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Seventh Pastoral Letter of Catholic
SEVENTH Pastoral Letter PASTORAL LETTER TO PRIESTS “As the Father hath sent me, even so send I you.” (John 20:21) Feast of the Dormition, 15 August 2004 INTRODUCTION To our beloved sons and brothers, the priests, “Grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.” (1 Timothy 1: 2) We greet you with the salutation of the Apostle Paul to his disciple, Timothy, feeling with him that we always have need of the “mercy and peace of God,” just as we always have need of renewal in the understanding of our faith and priesthood, which binds us in a peculiar way to “God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.” We renew our faith, so as to become ever more ready to accept our priesthood, and assume our mission in our society. The Rabweh Meeting We held our twelfth annual meeting at Rabweh (Lebanon), from 27 to 31 October 2002, welcomed by our brother H.B. Gregorios III, Patriarch of Antioch, of Alexandria and of Jerusalem for the Melkite Greek Catholics. We studied together the nature of the priesthood, its holiness and everything to do with our priests, confided to our care and dear to our heart. Following on from that meeting, we address this letter to you, dear priests, to express to all celibate and married clergy, our esteem and gratitude for your efforts to make the Word and Love of God present in our Churches and societies. Object of the letter “We thank God at every moment for you,” dear priests, who are working in the vineyard of the Lord in all our eparchies in the Middle East, in the countries of the Gulf and in the distant countries of emigration. -
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH LETTER “IUVENESCIT ECCLESIA” to the Bishops of the Catholic Church Regarding the Relationship Between Hierarchical and Charismatic Gifts in the Life and the Mission of the Church Introduction The gifts of the Holy Spirit in the Church in mission 1. The Church rejuvenates in the power of the Gospel and the Spirit continually renews her, builds her up, and guides her “with hierarchical and charismatic gifts”.[1] The Second Vatican Council has repeatedly highlighted the marvelous work of the Holy Spirit that sanctifies the People of God, guides it, adorns it with virtue, and enrichens it with special graces for her edification. As the Fathers love to show, the action of the divine Paraclete in the Church is multiform. John Chrysostom writes: “What gifts that work for our salvation are not given freely by the Holy Spirit? Through Him we are freed from slavery and called to liberty; we are led to adoption as children and, one might say, formed anew, after having laid down the heavy and hateful burden of our sins. Through the Holy Spirit we see assemblies of priests and we possess ranks of doctors; from this source spring forth gifts of revelation, healing graces, and all of the other charisms that adorn the Church of God”.[2] Thanks to the Church’s life itself, to the numerous Magisterial interventions, and to theological research, happily the awareness has grown of the multiform action of the Holy Spirit in the Church, thus arousing a particular attentiveness to the charismatic gifts by which at all times the People of God are enriched in order to carry out their mission. -
Saint John Paul II
CELEBRATING THE CENTENARY OF THE BIRTH OF Saint John Paul II Pope John Paul II gestures to the crowd during World Youth Day in Denver in 1993. (CNS photo) Produced by Office of Communications May 2020 On April 2, 2020 we commemorated the 15th Anniversary of St. John Paul II’s death and on May 18, 2020, we celebrate the Centenary of his birth. Many of us have special personal We remember his social justice memories of the impact of St. John encyclicals Laborem exercens (1981), Paul II’s ecclesial missionary mysticism Sollicitudo rei socialis (1987) and which was forged in the constant Centesimus annus (1991) that explored crises he faced throughout his life. the rich history and contemporary He planted the Cross of Jesus Christ relevance of Catholic social justice at the heart of every personal and teaching. world crisis he faced. During these We remember his emphasis on the days of COVID-19, we call on his relationship between objective truth powerful intercession. and history. He saw first hand in Nazism We vividly recall his visits to Poland, and Stalinism the bitter and tragic BISHOP visits during which millions of Poles JOHN O. BARRES consequences in history of warped joined in chants of “we want God,” is the fifth bishop of the culture of death philosophies. visits that set in motion the 1989 Catholic Diocese of Rockville In contrast, he asked us to be collapse of the Berlin Wall and a Centre. Follow him on witnesses to the Splendor of Truth, fundamental change in the world. Twitter, @BishopBarres a Truth that, if followed and lived We remember too, his canonization courageously, could lead the world of Saint Faustina, the spreading of global devotion to bright new horizons of charity, holiness and to the Divine Mercy and the establishment of mission. -
Pastores Dabo Vobis to the Bishops, Clergy and Faithful on the Formation of Priests in the Circumstances of the Present Day
POST-SYNODAL APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION PASTORES DABO VOBIS TO THE BISHOPS, CLERGY AND FAITHFUL ON THE FORMATION OF PRIESTS IN THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE PRESENT DAY INTRODUCTION 1. "I will give you shepherds after my own heart" (Jer. 3:15). In these words from the prophet Jeremiah, God promises his people that he will never leave them without shepherds to gather them together and guide them: "I will set shepherds over them [my sheep] who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed (Jer. 23.4). The Church, the People of God, constantly experiences the reality of this prophetic message and continues joyfully to thank God for it. She knows that Jesus Christ himself is the living, supreme and definitive fulfillment of God's promise: "I am the good shepherd" (Jn. 10:11). He, "the great shepherd of the sheep" (Heb. 13:20), entrusted to the apostles and their successors the ministry of shepherding God's flock (cf. Jn. 21:15ff.; 1 Pt. 5:2). Without priests the Church would not be able to live that fundamental obedience which is at the very heart of her existence and her mission in history, an obedience in response to the command of Christ: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations" (Mt. 28:19) and "Do this in remembrance of me" (Lk. 22:19; cf. 1 Cor. 11.24), i.e:, an obedience to the command to announce the Gospel and to renew daily the sacrifice of the giving of his body and the shedding of his blood for the life of the world. -
Priestly Formation According to Pastores Dabo Vobis* 1
305 ❚Special Issues❚ □ Priestly Formation in the Asian Contexts Priestly Formation According to Pastores Dabo Vobis* 1 Fr. Thomas Cheruparambil 〔St. Joseph Pontifical Seminary, India〕 Introduction 1. Historical Antecedents of Pastores Dabo Vobis 2. The 1990 Synod of Bishops: Some Particulars 3. Highlights on the Priestly Formation in Pastores Dabo Vobis 4. Biblical Foundation of Priesthood 5. Priestly Vocation and the Challenges of Priestly Formation 6. Human Formation 7. Spiritual Formation 8. Intellectual Formation 9. Pastoral Formation 10. Agents of Priestly Formation 11. Ongoing Formation of Priests Conclusion Introduction Jesus the high priest began his public ministry with the following proclamation: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed *1이 글은 2015년 ‘재단법인 신학과사상’의 연구비 지원을 받아 연구·작성된 논문임. 306 Priestly Formation in the Asian Contexts me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Lk 4:18, 19). Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit before his public ministry. All Christian faithful, irrespective of their sate of vocation are called to attain perfection and sanctity. As there are different kinds of vocations, the way to Christian perfection also differs. Every vocation and ministry is specific in its nature. Accordingly, one may speak about the specificity of priestly ministry and formation. In this connection, one may ask: what is the specific nature of priestly formation keeping in mind the specific nature of priestly ministry? There may be different views and opinions about priestly formation. -
Program of Priestly Formation
Program of Priestly Formation The document Program of Priestly Formation (fifth edition) was developed by the Committee on Priestly Formation of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). It was approved by the full body of bishops at its June 2005 General Meeting, received the subsequent approbatio of the Holy See, and has been authorized for publication by the undersigned. Msgr. David J. Malloy, STD General Secretary, USCCB In 2001 the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) and United States Catholic Conference (USCC) became the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Scripture texts used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, copyright © 1991, 1986, and 1970 by the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, DC 20017 and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All rights reserved. Excerpts from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, second edition, copyright © 2000, Libreria Editrice Vaticana-United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, D.C. Used with permission. All rights reserved. Excerpts from Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents, New Revised Edition, edited by Austin Flannery, OP, copyright © 1996, Costello Publishing Company, Inc., Northport, N.Y. are used with permission of the publisher, all rights reserved. No part of these excerpts may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, pho- tocopying, recording, or otherwise—without express written permission of Costello -
The Holy See
The Holy See ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS JOHN PAUL II TO THE BISHOPS OF THE EPISCOPAL CONFERENCE OF INDONESIA ON THEIR "AD LIMINA" VISIT Friday, 13 September 1996 Dear Brother Bishops, With heartfelt joy I welcome you—the second group of Bishops from Indonesia—who have come on your ad Limina visit to re-affirm your faith at the tombs of the Princes of the Apostles, Peter and Paul. I thank God for "the joy and comfort of your love" (Philem. 1:7) and for the bonds of our fraternal communion in the College of Bishops. The pastoral ministry entrusted to the Bishop of Rome is a divine gift which belongs to the full expression of the life of every particular Church. That ministry to the universal Church makes me a servant of her unity in the truth, a service rooted in God's mercy, to be carried out in communion with my Brother Bishops (cf. John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint, 88-96). Similarly, in your own Dioceses you are servants and ministers of ecclesial truth and unity. In the love of the Lord Jesus I wish to encourage you to fulfil that task with all the responsibility and authority which comes to you from your episcopal consecration—an authority which the Gospel distinguishes from worldly power (cf. Mt. 20:25; Mk. 10:42)—so that the People of God in Indonesia may be ever more one body, one spirit in Christ. 2. Your quinquennial reports confirm that we must thank God for the rich harvest of vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life which many of your Churches are experiencing. -
“Redemptoris Mater” Seminaries by Lorenzo Rossetti
The identity and significance of the “Redemptoris Mater” seminaries by Lorenzo Rossetti Starting with some brief and meaningful descriptions of the Redemptoris Mater seminaries, and moving towards his personal experience, the author, a professor of theology, draws an “identikit” of the seminaries, to underline their possible significance for the Church of our time. “The diocesan and missionary “Redemptoris Mater” seminaries are erected by the diocesan Bishops, in agreement with the international Responsible Team of the Way and are governed by the current norms for the formation and incardination of diocesan clerics and according to their own statutes, in fulfillment of the Ratio fundamentalis institutionis sacerdotalis. In them, the candidates for the priesthood find, in their participation in the Neocatechumenal Way, a specific and basic element of their formative iter and, at the same time, are prepared for a ‘genuine presbyteral choice of service to the entire people of God in the fraternal communion of the presbyterate’ (Statutes of the Neocatechumenal Way, art. 18, §3). “The Redemptoris Mater seminaries are not the seminaries of the Neocatechumenal Way but, as the statutes and the rule of life specify, are true diocesan seminaries dependent on the Bishop. The students of these institutes receive the same philosophical and theological formation as the other seminarians of the diocese. They could spend a pastoral year in the parishes as deacons and often times two years in the diocese as presbyters, before the Bishop can send them for mission. But if the Bishop has an urgent need in some particularly difficult zone of his own diocese, he can make use of them since they have been ordained without any conditions. -
The Holy See
The Holy See ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS JOHN PAUL II TO THE BISHOPS OF THE EPISCOPAL CONFERENCE OF INDIA ON THEIR "AD LIMINA" VISIT Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo Monday, 28 August 1995 Dear Brother Bishops, 1. I n the love of our Lord Jesus Christ I welcome you – the Pastors of the Ecclesiastical Provinces of Bhopal, Calcutta, Cuttack–Bhubaneswar, Delhi and Ranchi. Your visit "ad Limina Apostolorum" expresses the profound communion of charity and peace which links the particular Churches in India to this Apostolic See, hallowed by the martyrdom of Sts Peter and Paul. My recent Encyclical Letter "Ut Unum Sint" describes the mission of the Successor of Peter within the Episcopal College as that of a "sentinel" who confirms his brother Bishops so that "the true voice of Christ the Shepherd may be heard in all the particular Churches" (John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint, 94) I therefore thank the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for giving us this occasion to experience our "partnership in the Gospel" (Phil. 1:5), in order to draw strength and encouragement from one another according to "the immeasurable riches of his grace" (Eph. 2:7). 2. From her birth in the Upper Room at Pentecost, the Church is the visible sign and effective instrument of the communion of God with humanity. As Pastors of God’s Church in India you are called to perpetuate in your local Communities the grace of Pentecost and to foster from generation to generation the fidelity to the Gospel, the fraternal life and ardent prayer which characterized the Apostolic community (cf. -
“ Falling in Love – Staying in Love”: the Theology of Vocation
The Spirituality of the Vocation to Priesthood During his first visit to Germany on the occasion of the 2005 World Youth Day in Cologne, Pope Benedict made a point of inserting a meeting with seminarians into his programme “so that the vocational dimension would truly emerge in all of its importance". The gift of ministerial priesthood has, at its heart, the mystery of a vocation. Countless numbers of priests such as saints Vincent de Paul and John Vianney of Ars as well as Pope John Paul II have borne eloquent witness to this mystery and gift.1 It is good, therefore, as Pope Benedict indicates, to highlight its importance and attend to its spirituality.2 If we take spirituality in the broad sense of living the Gospel from a particular angle, I intend to propose a spirituality of the vocation to ministerial priesthood as follows. Firstly, it is necessary to give due consideration to the nature of the Christian vocation in general, dwelling briefly on the First Testament, then reflecting on what vocation meant in Jesus' own life and, more specifically, outlining some aspects of the spirituality of vocation as it emerges in Jesus' calling of disciples. At that point it will be necessary to recognise and focus on the heart of the spirituality of all vocations: Jesus' death and resurrection that opens up the way of communion as typical of the Christian and so too priestly vocation. Mary will be proposed as a model of the spirituality of the royal priesthood onto which is engrafted the ministerial priesthood. Focusing then more directly on the vocation to ministerial priesthood I will propose a number of contours of this vocation's spirituality.3 A Vocation - Something Beautiful In his first message for the day of Vocations (April 2006), Pope Benedict rekindles wonder at the marvellous fact of being chosen by God before the creation of the world (cf. -
Pastores Dabo Vobis to the Bishops, Clergy and Faithful on the Formation of Priests in the Circumstances of the Present Day Introduction
The Holy See POST-SYNODAL APOSTOLIC EXHORTATIONPASTORES DABO VOBIS TO THE BISHOPS, CLERGY AND FAITHFUL ON THE FORMATION OF PRIESTS IN THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE PRESENT DAY INTRODUCTION 1. "I will give you shepherds after my own heart" (Jer. 3:15). In these words from the prophet Jeremiah, God promises his people that he will never leave them without shepherds to gather them together and guide them: "I will set shepherds over them [my sheep] who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed (Jer. 23.4). The Church, the People of God, constantly experiences the reality of this prophetic message and continues joyfully to thank God for it. She knows that Jesus Christ himself is the living, supreme and definitive fulfillment of God's promise: "I am the good shepherd" (Jn. 10:11). He, "the great shepherd of the sheep" (Heb. 13:20), entrusted to the apostles and their successors the ministry of shepherding God's flock (cf. Jn. 21:15ff.; 1 Pt. 5:2). Without priests the Church would not be able to live that fundamental obedience which is at the very heart of her existence and her mission in history, an obedience in response to the command of Christ: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations" (Mt. 28:19) and "Do this in remembrance of me" (Lk. 22:19; cf. 1 Cor. 11.24), i.e:, an obedience to the command to announce the Gospel and to renew daily the sacrifice of the giving of his body and the shedding of his blood for the life of the world. -
Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II This section entails the writings of Pope John Paul II starting with his Pontificate in October 16, 1978. In this section, one will find the Holy Father's Encyclicals, Apostolic Constitutions and Letters, exhortations and addresses published in different languages. John Paul II. Address to Presidents of Catholic Colleges and Universities (at Catholic University). (October 7, 1979): 163-167. -----. Address to the General Assembly of the United Nations, October 2, 1980, 16-30. -----. "Address to the Youth of Paris. (June 1, 1980)," L'Osservatore Romano (English Edition), (June 16, 1980): 13. -----. Affido a Te, O Maria. Ed. Sergio Trassati and Arturo Mari. Bergamo: Editrice Velar, 1982. -----. Africa: Apostolic Pilgrimage. Boston: St. Paul Editions, 1980. -----. Africa: Land of Promise, Land of Hope. Boston: St. Paul Editions, 1982. -----. Amantissima Providentia, Apostolic Letter, 1980. -----. The Apostles of the Slavs (Commemorating Sts. Cyril and Methodius): Fourth Encyclical Letter, June 2, 1985. Washington D. C.: Office for Publishing and Promotion Services. United States Catholic Conference, 1985. -----. Augustinum Hipponensem. August 28, 1986. Boston: St. Paul Editions, 1986. -----. "Behold Your Mother," Holy Thursday Letter of John Paul II, Boston: St. Paul Editions, 1988. -----. Brazil: Journey in the Light of the Eucharist. Boston: St. Paul Editions, 1980. -----. Il Buon Pastore: Scritti, Disorsi e Lettere Pastorali. Trans. Elzbieta Cywiak and Renzo Panzone. Rome Edizioni Logos, 1978. -----. Catechesi Tradendae, On Catechesis in Our Time. Boston: St. Paul Editions, 1979. -----. Centesimus Annus (Commemorating the Centenary of Rerum Novarum by Leo XIII): Ninth Encyclical Letter, May 1, 1991. Washington D. C.: Office for Publishing and Promotion Services, United States Catholic Conference, 1991.