Pope Leo XIV recalled this Saturday that perfection is not the essential in the priestly ministry, but the credibility of life, when presiding over in the Basilica of San Pedro the Mass of Planning of 11 new priests.
“We remain within the people of God to be able to be in front of him with a credible testimony. Together we will rebuild the credibility of a wounded churchsent to a wounded humanity, within an injured creation. It doesn’t matter to be perfect, but it is necessary to be credible”, Proclaimed the Pontiff on May 31.
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He also invited the new presbyters to live with transparency, near people, and not as “owners”, but as “custodians” of the mission that belongs to Jesus. “He has risen, therefore he is alive and precedes us. None of us is called to replace him,” he recalled.
Within the framework of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary, the Holy Father insisted that the identity of the priest is not based on his personal qualities, but on his union with Christ.
“Dear orders, You reconcile yourself in Jesus’ manner! Being of God – Siervos de Dios, people of God – links us to Earth: not an ideal world, but to real, ”he recalled.
He also urged the orders, reminding them that they are called to consecrate “people of flesh and blood” that the “father puts on his way”, “without separating, without isolation, without turning the gift received into a kind of privilege.”
“Pope Francis has noticed us many times against this, because self -referentiality turns off the fire of the mission,” he recalled about his predecessor who died on April 21, Easter Monday.
During his preaching, Leo XIV also recovered the words of St. Paul to the elders of Ephesus: “You know how I have behaved with you during all this time.”
From this phrase, the Pope stressed that the priest’s behavior must be visible, legible and reliable: “Known lives, legible lives, credible lives! We remain within the people of God to be able to be in front of him with a credible testimony. ”
The gesture of the imposition of hands, he explained, not only communicates the Holy Spirit, but also links the priest with the people to which it serves. He also asked God so that, through this gesture, he is renewed in the new priests “the liberating force of his messianic ministry.”
The pontiff also recalled that “the love of Christ urges us”, not to possess, but to free, to share the only wealth that multiplies: to be of God. “We are from God: there is no greater wealth than this to value and share. It is the only wealth that, when shared, multiplies. We want to take her together to the world that God has loved so much that she gave her only child, ”he said.
Finally, the Pope concluded his homily trusting the new presbyters to the intercession of the Virgin Mary, “Mother of the Church”, and thanked them for their “life delivered” to the service of a people who, like the Magnificat of Mary, “is visited by grace.”
“In Mary, mother of the Church, this common priesthood shines that exalts the humble, unites generations and calls us blessed (cf. Lk 1.48.52). She, a virgin of trust and mother of hope, intercede for us,” he concluded.
They concelebrated with the Holy Father: Cardinal Baldassare Reina, General Vicar of His Holiness for the Diocese of Rome; the cardinals; the auxiliary bishops; the superiors of the corresponding seminars and the parish priests of the orders.
Diego López Marina
I was born in 1991. I have a degree in Communication Sciences. Since 2015 I work as a digital journalist. I started my career in the newspaper El Comercio in Peru. In 2016, I began as editor in ACI Press and I perform as a web editor since 2018. From 2024, I write the Newsletter for Social Media. I specialize in Catholic news focused on the defense of life and family, international politics, technology, popular culture and the Vatican.