Cardinal to Priests: Feel the Urgency of Mission

(June 10, 2010) The Church's Year for Priests was intended as an occasion to renew in priests the awareness of the Church's evangelizing mission, according to Cardinal Cláudio Hummes, prefect of the Congregation for Clergy. The cardinal said this Wednesday during the Mass in the Basilica of St. John Lateran, which marks the beginning of the closing ceremonies of the year that will conclude on Friday. Pope Benedict XVI launched the yearlong celebration of the priesthood last June 19, with the theme "Faithfulness of Christ, Faithfulness of Priests." The year coincides with the 150th anniversary of the death of St. John Mary Vianney, known as the Curé d'Ars. To mark the end of the year, an International Convention for Priests was convoked in Rome, which is under way through Friday. "The great objective of the Year for Priests was to renew in every priest the awareness and concrete carrying out of their true priestly identity and their specific spirituality in order to again continue the mission in a renewed way," said Cardinal Hummes. He pointed out the urgency "of the mission 'ad gentes' and the new missionary evangelization in lands already evangelized." The Cardinal explained that the new evangelization is the proclamation of Christ in the de-Christianized countries of the "old evangelization. This means that it is urgent to rise and go on mission. This is what the Holy Spirit wishes to renew in all of us in this international meeting,” he said. He called on them to be very conscious of the present missionary urgency and feel themselves as persons convoked and sent once again by the Lord. He concluded that the whole ministry of the priest "is ordered to the Eucharist and begins from the Eucharist for the mission.