MESSAGE TO THE MEMBERS OF THE CANADIAN FEDERATION OF PRESBYTERAL COUNCILS AT 2020 AGM

My dear brother priests,

I am very happy to extend a heartfelt and fraternal greeting to you at the beginning of your meeting. Even though it takes place in a virtual format, I pray and hope that your gathering will be accompanied by the presence of the Lord; bestowing his grace in whatever way each of us needs in order to live out our ministry well in the course of these difficult circumstances triggered by the Covid-19 epidemic.

1.  We do not know how long this pandemic will be with us. During this painful time, I think that many of us, maybe all of us, have asked ourselves some questions. One that I personally set before myself is this. ‘Could it be that Jesus, the Good Shepherd, is using this time to speak to us, to make himself known even more?’ We believe we know him. But are we sure that we really know him? As priests, are we really aware of the trust he has in us by calling us to the priesthood?
I recall the words of Pope Benedict XVI: “The priest is not a mere office-holder, like those which every society needs in order to carry out certain functions. Instead, he does something which no human being can do of his own power: in Christ’s name he speaks the words which absolve us of our sins and in this way, starting with God, he changes our entire life. Over the offerings of bread and wine he speaks Christ’s words of thanksgiving, which are words of transubstantiation – words which make Christ himself present, the Risen One, his Body and Blood – words which thus transform the elements of the world, which open the world to God and unite it to him.
The priesthood, then, is not simply ‘office’ but sacrament: God makes use of us poor men in order to be, through us, present to all men and women, and to act on their behalf. This audacity of God who entrusts himself to human beings – who, conscious of our weaknesses, nonetheless considers men capable of acting and being present in his stead – this audacity of God is the true grandeur concealed in the word ‘priesthood’.” (Homily at the conclusion of the Year of Priests - Friday, 11 June 2010)

Friends: allow me to express myself in simpler words. With our priestly ordination, it is as if Jesus told us: "Luigi, John, Peter, Michael ... what I did, now ... do it yourself". I give you everything you need and I am with you so that - always acting in communion with the Church and therefore in the name of the Church - what I have done, you also can do.
I said ‘in communion with the Church’. Never forget this.  In fact, as our Magna Carta or Great Charter Pastores dabo vobis, given to us by St. John Paul II, reminds us: “The ordained ministry has a ‘radical communitarian form’ and can only be carried out as ‘a collective work’” (cf. PDV, no. 17). “By its very nature, the ordained ministry can be carried out only to the extent that the priest is united to Christ through sacramental participation in the priestly order, and thus to the extent that he is in hierarchical communion with his own bishop” (cf. PDV, no. 17).  

2. What did Jesus do? To that vast crowd of people “troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd”, Jesus, with his heart “moved with pity”, first offers the gift of his Word “and he began to teach them many things” (cf. Mk 6:34), and then pours out the gift of himself: the Eucharist (cf. John 6: 1-13).
Jesus who "gives himself", in the Word and in the Eucharist, is the image of the Good Shepherd who gives himself; is the image of the Church that gives herself; is the image of the "Church that goes forth towards the existential peripheries”; is the image of the Pastor and the Church who do not live for themselves but for humanity, to love, to serve ... to save humanity ...
This is the task of the Church: The Church exists to keep alive in people’s hearts the memory and experience that God loves them. It exists to tell everyone, even those furthest away: “God doesn’t forget you, He cares about you”. Even in the storm, in your storms, he is with you.
But how? How can I love and serve humanity today ...? We will be able to know if we ask, if we do as Jesus did when he asked Bartimaeus, the blind man: "What do you want me to do for you?" (cf. Mk 10.51). It is a question of asking our brothers and sisters, “Tell me how can I love you, how can I serve you, how can I help you…”?
There is also a clear exhortation ‘to listen’ found in the recent Encyclical of Pope Francis Fratelli tutti: “… today’s world is largely a deaf world… At times, the frantic pace of the modern world prevents us from listening attentively to what another person is saying… We must not lose our ability to listen”. Saint Francis “heard the voice of God, he heard the voice of the poor, he heard the voice of the infirm and he heard the voice of nature. He made of them a way of life. My desire is that the seed that Saint Francis planted may grow in the hearts of many” (no. 48).
           Always, but especially in this time of great pastoral, social and moral difficulties ... the first acts to be lived for those who want to be close to the people are not planning and doing, but listening and connecting; that is, welcoming the deep needs of the people, understanding their suffering, understanding and recognizing its meaning (using appropriate interpretative categories), and then integrating it into our life of evangelization activities, thus making it an opportunity for global growth. In this way, we see it is an undertaking to be conducted in the plural; that is, “together”; done in communion, in order to generate communion.

3. Finally. ln this present condition of apparent ministerial "stasis", the power of intercession must be rediscovered: the figure of Moses on the mountain (cf. Ex 17:8-12) must be central in our days. Victory is obtained by the "raised arms" of the man of God, on a hill, in an elevated but isolated position, while the battle is fought on the plain, at a great distance. We too, in these days, are crossing the desert, yet we must be confident that it is precisely within this desert and in our poverty that God speaks to us and manifests himself to us.
In particular, I urge you to embark on this prayer of intercession together, in communion with one another - even if physically distant - since we are sure that the Lord listens to what we ask when we are united in his Name (cf. Mt 18: 19-20).
I, too, accompany you with my prayerful closeness. It is with gratitude that I greet you with the words of St. Paul: "I thank my God every time I remember you, always praying with joy for you in all my prayers" (cf. Phil 1:3-4).

Please, do not forget to pray for me.

Archbishop Luigi Bonazzi
Apostolic Nuncio to Canada

BEATIFICATION OF YOUNG PRIEST OCTOBER 31

BEATIFICATION OF PRIEST WHO DIED DURING PANDEMIC

The Servant of God Fr Michael McGivney, who founded the Knights of Columbus, will be declared “Blessed” on 31 October 2020. This inspirational priest who started an organization of Catholic laymen at St. Mary’s, his parish church, to help them fight and overcome poverty, injustice, Catholic prejudice and to dissuade them from compromising themselves by turning to decidedly non-Catholic agencies for help to get ahead.

Fr. Michael, ordained to the priesthood only 5 years prior, founded the Knights when he was only 30 in 1882. At the age of 38 he died a young priest of pneumonia complications during the Russian Flu pandemic.

Watch a video about his life and ministry [HERE]
 

POPE FRANCIS CHALLENGES PRIESTS TO REEXAMINE THEIR MINISTRY

In his latest encyclical in which he envisions a type of new world order in which members of human society fully and conscientiously engage with each other in a sustainable relationship with nature, Pope Francis sees an important role for priests. On the eve of the feast of his patron, St. Francis of Assisi, the Holy Father issued a new encyclical letter on fraternity and social friendship entitled "Fratelli Tutti".

In a section subtitled as “Hope” the Holy Father includes priests among the essential workers, “who, in the midst of fear, responded by putting their lives on the line”. (54) He explains that although the present pandemic in overshadows our global society with "dark clouds", God continues to “sow abundant seeds of goodness in our human family”, especially - a great deal of hope. “Hope is bold; it can look beyond personal convenience, the petty securities and compensations which limit our horizon, and it can open us up to grand ideals that make life more beautiful and worthwhile”, Let us continue, then, to advance along the paths of hope.”. (55)

In Chapter 2 of the encyclical, “A Stranger on the Road”, the Pope goes on, however, to also remind us that the priestly office must be manifested by an abundance of authentic action and spirit. While reflecting on the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) he points out that the priest in the story doesn’t come off looking very good. “he passed on the other side”. His Holiness, draws attention to how people change when confronted with the challenge of human suffering or some concrete, and perhaps inconvenient, human need. As in the parable, we find ourselves in in two categories – “those who care for someone who is hurting and those who pass by” (70). Fratelli tutti, does not allow excuses for priestly inaction. We must not allow our busyness with the Lord’s work in one area, to distract us from attending to those immediately in need of attention. When this happens, it only serves as a “sad reflection of the growing gulf between ourselves and the world around us” (73). The fact that one of the passers-by in the parable is a priest, Pope Francis declares, “shows that belief in God and the worship of God are not enough to ensure that we are actually living in a way pleasing to God”(73).

Access the full Encyclical [HERE]