Vatican prelate reflects on Day for Consecrated Life
February 01, 2011
On February 2, Pope Benedict XVI will preside at Vespers to celebrate the annual Day for Consecrate Life, established by Pope John Paul II in 1997.
The purpose of the annual observance is “first and foremost for the Church, to remind the faithful of the beauty and the importance of this vocation,” says Archbishop Joseph Tobin, the secretary of the Congregation for Religious. In a conversation with Vatican Radio, Archbishop Tobin says that religious life “is a sort of ecosystem and like the Amazonian rain forest, it is essential to the larger system of the Church. Without that rain forest, we would find it very difficult to breathe because it provides oxygen for the world and I think in some ways, consecrated life should provide oxygen for the Church.”
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