Priests must be radically countercultural, says Vatican prefect

October 05, 2011

Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, has called upon priests to be radically countercultural as they fight in the “Church’s real field of battle”: “the secret landscape of man’s spirit.”

“In the face of a world anemic of prayer and adoration, the priest is, in the first place, the man of prayer, of adoration, of worship, of the celebration of the Holy Mysteries,” Cardinal Piacenza told the priests of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. “In the face of a world submerged in consumer, pansexual messages, attacked by error, presented in the most seductive aspects, the priest must speak of God and of eternal realities and, to be able to do so with credibility, he must be a passionate believer, as well as ‘clean!’”

Cardinal Piacenza continued:

The priest must accept the impression of being in the midst of people as one who starts from a logic and speaks a language that is different from that of others: “do not conform yourselves to the mentality of this world” (Romans 12:12). He is not like “others.” What people expect from him is, in fact, that he not be “like others.”

“No more precious gift can be given to a community than a priest according to the heart of Christ,” he added. “The hope of the world consists in being able to count, also for the future, on the love of limpid, strong and merciful, free and meek, generous and faithful priestly hearts.”

 

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Further information:

• Clergy Congregation Leader on 21st-Century Priests (Zenit)