Advertise in this spot on CatholicCulture.org. View all ads.

Catholic World News News Feature

Priests must be spiritual experts, Pope tells Polish clergy May 26, 2006

Priests must be "experts in the spiritual life," helping the faithful draw closer to God, Pope Benedict XVI told a group of clergy in Warsaw on the first day of his visit to Poland.

In his first stop after a welcoming ceremony at the Warsaw airport on May 25, the Holy Father spoke to priests at St. John cathedral. Observing that the cathedral itself could bear witness to the many trials suffered by the Church in Poland, he paid special tribute to the late Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, saying that he "knew how to serve the Church faithfully, despite the tragic and prolonged trials that surrounded him."

In a clear reference to the recent accusations that some priests collaborated with the secret police during the Communist error, the Pope cautioned against "setting ourselves up to judge earlier generations, who lived in different times under different circumstances." Transgressions of the past should not be acknowledged, he continued, but "facile accusations" should not be made without evidence, and Christians should be ready both to ask and to offer pardon.

Today the Polish Church faces different challenges, "faced with the temptations to relativism and permissiveness," the Pope said. The Church must also respond to the needs of people suffering from adverse economic conditions, and from family breakdown.

Priests, the Pope said, cannot be experts on social and economic issues. Rather the Church seeks "priests who are mature, virile, capable of cultivating an authentic spiritual paternity."

The Holy Father encouraged priests to spend time developing their own spiritual resources, and to realized that time is never wasted when it is "dedicated to Christ in silent prayer," especially before the Blessed Sacrament. He observed that during the Communist era, some priests may have developed an unconscious tendency to hide their piety, in order to avoid public charges of hypocrisy. He urged the priests to be confident in their identity. "Trust in the power of the priesthood!" he exhorted them.

During his remarks the Pope saluted Cardinal Jozef Glemp, who wascelebrating the 50th anniversary of his priestly ordination. At the conclusion of his address, he spent some time in quiet prayer at the tombs of Cardinal Syszynski and his predecessor, Cardinal August Hlond.