Pope Benedict marks 60 years of priesthood, confers pallium on new archbishops

(June 29, 2011) Pope Benedict XVI celebrated 60 years of his priesthood on Wednesday with a solemn Mass in Rome’s St. Peter’s Basilica, on the liturgical feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. During the Mass he also placed the pallium, a woollen band, around the shoulders of 40 newly appointed archbishops from around the world, in keeping with the tradition of the June 29th feast of Sts. Peter and Paul.
In his homily, Pope Benedict recalled his own priestly ordination 6 decades ago in the cathedral of Freising, Germany. He belonged to a group of 44 deacons, including his elder brother Georg Ratzinger, whom Cardinal Michael Von Faulhaber the archbishop of Munich ordained priests on June 29, 1951.
Delivering his homily in Italian, Pope Benedict recalled the words of Cardinal Faulhaber from St. John’s Gospel - “I no longer call you servants, but friends.” “Sixty years on from the day of my priestly ordination,” the Pope fondly recalled, “I hear once again deep within me these words of Jesus that were addressed to us new priests at the end of the ordination ceremony by the Archbishop, Cardinal Faulhaber, in his slightly frail yet firm voice.” The Pope explained that according to the liturgical practice of that time, these words conferred on the newly-ordained priests the authority to forgive sins. He said that deep down he knew that, at that moment, the Lord Himself was speaking to him in a very personal way.
“No longer servants, but friends.” The 84-year old Pope said with these words, “He grants me the almost frightening faculty to do what only he, the Son of God, can legitimately say and do: I forgive you your sins.” “He wants me – with his authority – to be able to speak, in his name (“I” forgive), words that are not merely words, but an action, changing something at the deepest level of being.” Pope Benedict said that behind these words lies Christ’s suffering for us and on account of us, that forgiveness comes at a price: in his Passion he went deep down into the sordid darkness of our sins. He went down into the night of our guilt, for only thus can it be transformed. “He entrusts to me the words of consecration in the Eucharist. He trusts me to proclaim his word, to explain it aright and to bring it to the people of today.” “He entrusts himself to me.”
The German Pontiff explained that the words, “No longer servants, but friends,” contains within itself the entire programme of a priestly life. Friendship, he explained, is a communion of thinking and willing. The Lord says the same thing to us most insistently: “I know my own and my own know me.” “He knows me personally and the friendship that he bestows upon me, can only mean that I too try to know him better; that in the Scriptures, in the Sacraments, in prayer, in the communion of saints, in the people who come to me, sent by him, I try to come to know the Lord himself more and more.” “Friendship,” the Pope reflected, “is not just about knowing someone, it is above all a communion of the will.” “It means that my will grows into ever greater conformity with his will.” The Pope prayed for a deeper knowledge of and communion with the Lord. “Help me to be ever more at one with your will. Help me to live my life not for myself, but in union with you to live it for others. Help me to become ever more your friend,” he prayed.
Pope Benedict dwelt further on the theme of friendship with the imagery of the vine. The Lord appointed his disciples to go out and bear fruit, and that their fruit should abide. “When the Lord commissions his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations ..., he challenges us to move beyond the boundaries of our own world and to bring the Gospel to the world of others, so that it pervades everything and hence the world is opened up for God’s kingdom.” Speaking about the grape and the wine, Pope Benedict said that noble or excellent wine comes from good grapes that is matured and ripened in the sun, rain, day and night. With patience and care it then needs to be pressed, fermented and matured. In the same way too the life of a priest needs both sun and rain, festivity and adversity, times of purification and testing, as well as times of joyful journeying with the Gospel. The Pope said, “in hindsight we can thank God for both: for the challenges and the joys, for the dark times and the glad times. In both, we can recognize the constant presence of his love, which unfailingly supports and sustains us.
Pope Benedict referred to the Old Testament imagery of noble grapes as an image of justice, which arises from a life lived in accordance with God’s law. The true content of the Law is love for God and for one’s neighbour, which bears within itself the precious cargo of patience, humility, and growth in conforming our will to that Jesus Christ, our friend. “As the whole of our being takes on the qualities of truth and righteousness, love is rendered true and only thus is it ripe fruit,” the Pope said. This faithfulness to Christ and to his Church, the Pope said, seeks a fulfilment that always includes suffering, and that is how true joy grows. “This,” the Pope pointed out, “entails self-abandonment, self-giving, it bears within itself the sign of the cross.”
Present at Mass of Sts. Peter and Paul was a delegation from the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, Turkey, the spiritual head of Orthodox Christians worldwide. The Pope greeted the Orthodox delegation that makes a traditional visit to Rome every year on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul.
He then reflected on the pallium that he would be bestowing on the metropolitan archbishops appointed in the course of the past year. The Pallium, a circular woollen stole, is a symbol of the archbishops’ sharing of authority with the Pope over the faithful in their archdioceses. Pope Benedict likened the pallium to the “easy yoke of Christ- identical with his friendship, and hence sweet.” “Yet it is a demanding yoke, one that forms us,” the Pope said, adding, “It is the yoke of his will, which is a will of truth and love.” “For us, then, it is first and foremost the yoke of leading others to friendship with Christ and being available to others, caring for them as shepherds,” the Pontiff said. Traditionally, the pallium is woven from the wool taken form the lambs blessed on the feast of Saint Agnes, January 21. This, the Pope said, reminds us of the Shepherd who himself became a lamb, out of love for us. “It speaks of the Shepherd who set out through the mountains and the deserts, in which his lamb, humanity, had strayed.” “It reminds us of him who took the lamb – humanity – me – upon his shoulders, in order to carry me home,” the Pope said. He explained that as shepherds in the Lord’s service, bishops, so to say, are to carry others upon their shoulders and bring them to Christ. This, he said is also a reminder that the flock always belongs to the Lord and does not become theirs. The pallium also concretely symbolizes the communion of the shepherds of the Church with Peter and with his successors. “It means that we must be shepherds for unity and in unity, and that it is only in the unity represented by Peter that we truly lead people to Christ,” the Pope said.
After the homily, Pope Benedict bestowed the Pallium on 40 newly appointed metropolitan archbishops from around the world. "May this pallium be for you a symbol of unity and a sign of communion with the Apostolic See," the pope said as the archbishops appointed in the past year knelt before him one by one during the Mass in St. Peter's Basilica. Pope Benedict XVI prayed that archbishop would be true shepherds of their flocks and always united with the Successor of Peter. In all 45 archbishops from 27 nations were to receive the pallium from the Pope, but 5 of them who were unable to travel to Rome will receive the pallium from the Apostolic Nuncio in their home country. Among the 45 were two Indians. Archbishop Thumma Bala of Hyderabad personally received the pallium from the Pope on Wednesday, whereas Archbishop John Barwa of Cuttack-Bhubaneshwar was absent and hence will receive it in India. The 40 archbishops concelebrated Mass with the Pope and other cardinals.
The Mass over, Pope Benedict appeared at the window of studio of his studio to pray the noontime ‘Angelus’ prayer with a holiday crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square. After addressing them in Italian the Pope prayed the 'Angelus' and gave his blessing.
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After his blessing, Pope Benedict also spoke in several languages. This is what he said in English:
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I welcome all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors present in Rome for this Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul. I am especially happy to greet the Metropolitan Archbishops who have received the Pallium today, accompanied by their relatives and friends. May the courageous example of the Apostles Peter and Paul inspire the Archbishops as they preach the life-giving word of God. May all Christians, following in the footsteps of Peter and Paul, bear courageous witness to the Gospel that sets us free. God bless you all!