Pope Francis: Well-trained priests vital for mission
of the Church
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| Pope Francis during a meeting with priests, religious, seminarians on a visit to Bologna.- AFP |
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Saturday received
participants of an International Conference promoted by
the Congregation for Clergy, telling them that "renewal of faith and
the future of vocations is only possible if there are well-trained priests.”
Ratio Fundamentalis is the document on the best
practices for the formation of seminarians in the Church and
was the subject this week of an International Conference promoted by the Congregation for Clergy.
Importance of well-trained priests
Greeting the conference participants on Saturday in the
Vatican, Pope Francis got straight to the heart of the matter by telling them
that “the theme of priestly formation is decisive for the mission of the
Church: renewal of faith and the future of vocations is only possible if we
have well-trained priests.”
Drawing inspiration from the bible passage in which the Lord
says to the prophet Jeremiah: "Get up and go down into the potter's
shop", the Pope explained that “priestly formation depends first of all on
God's action in our lives and not our activities, adding, it is a work
that requires the courage to let oneself be molded by the Lord, for it
transforms our heart and our lives.”
During his address the Pope stressed that if one does not
let oneself be molded like clay by the Lord every day, he becomes a priest who
is out of the office with inertia, without enthusiasm for the Gospel or passion
for the People of God. Instead, Pope Francis said, the seminarian needs to be
guided by the Lord, as the craftsman, being led to become more and more his
daily disciples.
Protagonists
The Holy Father pointed out that formation of priests
requires protagonists; there are the seminarians, who abandon themselves to the
craftsman’s providential creativity, rather than follow the “noise of
human ambitions”, he said.
The second protagonists, the Pope continued are the trainers
and bishops and he noted that, “if a trainer or bishop does not "go down
in the potter's shop" and does not work with God's work, we cannot have
well-formed priests.
The Church, Pope Francis said, “needs priests capable of
proclaiming the Gospel with enthusiasm and wisdom.”
Finally, the Holy Father left the group with a question,
“What do I want to be? A "priest in the lounge", quiet and
well-arranged, or a missionary disciple whose heart is burning for the Master
and the People of God?
(Lydia O'Kane)
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