INTRODUCTION

Darío Castrillón Hoyos

"And I will give you pastors according to my own heart" (Jer 3,15). The Spirit of Christ still answers the needs of to-days world, with the words of the prophet Jeremiahs: the faithful God continues to promise His People the effective presence of the Pastors that must assemble and guide them, according to His heart, fully revealed to us in the Heart of Jesus, the Good Shepherd (see John Paul II, Esort. Ap. Pastores dabo vobis, 28).

"I will sanctify my name in you in the midst of them. I will take you from among the people, I will gather you together out of all the countries …; and I will give you a new heart, and put a new Spirit within you" (Ez 36,23-25). These words spoken by Ezekiel announce the work of the Holy Spirit that will be totally fulfilled for the first time in the Cenacle in Jerusalem, with the birth of the New Alliance’s priesthood. The sacramental identification with the Supreme and Eternal priesthood of Christ, fulfilled in the priestly Ordination, specifically places within each priest, without interruption for over two thousand years, within the divine economy of redemption, through the Church, at the service of God’s people and all humankind.

The subject of this twentieth international videoconference discusses this gift that God offers humankind, the unfathomable mystery of divine mercy: "The ministerial priesthood".

Christ lives within the priest! This is the great truth that fills with content the existence of each priest: a specific ontological relationship that unites him with Christ.

In celebrating the Solemnity of the Most Holy Heart of Jesus and the World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests, the Church today invites all believers to raise the eyes of faith to "Him whom they pierced" (John 19,37), to the Heart of Christ, the living and eloquent sign of the invincibility of God’s mercy and inexhaustible source of grace. The Church does this exhorting the faithful to look for this sign in priests, the depositories and administrators of the riches of the Heart of Christ.

Those who wish to contemplate the Face of Christ in priests, meeting in them the Person "ordained for men in the things that appertain to God" (Hebrews 5,1) can say with Saint Augustine: "Our science is Christ and our knowledge is once again Christ. It is He who fills us with faith as far as temporal matters are concerned and it is He who reveals to us those truths that concern eternal matters" (Saint Augustine, De Trinitate 13, 19,24).

John Paul II in his Letter to priests on Holy Thursday 2002, exclaims: "How marvellous is this vocation of ours, my dear Brother Priests! Truly we can repeat with the Psalmist: "What shall I render to the Lord for all his bounty to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord" (Ps 116:12-13). " The priest is responsible for the Eucharist, "From it the Church draws her life. From this "living bread" she draws her nourishment" writes the Holy Father in his recent Encyclical Letter Ecclesia de Eucaristis (no. 7), strongly pointing out to each Christian, and in particular to priests, the centrality of the Eucharist and exhorting them to halt in front of the Eucharistic Face of Christ.

This is what, from various points if view, will be discussed during this international session by the Theologians invited to speak, and to whom I address my heartfelt thanks. The conference is, let us remember, live and linked up with ten nations in the five continents. Reflections will be held in Rome, from the Seat of the Congregation for the Clergy, by H.E. Professor Rino Fisichella and by Professor Bruno Forte. There will also be speeches by Professor Michael Hull from New York, Professor José Vidamor Yu from Manila; Professor Louis Aldrich from Taiwan, Professor Stuart Bate from Johannesburg, Professor Silvio Cajiao from Bogotá, H.E. Professor Gerhard Ludwig Müller from Regensburg, Professor Julian Porteous from Sydney, Professor Alfonso Carrasco Rouco from Madrid, and Professor Igor Kowalewsky from Moscow. I hope you all enjoy the conference.