Pope Francis: future Holy See
diplomats will spend a year on mission
 |
| Pope Francis addresses the Pontifical Ecclesiastic Academy on 25 June 2015 |
Pope Francis sends a letter to the President of the
Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, announcing that whoever enters the Vatican’s
diplomatic service will be asked to carry out a 12-month missionary experience
in a diocese.
By Vatican News
Pope Francis has introduced a year of missionary experience
into the curriculum of those preparing to enter service in the Holy See's
diplomatic corps.
The Pope had foreseen this change in his final speech at the
Synod on the Amazon, and now it has become a reality.
In a letter to Archbishop Joseph Marino, the new President
of the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy – which trains nuncios for the
Vatican’s diplomatic staff – Pope Francis requests an addition to the
curriculum: one year spent on mission within a local Church. The letter is
dated 11 February 2020.
The Holy Father expresses his “desire that priests preparing
for the diplomatic service of the Holy See devote a year of their training to
missionary service in a diocese.”
“I am convinced,” he adds, “that such an experience will be
useful for all the young men preparing for or beginning priestly service, but
especially for those who will someday be called to work with the Pontifical
Representatives and, afterwards, will in turn become Envoys of the Holy See to
nations and particular Churches.”
Pope Francis quotes a speech he gave to the Pontifical
Ecclesiastical Academy in June 2015: “The mission to which you will be called
one day to carry out will take you to all parts of the world. Europe is in need
of an awakening; Africa is thirsty for reconciliation; Latin America is hungry
for nourishment and interiority; North America is intent on rediscovering the
roots of an identity that is not defined by exclusion; Asia and Oceania are
challenged by the capacity to ferment in diaspora and to dialogue with the
vastness of ancestral cultures.”
In his letter, the Pope adds that “to take on in a positive
manner these growing challenges for the Church and the world, future diplomats
of the Holy See need to acquire – in addition to a solid priestly and pastoral
formation” and that offered by the Academy – “a personal experience of mission
outside their own diocese of origin, sharing a portion of their journey with
the missionary Churches and their communities, participating in the daily
activity of evangelization.”
In this vein, Pope Francis asks Archbishop Marino to “put
into practice my desire to enrich the Academy’s formation curriculum with a
year dedicated entirely to missionary service in the particular Churches spread
throughout the world. This new experience will come into force starting with
the students who begin their formation in the next academic year 2020/2021.”
Effecting this change, writes the Pope, will require “first
of all close collaboration with the Secretariat of State and, more precisely,
with the Section for the Diplomatic Staff of the Holy See (the so-called Third
Section), as well as with Pontifical Representatives, who will certainly not
fail to provide valuable assistance in identifying the local Churches that are
ready to welcome the students and closely follow their experience.”
“I am certain,” concludes Pope Francis, “that – once the
initial concerns that may arise in the face of this new style of formation for
future diplomats of the Holy See have been overcome – the missionary experience
offered will be useful not only to young academics but also to the individual
Churches with which they will work. And I hope it will encourage with other
priests of the universal Church the desire to make themselves available to
carry out a period of missionary service outside their own diocese.”
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét