Pope Francis ordains priests in St Peter's Basilica
(Vatican Radio) On the World Day of Prayer for Vocations, Pope Francis ordained thirteen
new priests at Mass in Saint Peter’s Basilica.
The Mass was concelebrated
by the Cardinal Vicar of Rome, Agostino Vallini; Archbishop Filippo Iannone, Vicegerent
of Rome; and the auxiliary bishops of Rome; along with the rectors of the seminaries
and the pastors of the newly ordained.
Eleven of the new priests were ordained
for the diocese of Rome. Pope Francis, wanting to meet personally the men he would
be ordaining, received the eleven deacons of the Diocese of Rome on April 25, at the
Casa Santa Marta.
Two other men, a religious of the Order of Discalced Augustinians
from Pakistan and a Vietnamese seminarian from the Diocese of Vinh, were also ordained.
In his homily, based on the homily recommended in the Pontifical, Pope Francis
spoke about the vocation to the sacramental priesthood. Those who are ordained, he
said, “are configured to Christ the high and eternal priest, are consecrated as true
priests of the New Testament” so that they become “preachers of the Gospel, and shepherds
of the People of God, and will preside over the liturgical actions, especially in
the celebration of the Sacrifice of the Lord.”
He called on the newly ordained
to “be aware that you were chosen from among men and established in their favour to
attend to the things of God;” to “exercise the priestly work of Christ with joy and
sincere charity;” to be intent “on pleasing God, and not yourselves.”
Pope
Francis concluded his homily saying, “Have always before your eyes the example of
the Good Shepherd, who did not come to be served, but to serve, and to seek and to
save those that were lost.”