OPENING SPEECH

By His Very Reverend Eminence Cardinal

Darío Castrillón Hoyos

Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy

on the occasion

of the eighth video-conference

within the framework of the

permanent formation for priests

"THE THEOLOGY OF THE SACRAMENTS OF THE HOLY ORDERS,

RECONCILIATION,

THE ANOINTING OF THE INFIRM AND MARRIAGE,

FROM THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL TO OUR TIMES"

From the Holy See, April 29^th 2002

1. The Christological prospective of the theological analysis of the truths of faith, which has characterized all our previous meetings, opens our eyes today on the broad horizon of the divine redeeming initiative: the Risen Christ guides us on the path towards the freedom of the children of God, He leads us out of the narrowness of the imprisonment of sin and of slavery to the principle of falsehood, the devil, leading us into the open air, into the vastness of communion with the Living God (see Hebrews 9,11).

""Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light"! (Eph 5,14) I certainly did not create you that you might forever remain imprisoned. I did not create you for imprisonment". I believe that this expression of Paul, integrated by a comment by Epiphanius (PG 43, no. 440s.) proposed by the Easter liturgy, may well introduce and summarize the subject of this eighth international Video-conference on: The Theology of the sacraments of Reconciliation, the Anointing of the Infirm, Holy Orders and Matrimony, from the Second Vatican Council to our times.

"Awaken, …Christ will enlighten you": in this exhortation there is the entire Christian announcement of Easter and all the effectiveness of the two healing sacraments and the two sacraments of the communion service (see The Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 1421,1534). They are the path of the new exodus that the Word Incarnate has opened and inaugurated on this earth, an exodus that exceeds all that has been created, introducing human existence "in the tent that is not made by man" (Eb 10,20), in God’s paternal mercy. The "Promised Land" which Christ enters and to which He leads us so we may be seated "on the right hand of God" (Mark 12,36).

2. "I did not create you for imprisonment": this prison thrown open by Christ has no specific geographic location, it can be found wherever there is a man deprived of truth about himself, about God and the world, therefore wherever there is a person deprived of his own dignity. And these sacraments are effectively an invitation to take hold of the divine hand of Truth held out to mankind so that it may be clothed in eternity and once again become capable of God.

For this reason, Christ, as a divine physician, wanted His Church to continue, with the strength bestowed by the Holy Spirit, the work of recovery and Redemption that He had started two thousand years ago, for the sanctity of the members of His own Body.

The sacraments of Reconciliation and of the Anointing of the Infirm lead mankind, weakened, wounded or lost because of sin, once again to the path of divine life, allowing mankind to discover the meaning of suffering, disease and death.

There where the sacrament of the Holy Orders is conferred, in its three different degrees, and there where the sacrament of matrimony is celebrated, The Word of the Living God rings today in human history, calling each man to sanctity, according to a specific and personal life plan.

I firmly believe that in a culture that is often pervaded by secularism and by pragmatism, there is the urgent need for the presence of men and women who believe in life and welcome it as a call that comes from Above, from that God Who calls, because He loves.

If every vocation of the Church is at the service of sanctity, some however are so in a very special manner, such as the vocation to the ordained ministry. I invite you today to look upon this vocation, also intensifying our prayers for it: Because it is fundamentally a call to sanctity, in the form that springs from the sacrament of Holy Orders, called to intimacy with God, to the imitation of Christ, poor, chaste and humble; called to a sanctity that "it is unreserved love for souls and a giving of oneself on their behalf and for their true good; it is love for the Church which is holy and wants us to be holy, because this is the mission that Christ entrusted to her." (John Paul II, Exhort. ap. Pastores dabo vobis, 33).

3. I would like to warmly thank the Theologians who are to speak today. I would like to remind you that we are connected ‘live’ to nine countries in the five continents. Today in fact we shall be joined by Germany for the first time.

The first three conferences, each lasting twenty minutes, will this time be divided into three parts each lasting about seven minutes, and will be held by: Professor Jean Galot S.J., from our Sede of the Congregation for the Clergy, Professor Catalino Arevalo from Manila and Professor Gerhard Ludwig Müller in a new link-up from Munich.

The three minute speeches that follow will be held from New York, by Professor Michael Hull; from Rome, by Professor His Eminence Rino Fisichella; from Madrid, by Professor Alfonso Carrasco Rouco; from Bogotà by Professor Silvio Cajiao; from Rome, by Professor Bruno Forte; from Taipei, by Professor Louis Aldrich; from Sydney, by Professor David Orr; from Johannesburg, by Professor Stuart C. Bate and from Moscow by Professor Igor ….. These speeches lasting three minutes will be alternated with the twenty minute speeches.

It is my hope that all priests, also drawing strength from this meeting, will reveal and relive the infinite richness of Christ’s mystery enabling God’s sanctity to enter every condition and situation of life so that all Christians may become workman in the Lord’s vignards and may build the Body of Christ.