CONGREGATIO PRO CLERICIS
Vatican City, 3rd April 2009
Prot. N. 20090980

Your Eminence, Your Excellency,

On the 16th March last, during the audience granted to the Members of this Congregation meeting in plenary assembly, the Holy Father Benedict XVI, “in order to encourage the striving for spiritual perfection of priests, on which, above all, the effectiveness of their ministry depends” kindly announced a special “Year of the Priest”, that will last from the 19th of June next, Feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, to the same date in 2010. It will be, in fact, the 150th anniversary of the death of Saint John Mary Vianney, the holy Curé of Ars, a true example of a Shepherd at the service of Christ’s flock (cf. Address of the Holy Father).

The Year of the Priest represents, therefore, an important opportunity to contemplate once more and with grateful awe the work of the Lord, who, “on the night he was betrayed” (1Cor 11:23), willed to institute the ministerial Priesthood, linking it inseparably to the Eucharist, the source and summit of life for the whole Church. It will, therefore, be a year during which we can discover anew the beauty and importance of the Priesthood and of each priest, making the entire holy people of God attentive to this: men and women religious, Christian families, those who suffer and, above all, the young who are so eager for great ideals that are lived with genuine enthusiasm and constant fidelity.

The title happily selected by the Holy Father for the year “The Faithfulness of Christ, The Faithfulness of the Priest”, also gives this same indication concerning the absolute primacy of grace, “We love, because he first loved us” (lJn 4: 19) and, at the same time, the indispensable heartfelt adhesion of loving freedom, remembering that the name of love within time is: “Faithfulness!”.

As Your Eminence/Your Excellency will appreciate, this presents an important opportunity for a deepening of the spiritual-theological understanding of the priesthood and of its pastoral mission. It will be fruitful, in the first place, for priests themselves, called to renew the consciousness of their own identity and, as a consequence, to reinvigorate the missionary zeal that flows from the Divine intimacy, from their “staying” with the Lord. This pastoral fecundity spreads to every person and sphere within the Church, but with particular attention to the indispensable priority of the promotion of vocations to the ordained ministry.

The Year of the Priest will be inaugurated on the forthcoming celebration of the Solemnity of Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Papal Basilica of Saint Peter at the Vatican, with the celebration of Vespers at which the Holy Father will preside. For the occasion, the reliquary of the heart of St. John Mary Vianney, which throbbed as one with the divine heart of the Good Shepherd, will be brought from Ars. It would have great meaning if a similar celebration were to be organized in each Cathedral, Sanctuary or significant church within the various ecclesiastical circumscriptions for the priests and the faithful who would like to come together in prayer.

From time to time during the year, by the ordinary means of communication and, above all, through the Website of the Congregation (www.clerus.org), events will be announced and resources will be offered to facilitate meetings, spiritual retreats, occasions of prayer, meetings and other initiatives that will be born from proper pastoral creativity.

One has in mind not a spectacular event but rather an opportunity to live, by means of an inner renewal of the joyful re-discovery of one’s proper identity, of the fraternity of one’s own presbyterate, and of the sacramental relationship with one’s own Bishop. Therefore, the initiative will be mostly taken at the local level in every ecclesial circumscription and within Institutes to which priests belong.
Accordingly, it would be fitting to give appropriate publicity to the Year of the Priest within the mass media, particularly the Catholic media, making sure that the event is always given a proper, and not only a partial, interpretation
.
Beyond the presbyterate, the individual priests and the parishes, it would be good to involve centers of priestly formation, Associations and Movements that attract many young people, Catholic schools of every kind, monasteries, Institutes of Consecrated life and all the authentically ecclesial realities that, according to their own condition and their own charism, can offer a valid contribution to the Year of the Priest. The year will conclude with a World Day of Priests that will be centred on Rome on the occasion of the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 2010, with the Holy Father.

In the aforementioned allocution, the Holy Father recalled that “It seems urgent also to recover that awareness that has always been at the heart of the Church’s mission, which impels priests to be present, identifiable and recognizable both for their judgement of faith, for their personal virtues, as well as for their attire, in the spheres of culture and of charity.” In light of this we hope that it would see to their “presence” in every sphere of the Church’s mission, encouraging them to meet those who, although baptized, have not yet been sufficiently evangelized.

Assured that Your Eminence/Your Excellency will not fail to give effect, in a heartfelt spirit of collegial fraternity, to every opportune initiative to encourage a well-motivated and fruitful celebration of the Year of the Priest within, I avail of this opportunity to renew my sentiments profound esteem and with every best wish, I remain

                                                                                     Yours Sincerely in Christ 
                                                                              Cláudio Card. Hummes (Prefect)
                                                                                             Mauro Piacenza
                                                                        Titular Archbishop of Vittorina (Secretary)