Cardinal Hummes urges world’s priests to be missionaries

June 11, 2010

In a June 9 Mass that was among the concluding celebrations of the Year for Priests, Cardinal Claudio Hummes., prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, urged the world’s priests to be missionaries who preach the Gospel to all, especially the poor.

“The mission ad gentes [to the nations] and the new missionary evangelization in lands already evangelized are now increasingly urgent everywhere and need to be implemented with new missionary ardor, new methods, and new expressions,” said Cardinal Hummes. “Our beloved Pope Benedict XVI, in speaking of missionary urgency, rightly said that ‘it is not enough to preserve the existing community, although this is important.’ This means that it is urgent to get up and go on mission. This is what the Holy Spirit, in this international meeting, wants to renew in us all.”

“Today there are still hundreds of millions human beings who are forced to live in dire poverty and even misery and hunger,” he continued. “They are marginalized and excluded from the table of material, social, and cultural goods and often from the table of spiritual goods. They are the first who have the right to receive the good news that God is a Father who loves them unconditionally and that he does not approve the inhuman conditions in which the poor are maintained.”

 

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Further information:

• Cardinal Hummes tells priests: “We must be very conscious of the present missionary urgency. It is necessary that we rise and go on mission everywhere.” (Fides)