Pope Francis: 50 years of
priesthood serving God and His people
December 13th marks the 50th anniversary of Pope Francis’
ordination to the priesthood. Vatican News celebrates this milestone recalling
some of Pope’s reflections regarding priests and the priesthood.
By Sergio Centofanti
On 13 December 1969, just four days before his
33rd birthday, Jorge Mario Bergoglio was ordained a priest. His
vocation dates back to 21 September 1953, the Feast of St. Matthew, the
tax collector converted by Jesus: it was during a confession that day, that the
future Pope had a profound experience of God's mercy.
The priest and mercy
Divine Mercy has characterized his entire priestly life.
Pope Francis speaks of priests as quietly leaving everything to engage in the
daily life of communities, giving others their own lives, moved, like Jesus,
when he sees people exhausted and “like sheep without a shepherd".
Addressing parish priests in Rome on 6
March 2014, the Pope said: “In the image of the Good Shepherd, the
priest is a man of mercy and compassion, close to his people and a servant to
all… Whoever is wounded in life, in whatever way, can find in him attention and
a sympathetic ear....Wounds need to be treated… We priests must be there, close
to these people. Mercy first means treating the wounds”.
Archbishop Bergoglio in Buenos Aires
The priest and the Eucharist
Pope Francis describes the priest as a decentralized man,
because at the center of his life there is not him but Christ. In his homily
during the Jubilee for Priests on 3
June 2016, he said: “In the Eucharistic celebration we rediscover each
day our identity as shepherds. In every Mass, may we truly make our own
Christ’s words: ‘This is my Body, which is given up for you’. This is the
meaning of our life: with these words, in a real way we can daily renew the
promises we made at our priestly ordination”.
The priest and the confessional
The priest plays an important part of his service to God and
His people in the confessional, where he can become an expression of God's
mercy. Addressing parish priests in Rome on 6
March 2014, Pope Francis said: “It is normal that there be differences
in the style of confessors, but these differences cannot regard the essential,
that is, sound moral doctrine and mercy. Neither the laxist nor the rigorist
bears witness to Jesus Christ, for neither the one nor the other takes care of
the person he encounters. The rigorist washes his hands of them: in fact, he
nails the person to the law, understood in a cold and rigid way; and the laxist
also washes his hands of them: he is only apparently merciful, but in reality
he does not take seriously the problems of that conscience, by minimizing the
sin. True mercy takes the person into one’s care, listens to them
attentively, approaches the situation with respect and truth, and accompanies
them on the journey of reconciliation”.
Pope Francis in the confessional
The priest and prayer
Pope Francis has always said that the priest needs to be,
above all, a man of prayer. It is union with God, he says, that overcomes the
countless temptations of evil. In his Letter
to Priests marking the 160th anniversary of the death of the Curé of Ars,
the Pope suggests reciting the Rosary every day. “To contemplate Mary”, he
writes, “is to believe once again in the revolutionary nature of love and
tenderness. In her, we see that humility and tenderness are not virtues of the
weak but of the strong, who need not treat others poorly in order to feel
important themselves”.
The priest and the poor
According to Pope Francis, a priest’s spirituality is
embodied in the reality of everyday life. His is a prophetic voice in the face
of the oppression that tramples on the poor and the weak. In Evangelii
gaudium, para. 183, he writes of how the Church "cannot and
must not remain on the side-lines of the struggle for justice". The
Kingdom of God begins here on earth and it is already here that we encounter
Jesus: the last judgment will focus precisely on what we have done to Christ in
the poor, the sick, strangers, prisoners. We will be judged on how we have
loved. But, as Saint John Paul II said, there can be no love without justice.
Pope Francis in prayer
The priests risking their lives
In his Letter to Priests
for the 160th anniversary of the death of the Curé of Ars, Pope Francis
thanks those priests "who make their lives a work of mercy in regions or
situations often inhospitable, distant or abandoned, even at the risk of their
own lives". He thanks them "for their courageous and constant example"
and invites them not to be discouraged, because "the Lord is purifying His
Bride and is converting all of us to Himself"
In the same Letter, Pope Francis addresses the question of
abuse. While confirming his closeness to the victims, he expresses his
gratitude “to all those priests who faithfully and generously spend their lives
in the service of others”.
The priest and weariness
During the Chrism Mass in St Peter’s Basilica, on Holy
Thursday 2015, Pope Francis spoke openly about “the tiredness of
priests”, saying it was frequently on his mind. “I think about it and I pray
about it often”, he said, “especially when I am tired myself. I pray for you as
you labour amid the people of God entrusted to your care, many of you in lonely
and dangerous places. Our weariness, dear priests, is like incense which silently
rises up to heaven. Our weariness goes straight to the heart of the Father”.
The Pope described this weariness as something positive, because it comes from
being in the midst of people: "It is the tiredness of the priest with the
smell of sheep".
The priest and humour
Pope Francis often reminds priests "the saint is
capable of living with joy and a sense of humor”. This joy comes from union
with Jesus, he says, adding that he himself prays for a sense of humour every
day. In a November 2016 interview with Italy’s TV2000, the Pope described how
“a sense of humour lifts you up”. It is something very human, he said, but it
is also close to the grace of God.
The smile of Pope Francis
The Pope's appeal to support priests
Pope Francis asks priests to be always close to the people,
but at the same time he asks the faithful to support their priests. During his
homily at the Chrism Mass on 28
March 2013, he said: "Dear lay faithful, be close to your priests
with affection and with your prayers, that they may always be shepherds
according to God’s heart”.
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