Crescenzio Sepe

"The new evangelization" -- wrote the Holy Father -- "has need of new evangelizers, and these are the priests who commit themselves to live their priesthood as a specific path to sanctity" (Post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation "Pastores Dabo Vobis," n.82f).

To meet this exigency noted as top priority for the new millennium almost upon us, the Congregation for the Clergy intends to respond, in addition to an ever renewed commitment of love in the day-to-day service of the clerics, by also promoting different initiatives, aimed at increasing a sense of communion and that interior renewal on which the flourishing of the pastoral ministry depends, let alone also that of vocations in good measure. Among other initiatives, the idea of a pilgrimage of the priestly order came into existence last June as preparation to cross, purified and interiorly renewed, the Holy Door of the year 2000. Significantly, the first step was Fatima, after which will follow next July (7-14) Yamoussoukro (Ivory Coast), while in 1998 will be the turn of Guadalupe (Mexico), and in 1999 Jerusalem, to arrive in the year 2000 at Rome.

The itinerary passes across some important Marian shrines. It is the Virgin, in fact, the first and most perfect spiritual participant in the oblation of him who is "Sacerdos et hostia." It, in any case, cannot pass over the Last Supper, fecund womb of the priesthood and of intimate ecclesial communion and school of service for all priests. The conclusion of the journey will take place at the tomb of the Prince of Apostles with the singing of the "Credo" of the faith, to renew the promises of ordination and, in profound effective communion, to enter, with the Holy Father, the bishops, the confreres and with all the religious and lay faithful, into the new millennium with the most ardent and motivated missionary intentions.

However, in the whole Church one notices, with growing intensity, the need for an apostolic, personal and community commitment, renewed, that is, more faithful and generous.

Also on account of the tenacious and untiring example of the Holy Father, priests feel that time presses, that it is necessary to pick up the pace, to look ahead with courage and evangelical radicalism, which must prepare us to cross the threshold of the new millennium with a firm stance for contributing to the edification of history on the foundation of Jesus Christ, our God and sole Savior.

The days' program of such international meetings, which are centered on the Eucharist, on common prayer and on the fruitful silence of adoration and personal reflection, on mutually administered sacramental confession, on listening, on an atmosphere of brotherhood stimulated also by the testimonies of priestly life and fidelity to the example of the Good Shepherd, coming from the whole world constitutes a strong stimulus to take upon oneself in the first person "the primary pastoral task of the new evangelization" ("pastores dabo vobis", n. 18d) and to rediscover in the light of this commitment the meaning of one's own divine vocation to be in the Church, "in persona Christi Capitis," teachers of the Word and ministers of the sacraments.

The unanimously appreciated experience of Fatima gives us reason to hold that these meetings serve much to focus the daily discovery of the absolute necessity of personal sanctity, in any pastoral situation, any culture, any society. This awareness can not be made concrete unless in the search for a profound unity of life which leads the priest to seek to be and to live as "another Christ" in every circumstance of life.

The great Trinitarian triduum has begun, with the last Lent season, laid on the fundamental thematics of Son (1997), of the Holy Spirit (1998), Father (1999). Thus the meetings will be developed, respectively, following these sheaves of light.

Next July's meeting, which will be realized under an agreement with the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, will take place in the shadow of the Marian Shrine of Notre Dame de la Paix and will have beyond the Christological characteristic ("Christ, high and eternal Priest") also that of mission, a dimension which belongs to the priesthood as such, prior to any other demarcation. The conclusion will come, furthermore, with a great sign of hope: the priestly ordination of some deacons from different Churches of the African continent.

The presence of those African ordinandi will help all to better understand how the vocation to service of the diocese and that of missionary service "ad gentes" go hand in hand, and that all priests are consecrated in Christ and in Him become presbyters for the whole Church and for all peoples. The unique priesthood knows only one dimension: the universal one.

The presence of so many priests from every continent around the ordinandi is a joyful sign of brotherly acceptance. They expect from those newly consecrated with the holy chrism, a contribution of freshness, enthusiasm, to adhesion to the true and perennial priestly ideals, humble and generous openness to find ever new pastoral initiatives and to motivate with ever deeper reasons those already tested by time. The new priests, looking at the more advanced in years, will understand with affection that they have need of their experience, their counsel of encouraging love for journeying together as Mother Church wants, "in unity of heart" (Vatican Council II, P.O., 81) for a balanced renewal in continuity. The presbyterial communion, which one intends to promote in every way, is the first true and efficacious sign for the People of God: the first motive of credibility. The civil authorities, the entire local community and many youth groups will also participate in the July 13 ordinations. It will be a celebration of Catholic priesthood and of its perennial youthfulness. That crowd will be a sign of the expectations and hopes of so many that the priests encounter on their journey. Souls have a great need of priestly love: true, comprehensive, encouraging, exigent to the point of not indulging in accommodations but such as to stimulate interior growth according to each one's vocation. A love so great as to necessitate, we might say, the same holy celibacy, which is well defined as a "greater love".

The steps along the priestly journey towards the great Jubilee should make grow in priests a youthfulness in a free and strong heart, pure and generous, open to the truth, to amazement, wonder before the great works of God: a heart which the Eucharist and the mysteries of the Lord render new and great every day. In this way, holy celibacy, generous obedience, evangelical poverty, will permit them to live in strict and profound intimacy with God. From this fascinating friendship of Christ, the priest will know how to attain the strength to respond to the agonizing questions of truth, justice and love which leap from so many hearts.

So much proposes the Congregation for the Clergy, to the end of helping each priest of the world to enter into the third millennium with a renewed awareness of the gift and the mystery which he carries within himself to the advantage of each and all.