“First of all, I wish to thank God who called you and ‘chose you for the service of his Gospel’ (Cf. Romans 1:1), to be, in the midst of His people, faithful administrators of the mysteries of Christ,” Pope Francis on October 1, 2018, told the priests of the Diocese of Creteil, France, on pilgrimage to Rome. The Pope received them in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Vatican Palace.
“We live in a context in which the boat of the Church is assailed by contrary and violent winds, especially because of the grave faults committed by some of her members,” the Holy Father said. “Therefore, it is all the more important not to forget the humble daily fidelity to the ministry, which the Lord permits the great majority to live of those that He has given to His Church as priests!”
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The Holy Father’s Full Address
Dear Brothers and Sisters, good morning!
I welcome you with joy on the first day of this intense and fraternal time, which your Bishop and his Council proposed to you to live in Rome. I thank Monsignor Santier for his words and for this initiative and, through you, I extend my warm greeting and my spiritual closeness to all the faithful of the Diocese of Creteil. I say to him: “You are a Bishop who works!”
First of all, I wish to thank God who called you and “chose you for the service of his Gospel” (Cf. Romans 1:1), to be, in the midst of His people, faithful administrators of the mysteries of Christ. We live in a context in which the boat of the Church is assailed by contrary and violent winds, especially because of the grave faults committed by some of her members. Therefore, it is all the more important not to forget the humble daily fidelity to the ministry, which the Lord permits the great majority to live of those that He has given to His Church as priests! We know that responding to the Lord’s call, we weren’t consecrated, through the gift of the Spirit, to be “superheroes.” We have been invited, with the awareness of being forgiven men, to become Pastors like Jesus, wounded, dead and risen, as our mission, in as much as ministers of the Church, is today as yesterday, to witness the force of the Resurrection in the wounds of this world. Thus we are called to progress humbly on the way of holiness, helping Jesus Christ’s disciples to respond to their Baptismal vocation so that they are ever more missionaries, witnesses of the joy of the Gospel. Moreover, is this not the meaning of the diocesan Synod that you held in 2016?
Dear friends, in taking the time to reflect on the revision of the organization of your Diocese, do not be afraid to look at the wounds of our Church, not to lament them but to go to Jesus Christ. Only He can heal us, enabling us to set out again from Him and to find, with Him and in Him, the concrete means to propose His life to all, in a context of poverty and want. Because if something should holily make us anxious and worry our conscience is that so many of our brothers live without the strength, the light and the consolation of friendship with Jesus Christ, without a community of faith that welcomes them, without the horizon of the meaning of life” (Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, 49). In this perspective, ask the Holy Spirit insistently to guide you and illumine you: may He help you, in the exercise of your ministry, to render the Church of Jesus Christ sweet and loving, according to the beautiful expression of Venerable Madeleine Delbrel. With this strength that comes from on High, you will be driven to go out to make yourselves every day closer to all, in particular to those that are wounded, marginalized, excluded.
During your pilgrimage to Rome, you will be faced with the re-launching of the pastoral of vocations to the ordained ministry and to consecrated life. Let us remind ourselves that “where there is life, fervor, will to take Christ to others, genuine vocations arise” (Ibid., 107). However, it’s also through your way of living the ministry that you will enable young people to receive the Lord’s call to the priesthood or to consecrated life. Therefore, I encourage you to have “your gaze fixed on Jesus Christ and to cultivate the particular bond that unites you to Him, through personal prayer, listening to his Word, the celebration of the Sacraments and the service of brothers. It’s important to foster and develop the quality of fraternal life, among you and within your communities, so that the value and beauty of the ministry and of consecrated life are recognized by all as the service of a true missionary communion! Drawing from the source of the grace of your calling and with the strength of the Holy Spirit, you will be witnesses of that hope that does not disappoint (Cf. Romans 5:5), despite the difficulties and the effort of every day; you will manifest, through your daily life, and even in the experience of your fragilities, that the gift of life at the service of the Gospel and of brothers is the source of a joy that no one can take away from you. May this joy transpire in you, which is deepened in friendship with the Lord and continually renewed care for others, in particular, the little ones and the poor. But, above all, allow yourselves to be transformed and renewed by the Holy Spirit, to recognize the word that the Lord Jesus wishes to give the world through your life and your ministry (Cf. Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete et Exsultate, 24).
With this hope, I entrust you to the Lord, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary and the prayer of Venerable Madeleine Delbrel, and I impart the Apostolic Blessing to you and to all the faithful of the Diocese of Creteil. . And, please, pray for me as I pray for you! Thank you.
© Libreria Editrice Vatican
[Original text: Italian] [ZENIT’s translation by Virginia M. Forrester]
