December 8th, 2008

Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception

Ten years ago, on this very day of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, the Congregation for the Clergy offered to all Priests, Deacons, and Catechists of the entire World something new, our own website on the Internet www.clerus.org . With that site (and through those who have visited) we have attempted not only to offer specific help to those to whom it was destined, but also to fulfil our true mission, that the Internet must be given to all users: “because only when one sees the face of Christ and hears His voice… will the Internet be converted into a truly human space, given that if there is no place for Christ, nor is there place for man…. May the Lord bless all those who work with this endeavour.” (Pope John Paul II)

Ten years have passed and through them we have been introduced into a new Millennium of Christianity. Church and World find themselves walking through the lights and shadows of the dawn of the Third Millennium. The way is long, but the steps of the Church, and of humanity, have been illuminated by the “light of hope:” this is the force which pushes us to continued forward, for, as Pope Benedict XVI reminds us, “we have been saved by hope.”

And it is the hope of offering “something new” which has moved us to renovate our web page, so that it may more efficiently help the great network of evangelization, which, through the work of Priests, Deacons, and Catechists, the Church must accept and sustain: the Word of the Lord through the new means of communication.

To the Most Holy Virgin Mary, Teacher of Dialog between God and men, we once again dedicate our renewed website, certain that she will bless our work and all those who, with true hope, approach this page with an evangelizing and apostolic spirit.

Claudio Cardinal Hummes

Archbishop Emeritus of Sao Paolo

Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy.

XMauro Piacenza

Titular Archbishop of Vittoriana

Secretary