(12 Mar 10 - RV) Pope Benedict XVI today addressed the participants in an international
theological congress organized by the Congregation for Clergy to examine priestly
identity.
Promoted
by the curial dicastery responsible for Catholic Clergy throughout the world, the
conference is titled: “Christ’s Fidelity and the fidelity of the Priest”.
Over
the course of two days at Rome’s Pontifical Lateran University, bishops and priests
from all around the world examined the identity of the priest in his rapport with
contemporary culture, the liturgy and the charism of priestly celibacy.
Featured
speakers were the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal
William Levada, the Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, Cardinal Zenon
Grocholewski, and Cardinal Claudio Hummes, who is Prefect of the Congregation for
Clergy, which sponsored the Congress.
In his remarks to the participants
on Friday, Pope Benedict XVI spoke about the uniqueness and dignity of the priestly
vocation.
Dear priests, said Pope Benedict, the men and women of our time
ask only that we be priests, and nothing else, to the very end. The lay faithful will
always find in many other people, that, which they have need naturally, but only in
the priest shall they be able to find the Word of God, which must ever be in his mouth.