Pope Francis to Rome priests: "never settle for simple administration"
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Monday morning met for over two hours with priests
from the Diocese of Rome.
The private meeting, an annual event that takes place
in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, was a moment of greetings and exchange.
After
the Vicar General of Rome, Cardinal Agostino Vallini delivered his welcoming speech,
the Pope addressed the clergy and then took time to answer the many questions they
put to him.
His first words to his brother priests were words of encouragement
and closeness.
Listen to Linda Bordoni's report...
Speaking off
the cuff to bishops, vicars, priests and deacons, Pope Francis said the Church needs
“shepherds of the people, not clerics of the State”. Dipping into a letter he had
written to his priests when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires in 2008, a year after
the Aparecida Conference, and that he used as a text upon which to reflect in the
lead-up to this encounter, the Pope said “a priest belongs to the people of God”
and he reminded priests never to lose their identity which is in communion with the
Holy Spirit, because without the Holy Spirit – he said - “we are in danger of losing
our way in the understanding of faith”, and run the risk of ending up disoriented
and self-referenced. And Pope Francis told his fellow bishops always to be close
to the rest of the clergy, and to support them in times of difficulty and fatigue. He
invited them to be both pastors and zealous missionaries who live in constant yearning
to go in search of the lost, never settling for simple administration. He called
on his fellow priests never to be too lax or too severe, but to be merciful, taking
care of the sinner and accompanying him on the journey of reconciliation. And he
urged them never to forget that they were plucked from the flock, reminding them to
always defend themselves against the “rust” of spiritual worldliness” and the “spiritual
corruption which threatens the very nature of a shepherd”. Pope Francis concluded
telling his brother priests to be loving disciples of the Good Shepherd, guarding
their own precious and fragile flocks with tenderness, and never forgetting that special
“preferential option” for the poor.