Cardinal Hummes: The priesthood can only be lived radically
Vatican City, May 8, 2008 / 04:40 pm (CNA).- In a letter to all of the episcopal conferences of the world to mark the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on May 30, the World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests, Cardinal Claudio Hummes, prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, has said that the priestly vocation can only be lived with radical commitment.
In his letter, the cardinal said, “As we celebrate the Day of Prayer for the sanctification of priests, which coincides with the feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, I wish to point out the priority of prayer with respect to our actions, namely that the efficacy of our work depends on it. The mission of the Church depends in large measure on the personal relationship of each one of us with the Lord Jesus. Therefore, the mission must be nourished by prayer.”
Cardinal Hummes said, “The most authentic dimension of our priesthood is begging: simple and continuous petition. One learns through silent prayer, which has always characterized the lives of the saints; we must ask for it with insistence.”
“The only adequate means to living our holy vocation is radicalism,” the cardinal continued, adding that “this complete surrender, with complete awareness of our infidelity, can only take place as a prayerful and repeated decision which Christ later fulfills day after day. Even the gift of priestly celibacy must be welcomed and lived in this dimension of radicalism and in complete configuration to Christ. Any other position, regarding the reality of our relationship with Him, runs the risk of being ideological,” he said.
Cardinal Hummes also warned priests that their excessive workloads should lead them to “care for our priestly identity with greater attention.” The “peculiar conditions of priestly ministry” should lead to a deeper spiritual life, thus bearing greater witness to the fact that priests belong “exclusively to the Lord.”
“Dear brothers,” the letter continued, “let us be faithful to the daily celebration of the holy Eucharist, not only to fulfill our pastoral duty or because our parish community demands it, but because of the absolute personal necessity that we have for it, like our breathing, the light of our life, the only adequate reason for a total priestly life.”
The cardinal went on to remind priests that their parishes are not a “distraction” from their own lives but rather “the face of Christ that we contemplate each day, as the face of the beloved to her spouse, as Christ is to the Church, His spouse. The people entrusted to us are the essential path to our own sanctification, that is, the path in which Christ manifests the glory of the Father through us.”
He also encouraged all priests to foster an intense closeness to Mary. “Our relationship with her cannot be reduced to a pious practice of devotion, but rather must be nourished by continuously abandoning to the arms of the Virgin our entire lives, our entire ministry,” Cardinal Hummes said.
URL: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=12590
Friday, May 9, 2008
Cardinal Hummes: The priesthood can only be lived radically
Monday, April 28, 2008
Ask Christ ‘what do you want me to do with my life?’ Pope tells youth
Ask Christ ‘what do you want me to do with my life?’ Pope tells youth
Vatican City, Apr 28, 2008 / 10:42 am (CNA).- Every year young people from the Archdiocese of Paris make a pilgrimage and this year’s journey took them to Lourdes. In a letter that Pope Benedict wrote to the youth, he called on them to imitate the ‘yes’ of Mary because this will lead them to true happiness.
Benedict XVI sent the letter to Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois and the youth to mark the 100th anniversary of the annual pilgrimage. This year's pilgrimage, which began on April 22 and concluded April 27, is to Lourdes, which is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year.
The generosity of Mary’s response to the angel Gabriel, the Pope began, “led her to experience a joy of which all previous generations had sung".
This “'yes' to God", is what "makes the font of true happiness gush forth” he wrote to the young people.
Saying “yes” to God “frees the 'I' from everything that closes it in on itself. It brings the poverty of our lives into the richness and power of God's plan, without restricting our freedom and our responsibility. ... It conforms our lives to Christ's own life," the Pope added.
The freedom that you will find in God, should lead you to "enthusiastically to celebrate the joy of loving Christ and of believing and hoping in Him, and trustingly to follow the path of initiation you have before you,” Benedict encouraged.
The Holy Father also extended an invitation to the young pilgrims, “I particularly invite you to take up the witness of your ancestors in the faith, and to learn to welcome the Word of God - in silence and meditation - so that it can mould your hearts and produce generous fruits in you".
This pilgrimage, Pope Benedict concludes, "is also a good time to allow yourselves to be asked by Christ: 'What do you want to do with your lives?' May those among you who feel the call to follow Him in the priesthood or in consecrated life - as have so many young participants in these pilgrimages - reply to the Lord's call and put yourselves totally at the service of the Church, with a life completely dedicated to the Kingdom of heaven. You will never be disappointed".
URL: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=12475
Pope ordains new priests, tells them to spread Gospel joy
Pope ordains new priests, tells them to spread Gospel joy
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI ordained 29 new priests, including an Iraqi, and told them their mission was to spread Gospel joy.
"To be collaborators in the joy of others in a world that often is sad and negative, the fire of the Gospel must burn within you, the joy of the Lord must dwell within you," the pope said April 27 at the ordination Mass in St. Peter's Basilica.
Twenty-eight of the new priests were ordained for the Diocese of Rome; the group consisted of 22 Italians and men from France, Haiti, Paraguay, Colombia, Chile and India.
The 29th ordinand was Father Jarjis Robert Sayd, 34, a Baghdad native who will serve the church in Iraq.
Reciting the "Regina Coeli" prayer after Mass with visitors in St. Peter's Square, the pope said that where Christ is preached with the strength of the Holy Spirit and welcomed with open hearts "society, even if it is full of many problems, becomes a 'city of joy.'"
He said the joy and hope that flows from the Gospel is the message he carried with him to the United States April 15-20.
"I thank God because he richly blessed this unique missionary experience of mine, and he allowed me to be an instrument of Christ's hope for that church and that country," he said.
"At the same time, I give thanks because I myself was confirmed in hope by American Catholics; in fact, I found a great vitality and a decisive will to live and witness to faith in Jesus," the pope said.
During the ordination Mass, Pope Benedict asked the new priests to "accept with faith and with love" the prayer of the church and the action of the Holy Spirit making them special participants in the priesthood of Christ.
The pope asked them to let faith and love "impress themselves on your hearts; let them accompany you along the journey of your entire existence."
"Remain faithful to the love of Christ and you will notice with an ever-new joy how his divine word will journey with you and grow in you," the pope told them.
Pope Benedict said they must cultivate "a personal relationship of love" with Christ, giving him the first and greatest place in their lives and allowing that love "to purify, enlighten and sanctify" all their other relationships.
He told them their task was to bring hope and forgiveness to their parishioners, to increase holiness in the church, to help nonbelievers open themselves to God, and to bring peace and comfort to those who are suffering.
"Dear friends, this is your mission: to bring the Gospel to all so that all will experience the joy of Christ and so that there will be joy in every city," he said.
END
URL: http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0802354.htm
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Cardinal Sean Once Made Diplomats Squirm
The Boston Globe recently published an article which highlighted the quiet activities of Washington's Centro Católico Hispano, just a short distance from the White House, and noted that it was not getting anywhere the attention of the Pope's visit to the nearby White House. Cardinal Sean O'Malley, who as a young priest strongly developed the Center, is reported as having said in a homily for a Mass for the Washington diplomatic corps in the 1970s "that he had heard from too many of the women who cooked and cleaned for them that they were treating their domestics shabbily." Many in the congregation of ambassadors and consuls general got up and left. O'Malley kept talking as the indignant big shots walked out. The Centro's current director, affirmed the truth of the legend and added, "And the people here, they don't forget that he was on their side, the poor people, the working people."
Read the entire article: http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/04/17/quietly_doing_gods_work/
Friday, April 25, 2008
Benedict Has Come and Spring Has Sprung
Leticia Velasquez
Benedict Has Come and Spring Has Sprung
April 25, 2008
The week before the arrival of the Holy Father, the American media was abuzz with predictions about the reception he would receive from American Catholics. Fringe groups used the media to promote their agendas, and the specter of the sex abuse scandal threatened to overshadow the Holy Father’s visit. Bill Maher seized the opportunity to lash out at the Pope, comparing the Catholic Church to the FLDS cult. Cruel nicknames such as “Panzer Pope” resurfaced, and members of the media predicted a lukewarm reception at best. Such dire predictions made the unprecedented greeting Pope Benedict received from President Bush at Andrews AFB, and the spectacular White House welcoming ceremony with a record 13,000 participants, even more striking. The effect on both the general public and on celebrities like Rush Limbaugh came as a complete surprise. “I had trouble tearing myself away from the video (of the White House welcoming ceremony) to watch the Democrat debate,” quipped Limbaugh, who later admitted, “that event changed my life.”
The quiet power of Pope Benedict’s elegantly worded speeches and choice of sites to visit, such as the Synagogue in New York City, made a positive impression on the American people, according to a New York Post survey. This news heightened my excitement as I made plans to attend the Meeting with Youth and Seminarians at St. Joseph’s Seminary with my teenage daughter, Gabriela.
A devoted member of the John Paul II Generation, I was jubilant at the election of our wise and gentle shepherd, and thrilled at the opportunity to see him. As the bus drove past budding trees in the brilliant spring sunshine, I interviewed teens on their way to the Rally. Mary Rose Rodriguez, age 17, said, “I’m really excited to meet him because he sounds like a really holy person. I hope that I will see my life in a new light and spread the word.”
John Hargaden, age 18, who will be entering seminary next year, said, “Of course, Pope John Paul II was a man that was made for the TV camera. Pope Benedict’s referred to by many as a scholar in the Catholic faith. What I’m expecting from the Pope today is to show us how we need to deepen our faith as Catholics. I’m expecting that the Pope is going to be a voice of hope to us. ”
After hours spent listening to musicians in the hot sun, the crowd of 25,000, many of whom had spread blankets on the field, rose to watch Kelly Clarkson, and I was unsure whether the Holy Father would have the same effect on the youthful crowd. Another hour passed, and as the afternoon cooled, I admired the fashion show of traditional religious habits worn by hundreds of young religious from burgeoning new orders: the Missionaries of Charity, Legionnaires of Christ, New York’s own Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, and Sisters of Life. I asked one of the Sisters of Life for a messge to the teens. She said, “Tell them not to be afraid to open their hearts to what Jesus has for them. He will return whatever they give Him with much more than they can possibly imagine.”
042508_lead_today.jpgSoon the Jumbotrons showed the approach of the papal motorcade, and the listless gathering sprang to life. The roar started at one end of the field and spread as white and gold scarves were enthusiastically waved at the screens. A tender scene played out before us as Pope Benedict reached down to bless disabled children who greeted him in the chapel. Over fifty years ago, a young Joseph Ratzinger had a cousin with Down syndrome torn from his family by the Nazis, never to be seen again. Was it this memory that inspired his tenderness as he cupped the face of a little girl with Down syndrome in his hands? As the girl reached up to pat his hand, my heart was enflamed with joy. I told Gabriela, “Look that’s just what Christina does!” Christina is my youngest daughter, age 6 and she too has Down syndrome. When the pope asked the children to pray for him, his voice broke, and a bond, deeper than words, was forming in my heart for Pope Benedict. It was soon apparent that I wasn’t alone.
By the time the popemobile brought him to us, the assembly was jubilant, cheering and waving, as the Holy Father took the stage. The octogenarian pontiff with a twinkle in his eye raised both arms to greet first one side and then the other, raising the crescendo of cheers like an orchestra conductor. Chants of “We love you”, and “Que vive el papa!” began with the boisterous Mexican seminarians in front, and spread throughout the crowd. We sang “Happy Birthday” to Pope Benedict in German, and the former professor gave us, “an A+ in German pronunciation.”
The sunburned assembly that had waited for hours in food lines stood attentively as the pontiff delivered the longest address of his US visit. He referred to the images of American saints given to him by local students when he told us that, regardless of our backgrounds, holiness was possible, and warned us to avoid relativism that leads young people to despair and exploitation. He explained, “Dear friends, truth is not an imposition. Nor is it simply a set of rules. It is a discovery of the One who never fails us; the One whom we can always trust. In seeking truth we come to live by belief because ultimately truth is a person: Jesus Christ. That is why authentic freedom is not an opting out. It is an opting in; nothing less than letting go of self and allowing oneself to be drawn into Christ’s very being for others.” He concluded by exhorting the young people, “Nourished by personal prayer, prompted in silence, shaped by the Church’s liturgy you will discover the particular vocation God has for you. Embrace it with joy. You are Christ’s disciples today. Shine His light upon this great city and beyond. Show the world the reason for the hope that resonates within you. Tell others about the truth that sets you free.”
The event concluded as we sang the Our Father and the Litany of the Saints. Kelly Clarkson sang the “Ave Maria”, but by now there was no doubt who the real star of the day was. The Holy Father had reached out in a paternal embrace to his children who had responded eagerly and were reluctant to let him go. When the popemobile was seen leaving the field, many of us ran to follow it, to wish our beloved Pope a final farewell.
Fr. Justin Semanti of the Bronx, whose youth group at Holy Rosary parish is preparing to attend World Youth Day, said, “It was encouraging to see all these young people here with the pope, showing their love and devotion to him and the Church, and just a real springtime, I think, to bring this about in New York and to all of America. It’s a really exciting and encouraging time to be a Catholic, to be a young person in the Church today.”
It seems that springtime is just beginning.
URL: http://www.catholicexchange.com/2008/04/25/111869/
