Dear sons,

This year we give thanks to the Lord for the four centuries of history of the archdiocesan major seminary of “San Carlos y San Marcelo” in Trujillo, and we remember the countless young people from the archdiocese, from various jurisdictions in Peru and religious communities who, in those classrooms and chapels, have sought to respond to the voice of Christ, who called them “to be with Him, and to be sent out to preach” (Mk 3:14). My footprints are also part of that house, where I served as a teacher and director of studies.

Your first task remains the same: to be with the Lord, to let Him form you, to know and love Him, so that you may become like Him. That is why the Church has always wanted seminaries to exist, places to preserve this experience and prepare those who will be sent to serve the holy People of God. It is also a wellspring of the attitudes that I wish to share with you now, because they have always been the sure foundation of the ministry of priests.

For this reason, before anything else, it is necessary to allow the Lord to clarify one's motivations and purify one's intentions (cf. Rom 12:2). The priesthood cannot be reduced to “achieving ordination” as if it were an external goal or an easy way out of personal problems. It is not an escape from what one does not want to face, nor a refuge from emotional, family or social difficulties; nor is it a promotion or a shelter, but a total gift of one's existence. Only in freedom is it possible to give oneself: bound by interests or fears, no one gives themselves, for “the will is truly free when it is not [a] slave” (Saint Augustine, De civitate Dei, XIV, 11, 1). The decisive thing is not to be “ordained”, but truly to be priests.

When considered in worldly terms, the ministry is confused with a personal right, a distributable position; it becomes a mere prerogative or bureaucratic function. In reality, it arises from the choice of the Lord (cf. Mk 3:13), who with special predilection calls certain men to share in His saving ministry, so that they may reproduce His own image in themselves and give constant witness to fidelity and love (cf. Roman Missal, Preface I of Ordinations). Those who seek the priesthood for shallow reasons are mistaken in their foundation and build on sand (cf. Mt 7:26-27).

Seminary life is a journey of inner rectification. We must allow the Lord to examine our hearts and clearly show us what motivates our decisions. Rectitude of intention means being able to say every day, with simplicity and truth: “Lord, I want to be your priest, not for myself, but for your people”. This transparency is cultivated through frequent confession, sincere spiritual direction, and trusting obedience to those who accompany us in discernment. The Church asks for seminarians with pure hearts, who seek Christ without duplicity and do not allow themselves to be trapped by selfishness or vanity.

This requires continuous discernment. Sincerity before God and before formators protects from self-justification and helps to correct what is not coherent with the Gospel in a timely fashion. A seminarian who learns to live with this clarity becomes a mature man, free of ambition and human calculation, free to give himself without reserve. In this way, ordination will be the joyful confirmation of a life shaped by Christ since seminary, and the beginning of an authentic journey.

The heart of the seminarian is formed in a personal relationship with Jesus. Prayer is not an ancillary exercise; in it, one learns to recognize His voice and to let oneself be led by Him. Those who do not pray do not know the Master, and those who do not know Him cannot truly love Him or be configured to Him. Time spent in prayer is the most fruitful investment of one's life, because it is there that the Lord shapes our feelings, purifies our desires and strengthens our vocation. Those who do not speak enough with God cannot speak of God! Christ allows Himself to be encountered in a privileged way in Sacred Scripture. We must approach it with reverence, with a spirit of faith, seeking the Friend who reveals himself in its pages.

There, those who will become priests discover how Christ thinks, how He sees the world, how He is moved by the poor, and little by little they take on His same criteria and attitudes. “We need to look … to Jesus, to the compassion with which He sees our wounded humanity, to the gratuitousness with which He offered his life for us on the cross” (FRANCIS, Letter to the priests of the Diocese of Rome, 5 August 2023).

The Church has always recognized that the encounter with the Lord needs to be rooted in intelligence and to become doctrine. This is why study is an indispensable path for faith to become solid, reasoned and capable of enlightening others. Those who are trained to be priests do not devote time to academia for the sake of mere erudition, but out of fidelity to their vocation. Intellectual work, especially theological work, is a form of love and service, necessary for the mission, always in full communion with the Magisterium. Without serious study there is no true pastoral ministry, because the ministry consists in leading people to know and love Christ and, in Him, to find salvation (cf. Pius XI, Encyclical Letter Ad Catholici Sacerdotii, 44-46). It is said that a seminarian asked Saint Alberto Hurtado what he should specialize in, and the saint replied: “Specialize in Jesus Christ!”. That is the surest guidance: to make study a means of uniting oneself more closely to the Lord and of proclaiming Him clearly.

Prayer and the search for truth are not parallel journeys, but rather a single path that leads to the Master. A piety without doctrine becomes fragile sentimentality; doctrine without prayer becomes sterile and cold. Nurture both with balance and passion, knowing that only in this way can you authentically proclaim what you live and live coherently what you proclaim. When the mind is open to revealed truth and the heart is set ablaze in prayer, formation becomes fruitful and prepares you for a solid and luminous priesthood.

The spiritual and intellectual life are indispensable, but both are oriented towards the altar, the place where priestly identity is built and reveals itself in its fullness (cf. Saint John XXIII, Encyclical Letter Sacerdotii Nostri Primordia, II). There, in the Holy Sacrifice, the priest learns how to offer his life, like Christ on the cross. By nourishing himself with the Eucharist, he discovers the unity between ministry and sacrifice (cf. Saint Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Mysterium Fidei, 4), and understands that his vocation consists in being a sacrifice together with Christ (cf. Rom 12:1). Thus, when the cross is assumed as an inseparable part of life, the Eucharist ceases to be seen only as a rite and becomes the true centre of existence.

Union with Christ in the Eucharistic Sacrifice is prolonged in priestly fatherhood, which begets not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit (cf. 1 Cor 4:14-15). Being a father is not something one does, but something one is. A true father does not live for himself, but for his family: he rejoices when his children grow up, suffers when they are lost, waits when they stray (cf. 1 Thess 2:11-12). In the same way, the priest carries the whole people in his heart, intercedes for them, accompanies them in their struggles and sustains them in the faith. Priestly fatherhood consists in making the face of the Father visible, so that those who encounter the priest may intuitively perceive God’s love.

This fatherhood is expressed in attitudes of self-giving: celibacy as undivided love for Christ and His Church, obedience as trust in God's will, evangelical poverty as availability to all (cf. ECUM. VAT. II, Decree Presbyterorum Ordinis, on the ministry and life of priests, 15-17), and mercy and strength that accompany wounds and sustain in pain. In these, the priest is recognized as a true father, capable of guiding His spiritual children towards Christ with firmness and love. There is no such thing as half-hearted fatherhood, nor half-hearted priesthood.

You, candidates to the priesthood, are called to shun mediocrity, in the midst of very real dangers: the worldliness that blurs the supernatural vision of reality, activism that wearies, digital distraction that robs one of inwardness, ideologies that divert from the Gospel and, no less serious, the loneliness of those who seek to live without the presbyterate and without their bishop. An isolated priest is vulnerable. Fraternity and priestly communion are intrinsic to the vocation. The Church needs holy pastors who give themselves together, not solitary functionaries; only in this way can they be credible witnesses to the communion they preach.

Dear sons, in conclusion, I want to assure you that you have a place in the heart of the Successor of Peter. The seminary is an immense and demanding gift, but you are never alone on this journey. God, the saints and the whole Church walk with you, and in a special way your bishop and your formators, who help you to grow “until Christ be formed in you” (Gal 4:19). Receive their guidance and correction as gestures of love. Remember also the wisdom of Saint Toribio de Mogrovejo, so beloved in Trujillo, who loved to say: “Time is not ours, it is very brief, and God will hold us strictly accountable for how we have used it” (cf. C. GARCÍA IRIGOYEN, Sto. Toribio, Lima 1908, 141). Take advantage, then, of each day as an unrepeatable treasure.

May the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph, the first educators of the High and Eternal Priest, sustain you all in the joy of knowing that you are loved and called. With these sentiments, as a sign of closeness, I cordially impart the implored Apostolic Blessing upon the entire community of this beloved Seminary and your families.

Vatican, 17 September 2025, Memorial of Saint Robert Bellarmine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church.

LEO PP. XIV

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Holy See Press Office Bulletin, 5 November 2025