Salutation Address
by His Em Card. Prefect
Darío Castrillón Hoyos
to the Holy Father
on the occasion of the
Audience granted to the Permanent Deacons
participating in the Great
jubilee of the year 2000
Paul VI Hall
Saturday 19 February 2000
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Most Holy Father,
I am glad to present to Your Holiness the permanent deacons gathered
here to live their Jubilee days in a fraternal atmosphere with intense
communion and Catholicism.
They represent the approximately 24,000 deacons from all the countries
where the permanent deaconship has been restored. There are also some wives,
children and family members of married deacons who, with prayer and the sharing
of apostolic ideals, accompany their path.
Today, Your Holiness, the Liturgy of the Hours and the Divine Sacrifice
contain a votive celebration of St. Lawrence, whose memory has given substance
to the conference and whose noble relics have been specially exposed to
veneration in this Hall.
By his example and intercession, Lawrence, Deacon of the Church of
Rome, indissolubly linked to Pope Sixtus II, in the realty of the
"communio sanctorum", sustains every Deacon in fidelity to Your
Holiness and the Universal Church, in the daily service in the Dioceses.
The shining memory of St. Lawrence encourages us to take the path of
interior renewal required by the spirit of the Great jubilee.
In these days we intend to go into the heart of identity to
consequently live and work in motivated and heartfelt faith in Mother Church.
The ardour of charity is standard with which St. Lawrence appears,
called by the liturgy "faithful in the ministry and glorious in
martyrdom".
Thus our Deacons, guided by
the light of St. Stephan, St. Lawrence and a host of other holy deacons, intend
to remain faithful to the ministry and glorious in martyrdom, in the daily
search for coherence between the sacramental reality in which they are immersed
on an existential level and the challenges of a wide variety of environments
where they duly exercise their ministry with its missionary character.
Confirm, Your Holiness,
these deacons – among whom there are 17 acolytes whom I will have the joy of
ordaining tomorrow in St. Peter’s Basilica – in their holy intentions, and
those who n various qualities accompany them in constantly pursuing their true
good, a good that rebounds to enrich the entire Body of the Church!