The Congregation for the Clergy
The Eucharist, the secret of the priesthood
New Evangelisation according to Cardinal Ratzinger
Interview with Archbishop Mauro Piacenza, Secretary of the Congregation for the Clergy
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) — The Congregation for the Clergy has the delicate and important task of suggesting and promoting initiatives for the sanctification and ongoing intellectual and pastoral formation of diocesan priests and seminarians. A task which affects the holiness of the whole Church, the people of God. The fact of having priests who are holy men of prayer and charity makes a surprising difference to the world. After all this task was the command Jesus gave his disciples when he sent them out to the ends of the earth.
This Dossier, which will focus precisely on the tasks and aims of the Congregation for the Clergy, is enriched with an interview with Archbishop Mauro Piacenza, the Congregation's Secretary. It was he who told us that "in a secularised context, where everything appears to conspire to "keep quiet about Christ", or to set him in the pantheon of vague imaginary, irenicised and relativised "values", men who become priests bear witness with conviction and with joy, with the eloquence of a life of total dedication, to the Truth and to Beauty and above all to the Presence of the Mystery in the world". And again: "Only for a "Mystery which is present", for a God incarnate, made man, is it possible to give one's life with human reasonableness, experiencing that nothing is taken from man, indeed everything is given, with transfigured abundance and unprecedented reasonably welcomed evidence. The Church selects for Holy Orders, those who have received from God the charisma of celibacy, since virginity, understood as total giving of self, is the greatest testimony a Christian can ever render to the Lord in this earthly life. Only martyrdom is greater than virginity! For this reason, much greater and far loftier than mere disciplinary or pastoral opportuneness — which is simply the logical consequence of greater premises — the very effectiveness of priestly witness is inseparably connected with holy celibacy".
The priest's testimony is at the service of the whole Church. Archbishop Piacenza explains: "faithful should see a 'man of God', a man totally dedicated to the Lord: first of all a man for whom God comes before everything else, a man whom you look at and it is obvious that you see that we look at and see that is obvious God comes before everything else. The holy people of God, to whom priests are sent, have one desire: more than good, attractive and useful qualities in a priest they expect him to show them Christ. They do not expect a priest to engage in useless "running along with the world", "aping" its methods or contents, instead they expect him to be a man of the Absolute. Priests are not supposed to run along with the world and its ephemeral seasons, they are to run behind Christ. In this way, and only in this way, will they serve society and every human person."
The history of the Congregation
The Congregation for the Clergy is the new title given by Paul VI to the "Sacred Congregation of the Council", in the Apostolic Constitution Regimini Ecclesiae Universae dated August 15, 1967. The history of this Congregation goes back to the Sacra Congregatio Cardinalium Concilii Tridentini interpretum, instituted by Pius IV in the Apostolic Constitution Alias Nos dated Aug. 2, 1564, to ensure a correct interpretation and the practical observance of the norms issued by the Council of Trent.
Gregory XIII increased its functions and Sixtus V entrusted to it the revision of the acts of provincial councils and, in general, the task of promoting the implementation of the reforms established by the Council of Trent. With the passage of time, the task of interpreting the canons of the Council of Trent ceased and the vast competence of this Department was gradually transferred to other Congregations which had been created in the meantime. However, the Department kept its historical name of "Sacred Congregation of the Council" until December 31, 1967. Before it received the new title and role, established by Paul VI in the above-mentioned Apostolic Constitution, the tasks of the Congregation were enumerated in the Code of Canon Law, at Canon 250.
The competence of the Congregation for the Clergy, now indicated in the Apostolic Constitution Pastor bonus paragraphs 93-98, is divided between three Offices:
- The Office for the Clergy collects, suggests and promotes initiatives with regard to the sanctity and the intellectual and pastoral updating of the Clergy (Diocesan Priests and Deacons), as well as their ongoing formation; it oversees Cathedral Chapters, Pastoral Councils, Presbyteral Councils, Parishes, Parish Priests and all clerics with regard to whatever pertains to their pastoral ministry etc.; the matters of Mass offerings, Pious Foundations, Legacies, Oratories, Churches, Shrines, ecclesiastical archives and libraries; it also seeks to promote a more adequate distribution of the Clergy all over the world.
- The Catechetical Office provides for the religious formation of the faithful of all ages and states of life; it issues appropriate norms so that catechetical teaching is imparted in a suitable fashion; it ensures that catechetical formation is properly executed; it grants the prescribed approvals for national Catechisms and Directories; it assists catechetical offices and follows initiatives regarding religious formation and international events dealing with such issues; it coordinates activities and offers their help if necessary.
- The Third Office is competent in matters of the regulation and administration of ecclesiastical goods belonging to public juridical persons; it also grants the necessary permissions for the juridical negotiations mentioned in canons 1292 and 1295. Moreover it supervises matters pertaining to the adequate income and social necessities of the Clergy such as disablement, old age and medical care etc.
Associated Institutes
- Attached to the Congregation for the Clergy is the old Studio Pio, formally instituted by Benedict XV on Oct. 28, 1919, to help young priests to improve their skill in the normal and regular dispatch of ecclesiastical affairs and especially in the application of Canon Law in administrative matters.
- In a Letter, dated June 7, 1973, Paul VI provided that the International Council for Catechesis would be attached to this Department. This Council has the task of promoting an exchange of experiences, of studying the more important catechetical issues, and is an organ at the service of the Apostolic See and of Episcopal Conferences, with the purpose of making suggestions and proposals in these areas.
- Beginning with the Academic Year 1994-1995 the Institute, "Sacrum Ministerium", has also been attached to the Congregation. Its purpose is to provide for the formation of those responsible for the ongoing formation of priests.
The Superiors are:
- Cardinal Prefect: His Eminence, Claudio Cardinal Hummes, O.F.M.
- Secretary: His Excellency, Archbishop Mauro Piacenza
- Under Secretary Monsignor Giovanni Carrù.
The Eucharist, the Secret of the Priesthood
On occasion of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8, 2007, the prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, Cardinal Claudio Hummes, sent a letter to the Catholic dioceses of the world asking the faithful to pray for the sanctification of priests. A campaign launched from the heart of Catholic Church to the remotest corners of the earth. A campaign, to a certain extent dramatic and in which the Holy See wished to involve as many of the faithful as possible. A campaign whose contents were explained in a brief letter dated 8 December, accompanied by a 34-page pamphlet rich in images, reflections and testimonials. The letter, signed by those responsible for the Vatican department which cares for the clergy, Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes and Congregation secretary Archbishop Piacenza, can be viewed at the portal of the Congregation: www.clerus.org.
Its goal is stated in the first paragraph: Catholic dioceses all over the world are asked to set aside "places of prayer" where the faithful can devote themselves body and soul, spirit and energy, to "adoration of the Blessed Sacrament twenty four hours a day" in order to make reparation "for the failings of priests" and to sustain priests as they strive for holiness. The initiative, proposed to all the faithful, is addressed in a special way to "consecrated women" that following the example of Mary, they may "spiritually adopt priests and assist them in their self-giving, prayers and penance".
The campaign is then a call for general mobilisation so that through prayer, the faults of priests may be expiated and their lives may be directed towards the proper goal, namely holiness; so that priests may "serve ever better the Lord and their brothers and sisters as men who are "in" the Church and "in front of" the Church in the place of Christ, representing Him as the Church's head, shepherd and spouse".
The pamphlet which accompanies Cardinal Hummes' letter offers testimony of the lives of many who, as Benedict XVI said when he met the Catholic priests and deacons of Freising on 14 September 2006, "move the heart of God" and in response receive "holy workers from Lord of the harvest". These people are ordinary faithful, many of them women, who decide to sustain through continual prayer the whole life of priests, including their sins. The same was said by Pius X (1835-1914), born Giuseppe Sarto, who told how one day his mother said, as she kissed his bishop's ring: "Yes, Peppo, you would not be wearing this ring, if I had not first worn my wedding ring". The same was said by Cardinal Nicola Cusano (1401-1464), a German philosopher and mathematician, later Bishop of Brixen (northern Italy), who recalled that very often priests, despite their sins, live thanks to the dedication, prayers and sacrifices of hidden spiritual mothers in convents.
This was also said by Baron Wilhelm Emmanuel von Ketteler (1811-1877), Bishop of Meinz, who told how in a dream he saw Jesus and before him a nun, her hands raised, imploring him in prayer: "She prays unceasingly for you", Jesus told him in the dream. When Ketteler awoke he decided to become a priest and years later when he was already a bishop, once while visiting a convent he chanced to meet "the least and poorest lay sister" who was busy cleaning a stable. The nun looked up and the bishop recognised the woman he had seen in the dream all those years ago. He realised that it was thanks to her that he had become what he was. All through her life she had prayed for him, for his failings, for his sanctification.
On 15 July, in view of the feast of Saint Jean Marie Vianney, Cardinal Claudio Hummes wrote a letter to priests on the significance of the priestly mission. "On the occasion of the August 4th feast of St. John Marie Vianney, the Curé of Ars, — his eminence wrote — I greet you cordially with all my heart, and I fraternally send you this brief message. The Church knows today that there is an urgent mission, not only "ad gentes," but also to those Christians living in areas and regions where the Christian faith has been preached and established for centuries and where ecclesial communities already exist. Within this flock, the mission, or the missionary evangelisation (Redemptoris Missio, 2), has as its target those who are baptized but who, for different circumstances, have not been evangelised sufficiently, or those who have lost their initial fervour and fallen away."
Here are words dedicated to the Church "missionary by nature". His Eminence wrote: ""the sower went out to sow" (Mt 13:3). The sower does not limit himself to throwing the seed out of the window, but actually leaves the house. The Church knows that it cannot remain inert or limit itself to receiving and evangelising those who are seeking the Faith in its churches and communities. It is also necessary to rise up and go to where people and families dwell, live and work. We must go to everyone: companies, organisations, institutions and different fields of human society. In this mission, all members of the ecclesial community are called: pastors, religious and laity. Moreover, the Church recognises that priests are the great driving force behind daily life in local communities. When priests move, the Church moves. If this were not so, it would be very difficult to achieve the Church's mission."
And again: "My dear brother priests, you are the great richness, the energy, the pastoral and missionary inspiration in the midst of the Christian faithful, wherever they are found in community. Without your crucial decision to "put out into the deep" for fish ("Duc in altum"), as the Lord himself calls us, little or nothing will happen in the urgent mission, either "ad gentes" or in the territories that have previously been evangelised. But the Church is certain that she can count on you, because it knows and explicitly recognises that the overwhelming majority of priests — despite our weaknesses and human limitations — are worthy priests, giving their life daily to the Kingdom of God and loving Jesus Christ and the people entrusted to them. These are the priests who are sanctifying themselves in their daily ministry and who are persevering until the harvest of the Lord. Only a small minority of priests have gravely deviated from this mission, and the Church seeks to repair the harm that they have done. On the other hand, it rejoices in and is proud of the immense majority of its priests, who are good and exceedingly worthy of praise.
During this Year of St Paul, and pending the Synod of Bishops on the Word of God to be held in Rome this October, we call those who are receptive to this urgent mission. May the Holy Spirit enlighten us, send us, and sustain us, so that we might go forth and proclaim once again the person of Jesus Christ, crucified and resurrected, as well as His kingdom!"
New Evangelisation according to Cardinal Ratzinger
It is the duty of priests to instruct catechists to teach Catholic doctrine thoroughly. It was on the occasion of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 that the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, issued guidelines for teaching. His intervention stands as a milestone for the mission of catechists and therefore also for the mission of priests. Ratzinger, spoke in fact of new evangelisation. Cardinal Ratzinger explained "Human life cannot be realized by itself". "Our life is an open question, an incomplete project, still to be brought to fruition and realized. Each man's fundamental question is: How will this be realized — becoming man? How does one learn the art of living? Which is the path toward happiness? To evangelise means: to show this path — to teach the art of living. At the beginning of his public life Jesus says: I have come to evangelise the poor (Luke 4:18); this means: I have the response to your fundamental question; I will show you the path of life, the path toward happiness — rather: I am that path. The deepest poverty is the inability of joy, the tediousness of a life considered absurd and contradictory. This poverty is widespread today, in very different forms in the materially rich as well as the poor countries. The inability of joy presupposes and produces the inability to love, produces jealousy, avarice — all defects that devastate the life of individuals and of the world. This is why we are in need of a new evangelisation — if the art of living remains an unknown, nothing else works. But this art is not the object of a science — this art can only be communicated by [one] who has life — he who is the Gospel personified".
Before speaking of the fundamental contents of new evangelisation Cardinal Ratzinger dwelt briefly on the structure and the correct method of evangelisation. "The Church — he said — always evangelises and has never interrupted the path of evangelisation. She celebrates the eucharistic mystery every day, administers the sacraments, proclaims the word of life — the Word of God, and commits herself to the causes of justice and charity. And this evangelisation bears fruit: It gives light and joy, it gives the path of life to many people; many others live, often unknowingly, of the light and the warmth that radiate from this permanent evangelisation. However, we can see a progressive process of de-Christianisation and a loss of the essential human values, which is worrisome. A large part of today's humanity does not find the Gospel in the permanent evangelisation of the Church: That is to say, the convincing response to the question: How to live?
This is why we are searching for, along with permanent and uninterrupted and never to be interrupted evangelisation, a new evangelisation, capable of being heard by that world that does not find access to "classic" evangelisation. Everyone needs the Gospel; the Gospel is destined to all and not only to a specific circle and this is why we are obliged to look for new ways of bringing the Gospel to all. Yet another temptation lies hidden beneath this — the temptation of impatience, the temptation of immediately finding the great success, in finding large numbers. But this is not God's way. For the Kingdom of God as well as for evangelisation, the instrument and vehicle of the Kingdom of God, the parable of the grain of mustard seed is always valid (see Mark 4:31-32). The Kingdom of God always starts anew under this sign. New evangelisation cannot mean: immediately attracting the large masses that have distanced themselves from the Church by using new and more refined methods. No — this is not what new evangelisation promises. New evangelisation means: never being satisfied with the fact that from the grain of mustard seed, the great tree of the Universal Church grew; never thinking that the fact that different birds may find place among its branches can suffice — rather, it means to dare, once again and with the humility of the small grain, to leave up to God the when and how it will grow (Mark 4:26-29).
Large things always begin from the small seed, and the mass movements are always ephemeral. In his vision of the evolutionary process, Teilhard de Chardin mentions the "white of the origins" (le blanc des origines): The beginning of a new species is invisible and cannot be found by scientific research. The sources are hidden — they are too small. In other words: The large realities begin in humility. Let us put to one side whether Teilhard is right in his evolutionary theories; the law on invisible origins does say a truth — a truth present in the very actions of God in history: "The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you." God says [this] to the People of Israel in the Old Testament and thus expresses the fundamental paradox of the history of salvation: certainly, God does not count in large numbers; exterior power is not the sign of his presence.
Most of Jesus' parables indicate this structure of divine intervention and thus answer the disciples' worries, who were expecting other kinds of success and signs from the Messiah — successes of the kind offered by Satan to the Lord: All these — the kingdoms of the world — I will give to you . . . (Matthew 4:9). Of course, at the end of his life Paul believed that he had proclaimed the Gospel to the very ends of the earth, but the Christians were small communities dispersed throughout the world, insignificant according to the secular criteria. In reality, they were the leaven that penetrates the meal from within and they carried within themselves the future of the world (see Matthew 13:33). An old proverb says: "Success is not one of the names of God." New evangelisation must surrender to the mystery of the grain of mustard seed and not be so pretentious as to believe to immediately produce a large tree. We either live too much in the security of the already existing large tree or in the impatience of having a greater, more vital tree — instead we must accept the mystery that the Church is at the same time a large tree and a very small grain. In the history of salvation it is always Good Friday and Easter Sunday at the same time . . ."
After extrapolating the structure of a new evangelisation, here is the method. The correct method comes from this structure. Cardinal Ratzinger said: "we must use the modern methods of making ourselves be heard in a reasonable way — or better yet: of making the voice of the Lord accessible and comprehensible . . . We are not looking for listening for ourselves — we do not want to increase the power and the spreading of our institutions, but we wish to serve for the good of the people and humanity giving room to He who is Life. This expropriation of one's person, offering it to Christ for the salvation of men, is the fundamental condition of the true commitment for the Gospel. "I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive" says the Lord (Jn 5:43). The mark of the Antichrist is the fact that he speaks in his own name. The sign of the Son is His communion with the Father. The Son introduces us into the Trinitarian communion, into the circle of eternal love, whose persons are "pure relations", the pure act of giving oneself and of welcome. The Trinitarian plan — visible in the Son, who does not speak in His name — shows the form of life of the true evangelizer — rather, evangelizing is not merely a way of speaking, but a form of living: living in the listening and giving voice to the Father. "He will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak," says the Lord about the Holy Spirit (Jn 16:13). This Christological and pneumatological form of evangelization is also, at the same time, an ecclesiological form: the Lord and the Spirit build the Church, communicate through the Church. The proclamation of Christ, the proclamation of the Kingdom of God presupposes listening to His voice in the voice of the Church. "Not speak on his own authority" means: to speak in the mission of the Church . . . Many practical consequences come from this law of expropriation. All reasonable and morally acceptable methods should be studied — to use these possibilities of communication is a duty. But words and the whole art of communication cannot reach the human person to such depths as the Gospel must reach. A few years ago, I was reading the biography of a very good priest of our century, Don Didimo, the parish priest of Bassano del Grappa. In his notes, golden words can be found, the fruit of a life of prayer and of meditation. About us, Don Didimo says, for example: "Jesus preached by day, by night He prayed". With these few words, he wished to say: Jesus had to acquire the disciples from God. The same is always true. We ourselves cannot gather men. We must acquire them by God for God. All methods are empty without the foundation of prayer. The word of the announcement must always be drenched in an intense life of prayer. We must add another step. Jesus preached by day, by night He prayed — this is not all. His entire life was — as demonstrated in a beautiful way by the Gospel according to Saint Luke — a path towards the cross, ascension towards Jerusalem. Jesus did not redeem the world with beautiful word but with His suffering and His death. His passion is the inexhaustible source of life for the world; the passion gives power to His words. The Lord Himself — extending and amplifying the parable of the grain of mustard seed — formulated this law of fruitfulness in the word of the grain of seed that dies, fallen to earth (Jn 12:24). This law too is valid until the end of the world and is — along with the mystery of the grain of seed — fundamental for new evangelization. All of history demonstrates this. It is very easy to demonstrate this in the history of Christianity. Here, I would like to recall only the beginning of evangelization in the life of Saint Paul. The success of his mission was not the fruit of great rhetorical art or pastoral prudence; the fruitfulness was tied to the suffering, to the communion in the passion with Christ (cf. 1 Cor 2:1-5; 2 Cor 5:7; 11, 10 et segue; 11:30; Gal 4:12-14). "But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah" said the Lord. The sign of Jonah is the crucified Christ — they are the witnesses that complete "what is lacking in Christ's afflictions" (Col 1:24). Throughout all the periods of history, the words of Tertullian have always been verified: the blood of martyrs is a seed. Saint Augustine says the same thing in a much more beautiful way, interpreting Jn 21, where the prophesy of Peter's martyrdom and the mandate to tend, that is to say the institution of His primacy, are intimately connected. Saint Augustine comments the text Jn 21:16 in the following way: "Tend my sheep", this means suffer for my sheep (Sermo Guelf. 32 PLS 2, 640). A mother cannot give life to a child without suffering. Each birth requires suffering, is suffering, and becoming a Christian is a birth. Let us say this once again in the words of the Lord: the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence (Mt 11:12; Lk 16:16), but the violence of God is suffering, it is the Cross. We cannot give life to others without giving up our own lives. The process of expropriation indicated above is the concrete form (expressed in many different ways) of giving one's life. And let us think about the words of the Saviour: ". . . whoever loses his life for my sake and the Gospel's will save it . . ." (Mk 8:35)."
Here point by point are the essential elements of a new evangelisation:
- Conversion: "with regard to the contents of a new evangelisation — said Cardinal Ratzinger — first of all we must keep in mind the inseparability of the Old and the New Testaments. The fundamental content of the Old Testament is summarised in the message by John the Baptist: metanoete — Convert! There is no access to Jesus without the Baptist; there is no possibility of reaching Jesus without answering the call of the precursor, rather: Jesus took up the message of John in the synthesis of His own preaching: (Mk 1:15). The Greek word for converting means: to rethink — to question one's own and common way of living; to allow God to enter into the criteria of one's life; to not merely judge according to the current opinions. Thereby, to convert means: not to live a all the others live, not do what all do, not feel justified in dubious, ambiguous, evil actions just because others do the same; begin to see one's life through the eyes of God; thereby looking for the good, even if uncomfortable; not aiming at the judgement of the majority, of men, but on the justice of God — in other words: to look for a new style of life, a new life. All of this does not imply moralism; reducing Christianity to morality loses sight of the essence of Christ's message: the gift of a new friendship, the gift of communion with Jesus and thereby with God. Whoever converts to Christ does not mean to create his own moral autarchy for himself, does not intend to build his own goodness through his own strengths. "Conversion" (Metanoia) means exactly the opposite: to come out of self-sufficiency to discover and accept our indigence — the indigence of others and of the Other, His forgiveness, His friendship. Unconverted life is self-justification (I am not worse than the others); conversion is humility in entrusting oneself to the love of the Other, a love that becomes the measure and the criteria of my own life. Here we must also bear in mind the social aspect of conversion. Certainly conversion is above all a very personal act, it is personalisation. I separate myself from the formula "to live as all others" (I do not feel justified anymore by the fact that everyone does what I do) and I find my own person in front of God, my own personal responsibility. But true personalisation is always also a new and more profound socialisation. The "I" opens itself once again to the "you", in all its depths, and thus a new "We" is born. If the lifestyle spread throughout the world implies the danger of de-personalisation, of not living one's own life but the life of all the others, in conversion a new "We", of the common path of God, must be achieved. In proclaiming conversion we must also offer a community of life, a common space for the new style of life. We cannot evangelise with words alone; the Gospel creates life, creates communities of progress; a merely individual conversion has no consistency . . .
- The Kingdom of God "In the appeal to conversion — said Cardinal Ratzinger — the proclamation of the Living God is implicit — as its fundamental condition. Theocentrism is fundamental in the message of Jesus and must also be at the heart of new evangelization. The keyword of the proclamation of Jesus is: the Kingdom of God. But the Kingdom of God is not a thing, a social or political structure, a utopia. The Kingdom of God is God. Kingdom of God means: God exists. God is alive. God is present and acts in the world, in our — in my life. God is not a faraway "ultimate cause", God is not the "great architect" of deism, who created the machine of the world and is no longer part of it — on the contrary: God is the most present and decisive reality in each and every act of my life, in each and every moment of history. In his conference when leaving the University of Münster, the theologian J.B. Metz said some unexpected things for him. In the past, Metz taught us anthropocentrism — the true occurrence of Christianity was the anthropological turning point, the secularization, the discovery of the secularity of the world. Then he taught us political theology — the political characteristic of faith; then the "dangerous memory"; and finally narrative theology. After this long and difficult path, today he tells us: the true problem of our times is the "Crisis of God", the absence of God, disguised by an empty religiosity. Theology must go back to being truly theology, speaking about and with God. Metz is right: the "unum necessarium" to man is God. Everything changes, whether God exists or not. Unfortunately — we Christians also often live as if God did not exist ("si Deus non daretur"). We live according to the slogan: God does not exist, and if He exists, He does not belong. Therefore, evangelization must, first of all, speak about God, proclaim the only true God: the Creator — the Sanctifier — the Judge (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church). Here too we must keep the practical aspect in mind. God cannot be made known with words alone. One does not really know a person if one knows about this person second-handedly. To proclaim God is to introduce to the relation with God: to teach how to pray. Prayer is faith in action. And only by experiencing life with God does the evidence of His existence appear. This is why schools of prayer, communities of prayer, are so important. There is a complementarity between personal prayer ("in one's room", alone in front of God's eyes), "para-liturgical" prayer in common ("popular religiosity") and liturgical prayer. Yes, the liturgy is, first of all, prayer; its specificity consists in the fact that its primary project is not ourselves (as in private prayer and in popular religiosity), but God Himself — the liturgy is actio divina, God acts and we respond to this divine action.
Speaking about God and speaking with God must always go together. The proclamation of God is the guide to communion with God in fraternal communion, founded and vivified by Christ. This is why the liturgy (the sacraments) are not a secondary theme next to the preaching of the living God, but the realization of our relationship with God. While on this subject, may I be allowed to make a general observation on the liturgical question. Our way of celebrating the liturgy is very often too rationalistic. The liturgy becomes teaching, whose criteria is: making ourselves understood — often the consequence of this is making the mystery a banality, the prevalence of our words, the repetition of phrases that might seem more accessible and more pleasant for the people. But this is not only a theological error but also a psychological and pastoral one. The wave of esoterism, the spreading of Asian techniques of relaxation and self-emptying demonstrate that something is lacking in our liturgies. It is in our world of today that we are in need of silence, of the super-individual mystery, of beauty. The liturgy is not an invention of the celebrating priest or of a group of specialists; the liturgy (the "rite") came about via an organic process throughout the centuries, it bears with it the fruit of the experience of faith of all the generations. Even if the participants do not perhaps understand each single word, they perceive the profound meaning, the presence of the mystery, which transcends all words. The celebrant is not the centre of liturgical action; the celebrant is not in front of the people in his own name — he does not speak by himself or for himself, but "in persona Cristi". The personal abilities of the celebrant do not count, only his faith counts, by which Christ becomes transparent. "He must increase, but I must decrease" (Jn 3:30).
- Jesus Christ With this reflection, the theme of God has already expanded and been achieved in the theme of Jesus Christ: only in Christ and through Christ does the theme God become truly concrete: Christ is Emanuel, the God-with-us — the concretisation of the "I am", the response to Deism. Today, the temptation is great to diminish Jesus Christ, the Son of God, into a merely historical Jesus, into a pure man. One does not necessarily deny the divinity of Jesus, but by using certain methods one distills from the Bible a Jesus to our size, a Jesus possible and comprehensible within the parameters of our historiography. But this "historical Jesus" is an artifact, the image of his authors rather than the image of the living God (cf. 2 Cor 4:4 et segue; Col 1:15). The Christ of faith is not a myth; the so-called historical Jesus is a mythological figure, self-invented by various interpreters. The two hundred years of history of the "historical Jesus" faithfully reflect the history of philosophies and ideologies of this period.
Within the limits of this conference, I cannot go into the contents of the proclamation of the Saviour. I would only like to briefly mention two important aspects. The first one is Discipleship of Christ — Christ offers Himself as the path of my life. Discipleship of Christ does not mean: imitating the man Jesus. This type of attempt would necessarily fail — it would be an anachronism. The Discipleship of Christ has a much higher goal: to be assimilated into Christ, that is to attain union with God. Such a word might sound strange to the ears of modern man. But, in truth, we all thirst for the infinite: for an infinite freedom, for happiness without limits. The entire history of revolutions during the last two centuries can only be explained this way. Drugs can only be explained this way. Man is not satisfied with solutions beneath the level of divinisation. But all the roads offered by the "serpent" (Gen 3:5), that is to say by mundane knowledge, fail. The only path is communion with Christ, achieved in sacramental life. Discipleship of Christ is not a question of morality, but a "mysteric" theme — an ensemble of divine action and our response.
Thus, in the theme discipleship we find present the other centre of Christology, which I wished to mention: the Paschal Mystery — the Cross and the Resurrection. In the reconstruction of the "historical Jesus", usually the theme of the cross is without meaning. In a bourgeois interpretation it becomes a mishap, in itself avoidable, with no theological value; in a revolutionary interpretation it becomes the heroic death of a rebel. The truth is quite different. The cross belongs to the divine mystery — it is the expression of His love to the end (Jn 13:1). The Discipleship of Christ is participation in the cross, uniting oneself to His love, to the transformation of our life, which becomes the birth of the new man, created according to God (cf. Eph 4:24). Whoever omits the cross, omits the essence of Christianity (cf. 1 Cor 2:2).
- Eternal life — A last central element of every true evangelisation is eternal life. Today we must proclaim our faith with new vigour in daily life. Here, I would only like to mention one aspect of the preaching Jesus, which is often omitted today: the proclamation of the Kingdom of God is the proclamation of the God present, the God that knows us, listen to us; the God that enters into history to do justice. Therefore, this preaching is also the proclamation of justice, the proclamation of our responsibility. Man cannot do or avoid doing what he wants to. He will be judged. He must account for things. This certitude is of value both for the powerful as well as the simple ones. Where this is honoured, the limitations of every power in this world are traced. God renders justice, and only He may ultimately do this. We will be able to do this better the more we are able to live under the eyes of God and to communicate the truth of justice to the world. Thus the article of faith in justice, its force in the formation of consciences, is a central theme of the Gospel and is truly good news. It is for all those suffering the injustices of the world and who are looking for justice. This is also how we can understand the connection between the Kingdom of God and the "poor", the suffering and all those spoken about in the Beatitudes in the Speech on the Mountain. They are protected by the certainty of judgement, by the certitude, that there is a justice. This is the true content of the article on justice, about God as judge: Justice exists. The injustices of the world are not the final word of history. Justice exists. Only whoever does not want there to be justice can oppose this truth. If we seriously consider the judgement and the seriousness of the responsibility for us that emerges from this, we will be able to understand full well the other aspect of this proclamation, that is redemption, the fact that Jesus, in the cross, takes on our sins; God Himself, in the passion of the Son, becomes the advocate for us sinners, and thus making penance possible, the hope for the repentant sinner, hope expressed in a marvellous way by the words of Saint John: Before God, we will reassure our heart, whatever He reproves us for. "For God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything" (1 Jn 3:19 et segue). God's goodness is infinite, but we should not diminish this to goodness to mawkish affectation without truth. Only by believing in the just judgement of God, only by hungering and thirsting for justice (cf. Mt 5:6) will we open up our hearts, our life to divine mercy. This can be seen: it isn't true that faith in eternal life makes earthly life insignificant. To the contrary: only if the measure of our life is eternity, then also this life of ours on earth is great and its value immense. God is not the competitor in our life, but the guarantor of our greatness. This way we return to the starting point: God. If we take the Christian message into well thought out consideration, we are not speaking about a whole lot of things. In reality, the Christian message is very simple: we speak about God and man, and this way we say everything."
It was during the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, on the occasion of the Jubilee of Priests and the Pope's eightieth birthday on 18 May, that John Paul II explained "The great Priest, indeed the High Priest, is Jesus Christ". "He — as the Letter to the Hebrews affirms — entered the sanctuary with his own blood once and for all, achieving for us eternal redemption (cf. Heb 9: 12). Christ, Priest and Victim: he "is the same yesterday and today and for ever!" (Heb 13: 8). We who, as priests, have been called to share in his priesthood in a specific way are gathered together this morning to reflect on it. The ministerial priesthood! Today's liturgy speaks of it to us, taking us back in spirit to the Upper Room, to the Last Supper, when Christ washed the Apostles' feet. The Evangelist John bears witness to it. So does Luke, but, in the passage just proclaimed, he offers us the correct interpretation of this symbolic gesture of Christ, who says of himself: "I am among you as one who serves" (Lk 22: 27). The Teacher leaves to his friends the commandment to love one another as he has loved them, by serving one another (cf. Jn 13: 14): "I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you" (Jn 13: 15)."
John Paul II explained that in the Eucharist, Christ instituted the new rite of the Christian Passover, introducing in the Church the ministerial priesthood. The ministerial priesthood refers us above all to the Eucharist, in which Christ instituted the new rite of the Christian Passover, at the same time establishing the priestly ministry in the Church. At the Last Supper Christ took bread into his hands, broke it and gave it to the Apostles, saying: "This is my body which will be given up for you" (Rite of Mass, cf. Lk 22: 19). Then he took the cup filled with wine and gave it to the Apostles, saying: "This is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant. It will be shed for you and for all so that sins may be forgiven. Do this in memory of me" (Rite of Mass). As often as you repeat this rite, the Apostle Paul explains, "you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes" (1 Cor 11: 26).
According to the Holy Father, "Christ places in our hands, under the appearances of bread and wine, the living memorial of the Sacrifice he offered to the Father on the Cross. He has entrusted it to his Church, to celebrate it until the end of the world. In the Church, as we know, it is he himself as the Eternal High Priest of the New Covenant who down the centuries acts through us, through his ordained ministers."
Again it is John Paul II who speaks of the "ministerial priesthood". "We all share in it, and today we want to offer God a unanimous thanksgiving for this extraordinary gift. A gift for all times and for people of every race and culture. A gift that is renewed in the Church, through God's unchanging mercy and the generous, faithful response of so many frail men. A gift that never ceases to amaze those who receive it. After more than 50 years of priestly life, I feel an intense need to praise and thank God for his immense goodness. My thoughts return at this moment to the Upper Room in Jerusalem where, during my recent pilgrimage to the Holy Land, I was able to celebrate Holy Mass. In that place my priesthood and yours arose from the mind and heart of Christ. This is precisely why I wanted to address my Letter to Priests for Holy Thursday from that "room on the upper floor", a Letter which I again offer to you today. In the Upper Room, on the eve of his Passion, Jesus wanted to give us a share in the vocation and mission entrusted to him by the heavenly Father, that is, to bring people into his universal mystery of salvation".
Interview with Archbishop Mauro Piacenza, Secretary of the Congregation for the Clergy
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) — Archbishop Piacenza, every year a vast number of young men who have decided to give themselves totally to Christ, receive priestly ordination. A miracle which continues to happen even after two thousand years?
At the end of a priestly ordination no one present can say he has never seen a miracle in his life. In fact when we watch the ordination of a priest we watch a miracle: through the power of the Holy Spirit, through the Church's prayer of consecration and the imposition of the humble hands of a bishop, ordinary men, perhaps very virtuous and well prepared, but always sinful and with human weaknesses, are ontologically configured to Christ, the One and Eternal High Priest, through Whom "God's grace and the free gift conceded in grace [. . . ] are abundantly poured out over all men" (cf. Rom 5,15). It is not excessive to use of the category "miracle" to express a reality which, although more commonly called "sacramental", in actual fact to be accepted with all its extraordinary effectiveness and saving power, requires us to rise, illuminated by Sacred Scripture and the ecclesial Magisterium, to rise above the small and often narrow-minded, spaces of modern rationality, in order "to open reason" to accept and as far as it is humanly possible, understand the Mystery which, day after day, breaks into our human existence.
A miracle even for a world often forgetful of Christ?
In a secularised context, where everything appears to conspire "to be silent about Christ ", or to set him in the pantheon of vague imaginary, irenicised and relativised "values", men who become priests bear witness with conviction and joy, with the eloquence of their life of total dedication, to the Truth and to Beauty and above all to the Presence of the Mystery in the world". And again: Only for a "Mystery which is present", for a God incarnate, made man, is it possible to give one's life with human reasonableness, experiencing that nothing is taken from man, indeed everything is given, with transfigured abundance and unprecedented reasonably welcomed evidence. The Church selects for Holy Orders, those who have received from God the charisma of celibacy, since virginity, understood as total giving of self, is the greatest testimony a Christian can ever render to the Lord in this earthly life. Only martyrdom is greater than virginity! For this reason, much greater and far loftier than mere disciplinary or pastoral opportuneness — which is simply the logical consequence of greater premises — the very effectiveness of priestly witness is inseparably connected with holy celibacy.
When we see a priest, what should we see?
Looking at a priest the faithful should see a 'man of God', a man totally dedicated to the Lord: first of all a man for whom God comes before everything else, a man whom you look at and it is obvious that you see that we look at and see that is obvious God comes before everything else. The holy people of God, to whom priests are sent, have one desire: more than good, attractive and useful qualities in a priest they expect him to show them Christ. They do not expect a priest to engage in useless "running along with the world", "aping" its methods or contents, instead they expect him to be a man of the Absolute. Priests are not supposed to run along with the world and its ephemeral seasons, they are to run behind Christ. In this way, and only in this way, will they serve society and every human person.
In their humanity, manner of using the intelligence, sincere virginal affection, dedication and capacity for work even intense and at times almost overwhelming, never giving in to the ruinous temptation of functionalism or activism, fully aware that the soul of all apostolate in intimacy with the Lord, priests must show men and women today that the answers to the fundamental questions of the human heart can be found; they must show that it is possible to see our brief earthly passing not as a desperate race from the cradle to the grave; they must show that man's origin is infinite, in the mystery of God's Love. They must be eloquent witnesses to the fact that "two sparrows are sold for a penny? And yet not one falls to the ground without [. . . ] the Father knowing" (cf. Mt 10,29), this is even truer for man, created in the image and likeness of God and called to become, in a process of progressive personalisation, ever more similar to Him. On the other hand, priests should realise that what takes place on the day of their ordination is first of all, indeed solely, a gift. They must be fully aware that " no one takes this honour on himself;" (Cf. Heb 5,1-4) unless God's calls him. Therefore their attitude must be one of awareness all through life that "even the hairs [. . .] of the head are all counted" and therefore they "need not fear" (cf. Mt 10,30).
If the people to whom the priests are sent see in them the fact that they belong first and foremost to Christ, then they will be eloquent witnesses of Christ's 'presence' in the world. In every epoch, but especially in this culture which we breath every day, gravely secularised and burdened with relativism, subjectivism and falsely irenical "buonismo" which, as a macro-effect, only renders everything undifferentiated and grey, lacking the salt and light of the Gospel, and lacking authentic, incandescent missionary zeal, the priestly ministry would mean nothing, without Christ the Lord. This is the obvious reason for which it is absolutely necessary for all ordained ministers, deacons, priests and bishops, to live a profound and personal Christ-centred dimension. It is the centrality of Christ which exalts the humanity of priests, profoundly transforming it and above all transforming the criteria for judgement of the world and of history. For those who belong to Christ, obedience never mortifies freedom, on the contrary it dilates it: the Holy Minister is so much 'freer' than the rest of the world because he has no need of self affirmation, of obeying only his own will, instead he is able to make 'his own' the will of Someone else, in which to recognise freely and truly, the Lord's provisional plan.
On what does the missionary effectiveness of a priest depend?
Pastoral and missionary effectiveness could never depend on our feeble human strength, it is founded solely on the power of God, who associates his priests every day with his own Sacrifice of Vicarious Substitution, for the salvation of souls and the true good of the world. This willingness to be a "sacrificial victim" for all men and women, documented concretely by the virtue, ever valid, of humility, which sees us diminish so he may grow, is the "lofty measure" of our vocation.
This item 8401 digitally provided courtesy of CatholicCulture.org
