined -. At the same time he must have the charity, indeed the justice to refer without ideological variants and without arbitrary reduction, to the genuine teaching of the Church…In particular I wish to call your attention to dutiful adhesion to the Magisterium of the Church with regard to complex emerging problems in the field of bio-ethics and the moral and canonical within the ambit of matrimony…In fact those who in the name of God and of the Church carry out this most delicate ministry, have the precise duty not to have, and still less to manifest in the sacramental see, personal opinions which fail to correspond to what the Church teaches and proclaims".
Lastly the Holy Father stressed that "the Sacrament of Penance, if well administered and received, shows itself to be a tool for vocational discernment" while candidates to the priesthood should receive from the spiritual director "not only discernment but also the example of his life". See complete text in Italian at www.fides.org SL (Fides Service 31/3/2003 EM lines 24 Words: 341)