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The World Seen From Rome
Daily dispatch - June 05, 2009
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VATICAN DOSSIER
Dicastery Given Faculties to Penalize Wayward Priests
Priests Urged to Open Their Hearts Wide
Pontiff's Holidays Confirmed for July 13-29
WORLD FEATURES
Compendium of '07 Letter Helping Chinese Unity
Orthodox Patriarch Urges Defense of Planet
NEWS BRIEFS
Cardinal Bertone Remembers Founder
U.S. Catholics Comprise 22% of Population
Madagascar to Celebrate Beatification
Growing Church in Chad Means New Vicariate
DOCUMENTS
Benedict XVI's Q-and-A With Children Missionaries
Clergy Congregation's Letter on Year for Priests
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Dicastery Given Faculties to Penalize Wayward Priests
Clergy Congregation Can Dismiss From Clerical StateVATICAN CITY, JUNE 5, 2009 (Zenit.org).- There are cases when priests' lack of discipline causes grave scandal and wounds the common good; to help quickly remedy these situations, Benedict XVI has extended the faculties of the Congregation for Clergy.
Archbishop Mauro Piacenza, secretary of that congregation, explained today that the dicastery now has the faculty to treat cases of dismissal from the clerical state "in poenam" (as a penalty) for those clerics who have attempted marriage or have committed other grave sins against the Sixth Commandment.
In an interview with Vatican Radio, the archbishop clarified that "this is not a simplification of procedures or even a simplified procedure, but rather a juridical instrument consistent and coherent with current canon law."
The procedure is nothing automatic, the prelate added, "but rather one which is pursued in certain and very circumscribed cases according to the prudent judgment of the Apostolic See."
The new guidelines also include "the faculty to intervene for the imposition of a just penalty or penance for the external violation of divine or canon law."
When the offender has no intention to reform his life, "perpetual penalties" can be imposed, which could include dismissal from the clerical state.
Finally, the clergy congregation now has the faculty to "declare the loss of the clerical state for clerics who have abandoned the ministry for a period greater than five consecutive years and who persist in such freely chosen and illicit absence from the ministry."
Archbishop Piacenza reiterated: "There is nothing automatic about these procedures, nor is there an automatic timeframe, and each case is considered individually, and applied only for the gravest circumstance."
Protecting celibacy
The new faculties were announced in an April letter from the prefect of the Congregation for Clergy, Cardinal Cláudio Hummes, to apostolic nuncios. The Pope had made the changes in January.
Archbishop Piacenza noted today that the faculties come from a "desire to honor the mission and the figure of priests who, in this period when secularization is so widely diffused, bear the burden of thinking and acting counterculturally out of fidelity to their proper identity and mission."
The Vatican official affirmed that a priest must have "continuous asceticism in fidelity to the promises made on the day of ordination and respecting the intangible rights of God upon us."
But though celibacy might be difficult, the archbishop affirmed that the "will of the Church with regard to this finds its ultimate motivation in the unique coherence that celibacy has with ordination, which configures the priest to Jesus Christ the Head and Spouse of the Church."
He added: "Indeed, for this reason the Church has reaffirmed at the Second Vatican Council and repeatedly in the subsequent pontifical magisterium the 'firm will to maintain the law that demands perpetual and freely chosen celibacy for present and future candidates for priestly ordination in the Latin rite.'
"Priestly celibacy is a gift the Church has received and wishes to protect, convinced more than ever that it is a gift for herself and for the world."
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Priests Urged to Open Their Hearts Wide
Clergy Dicastery Prepares to Celebrate the PriesthoodVATICAN CITY, JUNE 5, 2009 (Zenit.org).- As the Year for Priests is set to begin, the Congregation for Clergy is encouraging priests to enter the celebration with a "wide open heart."
Archbishop Mauro Piacenza, secretary of the Congregation for Clergy, wrote this in a letter he sent to the priests of the world ahead of the June 19 inauguration.
Benedict XVI will open the year with a celebration of vespers on the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The theme for the priestly year is "Faithfulness of Christ, Faithfulness of Priests."
The year coincides with the 150th anniversary of the death of St. Jean Marie Vianney, the Curé of Ars, and the inauguration event will be held in the presence of the relic of the Curé of Ars, to be brought to Rome by Bishop Guy Bagnard of Belley-Ars.
The Year for Priests will conclude with an International Convention in Rome, to be held June 9-11, 2010.
The archbishop said the Year for Priests promises to be "an intense moment of faith" for the priests of the world, together with Benedict XVI.
He said priests are called every day -- and much more so during this year -- "to be ever more authentically that which we already are, [to] conversion to our ecclesial identity of which our ministry is a necessary consequence, so that a renewed and joyous awareness of our 'being' will determine our 'acting,' or rather will create the space allowing Christ the Good Shepherd to live in us and to act through us."
"Our spirituality must be nothing other than the spirituality of Christ himself," the prelate added, "the one and only supreme High Priest of the New Testament."
Archbishop Piacenza noted that the main work of the Year for Priests will be to "concentrate on the identity of Christ the Son of God [...] and on his mission to reveal the Father and his wondrous plan of salvation. This mission of Christ carries with it the building up of the Church: Behold the Good Shepherd who gives his life for the Church."
The archbishop urged priests to take up the challenge so that "Christ’s manner of life may be the manner of life made ever more manifest in each one of us."
He continued: "We must exist for others, we must undertake to live with the People in a union of holy and divine love -- which clearly presupposes the richness of holy celibacy -- which obliges us to live in authentic solidarity with those who suffer and who live in a great many types of poverty.
"We must be laborers for the building up of the one Church of Christ, for which we must live purposefully and faithfully the communion of love with the Pope, with the bishops, with our brother priests and with the faithful. We must live this communion with the unbroken pilgrimage of the Church within the very sinews of the Mystical Body."
"[R]un spiritually in this year with a 'wide open heart,'" the archbishop urged, "so as to inwardly conform to our vocation the better to say, in truth 'it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.'”
Archbishop Piacenza invited all Church faithful to celebrate the opening of the Year for Priests, which will take place June 19 at St. Peter's Basilica.
The basilica will open at 4 p.m., and the reliquary of St. Jean Marie Vianney will arrive at 5:30 p.m. Vespers will follow.
He asked those unable to attend to join themselves spiritually to the occasion.
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On ZENIT's Web page:
Full text: www.zenit.org/article-26092?l=english
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Pontiff's Holidays Confirmed for July 13-29
VATICAN CITY, JUNE 5, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI will return this year to the Italian Alpine resort of Les Combes, a village in the Aosta Valley, for his annual summer holidays, from July 13-29.A communiqué issued by the prefect of the Pontifical Household confirmed that all audiences and public events will be suspended during the month of July.
However, the Pontiff will continue to gather with the faithful to pray the Angelus on Sundays. On July 10, he will recite the Marian prayer in the Ruggia Plaza of Romano Canavese, in the Diocese of Ivrea. On July 26, he will pray with the faithful at the residence of Les Combes.
After his stay in the Aosta Valley, Benedict XVI will travel to the papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome, where he will remain until the end of September.
The Pope will continue to pray the Angelus with the faithful on Sundays and solemnities at the summer residence. The general audiences will resume regularly from Aug. 2.
In 2006, the Pope vacationed in the city of Bressanone, located in the northern Italian region Trentino-Alto Adige, where he had spent many vacations as a cardinal.
In 2007, Benedict XVI vacationed in Lorenzago di Cardore in Italy’s Veneto region, while the preceding two years he went to the Les Combes, in the Aosta Valley.
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Compendium of '07 Letter Helping Chinese Unity
Hong Kong Bishop Says Faithful Impressed by Holy See ClosenessHONG KONG, JUNE 5, 2009 (Zenit.org).- The Vatican's compendium of Benedict XVI's 2007 letter to Chinese Catholics will help the faithful of that Asian nation to find unity, according to the bishop of Hong Kong.
Bishop John Tong Hon affirmed this in a report he sent to Aid to the Church in Need last week, in which he said the Chinese faithful are "impressed by the Holy See’s concern and close attention."
The compendium, in question-and-answer format, was released May 24. The Communist authorities in China made it hard for the faithful to read the original letter, blocking it from the Internet. Bishop Tong also said there were deliberate attempts to misrepresent the Holy Father's words.
"Almost anywhere else in the world, Catholics can openly organize a meeting to study a papal document but in China this is still hard to do," he noted.
Nevertheless, the prelate affirmed that since 2007, there have been strides toward the reconciliation of the "official" and the "underground" Church.
The government permits religious practice only with recognized personnel and in places registered with the Religious Affairs Office and under the control of the Patriotic Association.
This explains the difference affirmed between the "national" or "official" Church, and the faithful who oppose such control and who wish to obey the Pope directly. The latter constitute the non-official, or underground, Church.
The 69-year-old bishop acknowledged that in the compendium, the Pontiff compares reconciliation to a journey that cannot be accomplished over night.
But, he said, unity is urgent and there is a need for an "exchange of experiences, sharing of pastoral projects, common initiatives, etc."
"There have been cases where the underground Church emerged into the open too suddenly," the bishop suggested. "After the underground leaders received government recognition, this premature structural unity between 'open' and 'underground' Catholics led to more divisions."
Still, this cannot be an excuse to stop efforts for unity, Bishop Tong declared: "Chinese Catholics need to take steps gradually, to contact each other, pray together, dialogue and cooperate step by step, as the Holy Father expects."
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Orthodox Patriarch Urges Defense of Planet
Writes Message for Today's World Environment DayISTANBUL, Turkey, JUNE 5, 2009 (Zenit.org).- No one is exempt from the "indisputable obligation" to protect the planet, says the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople.
Bartholomew I affirmed that climate change is the biggest threat for all types of life on earth in a message for today's World Environment Day, sponsored by the United Nations Environment Program.
The Orthodox patriarch urged people "independently of their religious origins, to take the ecological crisis into consideration," L'Osservatore Romano reported.
"Today more than ever there is an indisputable obligation for everyone: that of realizing that environmental considerations on our planet are not just romantic ideals of a small group," he said.
Bartholomew I affirmed that there is a direct correlation between the protection of the environment and economic and social life.
"Nature is part of creation and has a sacred character," the patriarch contended, "such that to abuse it and destroy it is a sacrilege and a bad act, a defiance of the work of God the Creator."
He added: "To care for and protect creation is the responsibility of everyone, in an individual way and collectively."
Bartholomew I acknowledged that it falls to political authorities of every nation to "evaluate the situation and propose actions, means and other norms."
But he added that "individual responsibility is important, not only in personal and family life, but also in their function as active citizens."
The patriarch concluded with an appeal for "a deeper sense of vigilance for the protection of nature and creation."
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Cardinal Bertone Remembers Founder
Don Bosco Relics Begin Tour at Roman CatacombsROME, JUNE 5, 2009 (Zenit.org).- St. John Bosco understood the best way to invest in the future of society and the Church, according to his spiritual son who is Benedict XVI's secretary of state.
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone affirmed this during a Mass he celebrated before the relics of the Salesians' founder. The relics are going to tour all five continents, in celebration of the 200th anniversary of John Bosco's birth in 1815.
The tour began Thursday in the Catacombs of St. Callixtus, which are cared for by the Salesians, and which John Bosco visited various times during his life.
In the Mass he celebrated before the relics of his founder, Cardinal Bertone called the saint a "man of action," speaking of his dedication to youth, especially those who were abandoned or in threatening situations.
The cardinal noted how the Salesians work to draw out the positive aspects of every youth, listening to their needs and sharing their troubles.
He commented how Don Bosco understood that work dedicated to youth is the best investment in society and the Church. The fruits of this investment, the secretary of state continued, can be seen in Salesian institutes, schools and professional centers.
"The spirit of Don Bosco has been incarnated in thousands of his sons and daughters who have decided to continue attending to the smallest, through the various branches of the Salesian family," he said.
Cardinal Bertone concluded his homily mentioning that he'd come to the catacombs to "confirm the dedication and sacrifice of all those who through the years have passed by here, to renew in everyone -- young and old -- a youthful enthusiasm, to encourage a tireless commitment to the education of the young and to motivate us to attend to the society of today more and more."
Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, also celebrated Mass before the relics.
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U.S. Catholics Comprise 22% of Population
WASHINGTON, D.C., JUNE 5, 2009 (Zenit.org).- There are one million more Catholics in the United States than the previous year, the 2009 Official Catholic Directory statistics indicate.A press release from the U.S. Catholic bishops' conference affirmed Wednesday that the total number of Catholics in the country equals 68,115,001, or 22% of the population.
The directory, compiled from information collected from the dioceses, notes 41,489 priests in the country, both diocesan and religious.
The 189 seminaries nationwide are training 4,973 students.
There are 60,715 religious sisters on record, and 4,905 religious brothers.
The past year witnessed the launching of 91 new parishes, putting the total number at 18,674.
Some 85,293,351 patients were served by 562 Catholic hospitals.
Infant baptisms equaled 887,145, and adult baptisms numbered 42,629. Those people who were already baptized Christians but came into full communion with the Catholic Church numbered 81,775.
Catholic organizations in the nation provided an estimated $28.2 billion in service through the Catholic Health Association, and the National Catholic Educational Association Catholic Charities.
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Madagascar to Celebrate Beatification
1st Native La Salle Christian BrotherANTANANARIVO, Madagascar, JUNE 5, 2009 (Zenit.org).- The first La Sallian Christian Brother of Madagascar will be beatified this Sunday in his hometown.
Brother Rafael-Luis Rafiringa was born in 1856 in the Malagasy capital, the son of an official of the queen. The year of his birth, the Indian Ocean island off Southern Africa lost independence and became a French colony.
The context in which he would grow up made him a significant player in the evolution of his country, Christian Brother José Warletta told ZENIT.
Brother Rafiringa was a Malagasy situated at the crossroads of two epochs. And his experiences brought him into contact with many environments: pagan, Christian, scholarly, literary, political and even judicial.
Gifted with a keen intelligence and will power, he resisted his family's hopes for him and requested to join the "strange" missionaries -- who weren't priests -- recently arrived on the island.
He devoted himself to translation and the composition of textbooks, until he found himself elected the leader of the Catholic population on the island. This occurred because activists seeking independence managed to expel all foreign missionaries from Madagascar. With this unexpected responsibility, his uncommon capacities became evident as he formed catechists, organized meetings and paraliturgical celebrations all over the island, wrote booklets and summaries of Catholic doctrine, and even composed songs and poems.
When the Christian Brothers were able to return to Madagascar, they were surprised to find the Christian communities even more numerous than when they had left.
Brother Rafiringa died in 1919 in Fianarantsoa.
According to Brother Warletta, this pagan-made-son of St. Jean-Baptiste de la Salle, "is a splendid example of the power of the grace of God when it finds fertile soil. Because of his knowledge, his actions and his holiness, he is already one of the most genuine glories of which the Great Island can take pride."
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Growing Church in Chad Means New Vicariate
Pope Elevates Mongo, Appoints 1st BishopMONGO, Chad, JUNE 5, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI has elevated the apostolic prefecture of Mongo to an apostolic vicariate, since the number of Catholics in the region has increased by 15% in the last 20 years.
In the Central African nation, which has some 10 million inhabitants, 53% of the population is Muslim. Two decades ago, Catholics numbered only 5%; now they are 20% of the population.
Bishop Miguel Ángel Sebastián Martínez of Lai, Chad, spoke of the rapid growth of the Church in his country when he addressed the synod of bishops last October.
He explained the importance given to the Word of God and the Eucharist, noting that Catholics cannot always attend Mass each Sunday because of a lack of priests, but that they gather to read and pray the Bible, and to seek "what they should do to change that in their lives which is not in conformity with the Gospel."
The Pope named Jesuit Bishop-designate Henri Coudray to be the first apostolic vicar of Mongo.
The French bishop-designate has been the apostolic prefect in Mongo since 2001. He is a specialist in the Arabic language, Islam and interreligious dialogue.
Henri Coudray was born in 1942 and studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, the Sorbonne, and received a licentiate in Arabic and Islamic studies in Lyon.
He was ordained a priest in 1973 and made his profession in the Society of Jesus in 1980.
The Catholics of the vicariate, some 6,000 out of a population of 1.7 million, are distributed in six parishes, attended by nine priests, 13 women religious, five men religious, eight lay missionaries, and two seminarians.
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Benedict XVI's Q-and-A With Children Missionaries
"Praying Is a Very Important Thing That Can Change the World"VATICAN CITY, JUNE 5, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a Vatican translation of the question-and-answer session Benedict XVI gave during an audience May 30 with children of the Pontifical Society of the Holy Childhood.
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Q: My name is Anna Filippone, I am 12 years old, I am an altar girl and come from Calabria, Diocese of Oppido Mamertina-Palmi. Pope Benedict, my friend Giovanni has an Italian father and an Ecuadorian mother and is very happy. Do you think that one day the different cultures will be able to live together without quarrelling in Jesus' name?
Benedict XVI: I have gathered that you all would like to know how we, from the time we were children, have managed to help one another. I must say that I spent my elementary school years in a small town of 400 inhabitants, very far from the big city centres.
Therefore we were a bit ingenuous, and in this small town there were, on the one hand, very rich farmers and also others who were less rich but still well-off, and on the other, poor workers, artisans. Our family had moved from another town to this one just a little before I began going to elementary school, thus we were in a way foreigners to them, as even our dialect was different. So, there was a wide range of social situations present in this school, but a beautiful communion prevailed among us. They taught me their dialect, which was new to me. We worked well together. Although, naturally enough, we would argue sometimes, but afterwards we would make up and forget what had happened.
I think this is significant. Sometimes in life it seems inevitable to argue; but the art of reconciling with each other remains important forgiving, beginning anew and not letting bitterness linger in the soul. With gratitude I remember how everyone co-operated: each one helped the other and we moved ahead together on our path. We were all Catholic, and this was naturally a great help. In this way we learned together to understand the Bible, beginning with the Creation and continuing to the sacrifice of Jesus upon the Cross, and then also of the beginnings of the Church. We learned the Catechism together, we learned how to pray together, we prepared together for our First Reconciliation, for First Communion: that was a splendid day. We understood that Jesus himself came among us and that he is not a distant God: he enters into my own life, my own soul. And if the same Jesus enters into each one of us, then we are brothers, sisters and friends and therefore we must behave as such.
For us, both this preparation for First Reconciliation as the purification of our consciences, of our lives, as well as that for First Communion as a real meeting with Jesus who comes to me, who comes to each one of us, were factors that contributed to the formation of our community. They helped us to move ahead together, to learn together to forgive each other when necessary. We also put on little plays: it is important to collaborate, to pay attention to each other. Then when I was about eight or nine years old I became an altar boy. At that time there were not yet altar girls, but the girls read much better than we did. Therefore they read the readings during the liturgy while we filled the role of altar servers. During that period there were still many Latin texts to learn, and so each one had to make a special effort. As I said, we were not saints. We had our arguments, but there was still a beautiful communion, in which the distinctions between rich and poor, between the more and the less intelligent did not matter. It was communion with Jesus in the journey of common faith and common responsibility, in our games, in our shared work. We found the way to live together, to be friends, although I have not been in that town since 1937, that is, more than 70 years ago, we have remained friends. Thus we have learned to accept one another, to carry one another's burdens.
I find this significant: despite our weaknesses we accept each other and with Jesus Christ, with the Church, we find a path of peace together and learn to live in the best way.
Q: My name is Letizia and I wanted to ask you a question. Dear Pope Benedict XVI, what did the motto: "Children help children" mean for you when you were a boy? Did you ever imagine you would become Pope?
Benedict XVI: To tell the truth, I would never have thought of becoming Pope, because, as I have already said, I was a fairly ingenuous boy in a small town far from the city centres, in a forgotten province. We were glad to be in this area and we did not think of other things. Naturally we came to know, venerate and love the Pope -- Pius XI at the time -- but for us he was a very august figure, almost in another world: our spiritual Father, but nevertheless a reality much superior to all of us. And I must say that still today I have difficulty understanding how the Lord could have thought of me, destined me for this ministry. But I accept it from his hands, even if it is something surprising and that seems to me to be far beyond my strength. But the Lord helps me.
Q: Dear Pope Benedict, my name is Alessandro. I wanted to ask you: you are the principal missionary; how can we children help you to proclaim the Gospel?
Benedict XVI: I would say that the first way is this: to collaborate with the Pontifical Society of the Holy Childhood. That way you are part of a large family, which takes the Gospel to the world. That way you belong to a large network. In it we see how the family of diverse peoples is represented. You are all in this big family: each one has his part and together you are missionaries, bearers of the missionary work of the Church. You have a beautiful plan, laid out by your spokesperson: to listen, pray, understand, share, sympathize. These are the essential elements that combined are truly a way to be missionaries, to encourage the growth of the Church into the future and the presence of the Gospel in the world. I would like to emphasize some of these points.
First of all, pray. Prayer is a reality: God listens to us and, when we pray, God enters into our lives, he becomes present among us, works among us. Praying is a very important thing that can change the world, because it makes the power of God present. And it is important to help each other by praying: to pray together in the liturgy, to pray together in the family. And here I would say that it is important to begin the day with a small prayer and also to end the day with a small prayer: to remember our parents in prayer. Pray before lunch, before dinner and during Sunday's shared Celebration. A Sunday without Mass, the great communal prayer of the Church, is not truly a Sunday: it lacks the very heart of Sunday and so also the light for the week. And you can also help others especially those who do not pray at home or do not know about prayer by teaching others to pray: praying with them and in this way introducing others to communion with God.
Next, listen that is, learn what Jesus really says. In addition, get to know the Sacred Scriptures, the Bible. In the story of Jesus we learn as the Cardinal said the Face of God, we learn what God is like. It is important to know Jesus deeply, personally. That way he enters into our life and, through our life, enters into the world.
Also, share, do not want things only for yourselves, but rather for everyone; divide things with others. And if we see that another is perhaps in need, that he or she is less gifted, we must help that person and so make God's love present without too many words, in our own personal world, which is part of the bigger world. And in this way we become a family together, in which each one has respect for the other: tolerating the other's differences, accepting also those who are disagreeable, not allowing anyone to be marginalized, but instead helping others to integrate into the community. All of this simply means living in this big family of the Church, in this big missionary family. To live out essential points such as sharing, knowledge of Jesus, prayer, reciprocal listening and solidarity is missionary work, because it helps to make the Gospel a reality in our world.
[Translation by the Vatican]
© Copyright 2009 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana
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Clergy Congregation's Letter on Year for Priests
"We Will Seek Together to Concentrate on the Identity of Christ the Son of God"VATICAN CITY, JUNE 5, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is the letter Archbishop Mauro Piacenza, secretary of the Congregation for Clergy, sent to the priests of the world ahead of the inauguration of the Year for Priests. The year begins with vespers on the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, June 19. It will close in June of 2010.
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Dear Priests!
In only about two weeks’ time, on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Friday 19th June, we will experience an intense moment of faith, closely united with the Holy Father and amongst ourselves, when we shall begin the Year for Priests by celebrating First Vespers of the Feast in the Basilica of St. Peter at the Vatican.
Each day we are called to conversion, but we are called to it in a very particular way during this year, in union with all those who have received the gift of priestly ordination. Conversion to what? It is conversion to be ever more authentically that which we already are, conversion to our ecclesial identity of which our ministry is a necessary consequence, so that a renewed and joyous awareness of our “being” will determine our “acting”, or rather will create the space allowing Christ the Good Shepherd to live in us and to act through us.
Our spirituality must be nothing other than the spirituality of Christ himself, the one and only Supreme High Priest of the New Testament.
In this year, which the Holy Father has providentially announced, we will seek together to concentrate on the identity of Christ the Son of God, in communion with the Father and the Holy Spirit, who became man in the virginal womb of Mary, and on his mission to reveal the Father and His wondrous plan of salvation. This mission of Christ carries with it the building up of the Church: behold the Good Shepherd (Cf. Jn. 19:1-21) who gives his life for the Church (Cf. Eph. 5: 25).
Yes, conversion every day of our lives so that Christ’s manner of life may be the manner of life made ever more manifest in each one of us.
We must exist for others, we must undertake to live with the People in a union of holy and divine love (which clearly presupposes the richness of holy celibacy), which obliges us to live in authentic solidarity with those who suffer and who live in a great many types of poverty.
We must be labourers for the building up of the one Church of Christ, for which we must live purposefully and faithfully the communion of love with the Pope, with the Bishops, with our brother priests and with the Faithful. We must live this communion with the unbroken pilgrimage of the Church within the very sinews of the Mystical Body.
We should be able to run spiritually in this Year with a “wide open heart” so as to inwardly conform to our vocation the better to say, in truth “it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20).
The holiness of priests redounds to the benefit of the entire ecclesial Body. Thus it would be most fitting for all of us, be that the ordained Faithful, seminarians, the male and female religious, and the lay Faithful, to find ourselves all together at the Vatican Basilica for the Vespers presided over by the Holy Father, which will be celebrated after welcoming the Reliquary of the heart of that most outstanding priestly model who is St. John Mary Vianney.
Those who are unable to be in City of Rome are encouraged to join themselves spiritually to the occasion.
- Entrance to the Basilica from 16.00
The welcoming of the Reliquary at 17.30, followed by the celebration of Vespers
Entrance Tickets must be requested by Fax (06-69885863) from the Prefecture of the Papal Household and may be collected the preceding day from the Bronze Doors, under the Colonnade to the side of the Basilica.
- Priests will wear their proper clerical attire, and religious the habit of the Institute to which they belong.
- The Year for Priests will conclude with an International Convention in Rome on the 9th, 10th and 11th of June 2010.
More detailed information concerning that event will be made available by this end of the current month of June.
All those who are interested in taking part may refer to Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi (Via della Pigna 13/a, I-00186 Roma – tel. (0039)06-698961) to answer all questions of a practical nature.
Mauro Piacenza
Titular Archbishop of Vittoriana
Secretary
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The Best Catholic Speakers on CDs and in Books -- Only $3.00 Each!
High quality, original and inspiring presentations by some of the very best Catholics like; Dr. Scott Hahn, Mother Teresa, Matthew Kelly, Bishop Sheen and Fr. John Corapi, and many more - all for only $3.00. A great way to share our incredible Faith with friends and family. Mention this ad in the remarks and get a copy of "Our Catholic Faith" free! ($19.95 value). Email us for instructions on international orders.
http://www.cursillo-lighthousemedia.org/default.htm
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