The Bishop of Córdoba, Mons. Demetrio Fernández, stressed that “if there are no priests, there is no church”, on the occasion of the 2025 Seminary Day, which is celebrated this Sunday, March 16 in Spain, a few days after the feast of San José.
In his weekly letter entitled “Sowers of hope. Seminar Day 2025”, The prelate emphasizes that“ if there are no priests, there is no church. This is expressed by the Second Vatican Council, when it distinguishes between sister churches, all those that have the apostolic succession, ordered priests and valid Eucharist, and the sister communities (it does not call them churches) where there is no ministerial priesthood and therefore have no valid Eucharist ”.
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The prelate also emphasizes that “by the will of Christ, which has founded his Church, the ministerial priesthood is in the Church an essential element, which by the sacrament of order prolongs the apostolic succession of generation to generation and guarantees the valid celebration of the Eucharist, which brings us to the altar to Jesus Christ living and glorious.”
“It is not, therefore, no clericalism to claim this essential element in the Church, without which the Church would no longer be a Church,” he says.
“Make us more priests”
“In my pastoral visits through all the parishes of the Diocese of Córdoba, there is a request that is continually repeated: more priests. Sometimes, the same priest has to attend several parishes and celebrate several masses every Sunday, walking with the car from one place to another, ”shares the bishop.
Mons. Fernández later regrets that “among the many crises we live in the present time, is to have fewer priests, when they remain increasingly essential.”
The family is the first seminar
The Bishop of Córdoba also refers that “where there is a priest, there is a Christian life. And where there is a holy priest, there is deep and spiritual life. That is why the meaning of the faith of God’s people claims more and more priests. ”
“We are all involved in giving the church more priests, holy priests. I thank the families to support their son or brother, who wants to be a priest. The family is the first seminar, ”he continues.
The bishop then recommends that “when a child or young man perceives the call of the Lord, everyone to support him, with the joy of grateful a great gift in our family. The parish priests and other priests are a main piece in the vocational campaign, which lasts throughout the year. ”
Catholic priests are sowers of hope
“One of the main tasks of the priest is that of raising priestly vocations, so essential in their church, accompanying them, supporting them. And with the priest the entire parish and diocesan community, ”he says.
To conclude, Mons. Fernández points out that “the hope that God wants to increase in this jubilee year has a huge support point in priestly vocations. Truly priests are sowers of hope, and are more necessary than ever. ”
Walter Sánchez Silva
I am husband since 2008. With my wife we have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before birth. Since I joined ACI Press in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Colonia, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the family’s synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Sinodality, in 2023. I follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers the persecution of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as the ecclesial news in the region.