Cardinal Meisner talks to priests on “Conversion & Mission”
(June 09,2010) Priests from around the world are gathering this week in Rome for the official closing of their year. The Year for Priests convoked by Pope Benedict XVI draws to a close on Friday. On Wednesday, some hundreds of priests from all over the world gathered in Rome’s Basilica of St.Paul Outside the Walls, to hear German Cardinal Joachim Meisner, Archbishop of Cologne, speak on the theme “Conversion & Mission”. The prelate told them that one of the most tragic losses that the Church has suffered in the second half of the 20th century, is the loss of the Holy Spirit in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Cardinal Mesiner pointed out that in “our pastoral work, it is not enough to make corrections only to the structures of the church, what is needed is a change of heart. The greatest grace is to be pardoned and the most precious gift is forgiveness,” he said.
The German Cardinal stressed that that the loss of the Sacrament of Reconciliation is the root of many evils in the Church and in the life of the priest, and the so-called crises of the Sacrament of Penance is not only due to the fact that people no longer go to confession, but there. are no longer priests in the confessional. He called on the priests to follow the example of the Holy Curè of Ars, St. John Mary Vianney, the great confessor of the Church, who made the Sacrament of Reconciliation a daily part of his ministry.
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