Pope to Priests: Be Messengers of Hope, Reconciliation, Peace

(20 Jun 09 - RV) Pope Benedict XVI inaugurated the Priestly Year yesterday evening with Solemn Vespers in St. Peter’s Basilica.


Pope Benedict XVI announced the Priestly Year in connection with the 150th anniversary of the Death of St. John Vianney, Patron of Priests.


In his letter announcing the Year for Priests, the Holy Father explains that it is meant to deepen the commitment of all priests to interior renewal for the sake of a more forceful and incisive witness to the Gospel in today’s world.


On Friday in St. Peter’s Basilica, during  Second Vespers of the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI inaugurated the Year for Priests…


The priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus was an expression often on the lips of the Curé of Ars, as Pope Benedict recalled in his Homily.


He went on to ask priests to make the Year a propitious occasion to grow in intimacy with Jesus, who counts on priests, his ministers, to spread and consolidate his kingdom.


The Holy Father also explained the gravity and the moment of the priestly vocation in the life of the Church, saying “nothing so makes the Church, the Body of Christ, to suffer, as the sins of Her pastors, especially those who become "thieves of the sheep" (Jn 10.1 ss) either because they lead them astray with their private doctrines, or because they bind them with the cords of sin and death.


“The Church,” said Pope Benedict, needs holy priests, ministers to help the faithful to experience the merciful love of God  - She needs priests who are convinced witnesses.


Eucharistic adoration and benediction followed the Vespers opening the Year for priests, which will conclude on the Feast of the Sacred Heart, 2010.