Card. Tagle warns his priests against selfish pressures

Philippine Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle told his priests on Holy Thursday that outside expectations could “narrow their mission” and called on the clergy not to let it determine evangelization.  In his homily during the Chrism Mass at Manila Cathedral on April 13, the Archbishop of Manila urged priests to expand their concerns and not allow themselves to be enslaved by the pressure to be great and be noticed”.  During Holy Thursday’s Chrism Mass, the Bishop of a diocese joins his priests in renewing their priestly promises and blesses the oils of the infirm, the catechumens and the holy Chrism used in various sacraments.  At Manila’s Chrism Mass was present among others, Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Giuseppe Pinto.

“Having expectation is not entirely bad but sometimes it narrows our mission and when the evangelizer is carried away by pressure, sometimes the mission gets narrow,” Card. Tagle told his priests. “It’s also like you try to justify the expectations of others rather than really proclaiming the Good News. It’s a trap,” the prelate said. 

The Manila archbishop also emphasized the need for priests to serve as authentic missionaries of God’s love by going out to the peripheries. He that said as evangelizers, clergymen must go to the outsiders and reach out even to “the unchurched, to those who hate the Church and those who have no appreciation for the Church”.  “Go and show them the freedom that the spirit gives us, the freedom to love, the freedom to serve and the blind will see, the oppressed will be set free and the prisoners will find liberty,” Cardinal Tagle said. (Source: CBCP)At Chrism Mass, Card. Tagle cautions his priests against the temptation to be great and be noticed.