Address of His Eminence Cláudio Cardinal Hummes to the “Indian Priests Congress” Velankanni (India), 9,10,11 February 2010

My Dear brother Archbishops and Bishops, Priests, Brothers and Sisters.

I am most grateful to have the opportunity to participate in this “Indian Priests’ Congress” and to offer a word to my brother Cardinals and Bishops, and to the Priests of this beloved India. The Congress appears particularly significant, since it takes place within the Year for Priests announced by His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, and it takes as its object of reflection the same theme chosen by the Holy Father for this special year, namely “Faithfulness of Christ, Faithfulness of the Priest”.

The Holy Father follows with great interest all the initiatives which the local Churches throughout the world have planned for the Year for Priests. Thus, your congress is also much appreciated by the Pope, who conveys his blessings to you.

The Year for Priests presents the Church with an opportunity to say yet again to all her priests that she loves them, venerates them, and being proud of them, recognises what they are and all that they do, both in the local ecclesial communities, in the midst of the people, and in the forefront of the mission. In the local communities they preach the Word of God, they evangelise, they assist the people to read the Bible, they catechise, they gather the faithful to celebrate the Eucharist and the other Sacraments, they assist them in other forms of community prayer and devotion, they assemble the community to discuss, plan and help in projects of pastoral action, they lead the community to undertake solidarity and charity towards the poor, they promote social justice, human rights, the equal dignity of all, freedom and peace within the society. In the forefront of the mission they bring the first proclamation of the Gospel to diverse cultural environments, to societies that are initially often indifferent, and at times even hostile, to their preaching and to their apostolic work. It is not rare for priests in the Mission to witness to their faith even by martyrdom. Many other means could be called to mind and specified by which priests make the Church to be light and leaven in the world. In truth, they exercise a strategic and essential ministry for the concrete daily life of the Church in the world. In this sense, one can say that the pilgrim Church walks with the feet of her priests.

According to the latest figures published by the Vatican, there were around 408,000 priests in the world by the end of 2008, an increase of one thousand over the preceding year. As we know, in many so called Christian countries, especially in the West, there is a notable fall in the number of priests and also of seminarians, a phenomenon which carries with it not a few problems for the Church in the future. In the mission lands, on the other hand, we see a healthy increase in the number of priests and a flowering of priestly and religious vocations, also here in India. However, notwithstanding the fact that there has been a small rise in the number of priests and seminarians in the world, such an increase is not in proportion nor is it adequate to the growth in the world population, even of Catholics.

With regard to India, the Vatican statistics demonstrate an increase of priests and seminarians, thanks be to God. The same fact is shown in many mission lands. The origins of Christianity in India, of course, according to ancient tradition, allow us to consider the history as far back as the apostle Thomas, who preached to the Parthans, Medians, Persians, Ircanians, and then reached India, where he preached the Gospel and established Christian communities, and later was martyred and buried. In the succeeding centuries, his remains were taken to Edessa and finally to Ortona, in Italy, while in India a group known as the Thomas Christians endured through the centuries. A new phase began with the arrival of the Portuguese explorers and with the extraordinary missionary work of St. Francis Xavier in the sixteenth century. Today the Church here encompasses the Latin Church, the Syro-Malabar Church and the Syro-Malankara Church. These various liturgical and spiritual traditions make the Church in India very beautiful, and this richness will be able to contribute to the evangelisation of this great land. We see here a flowering Church today, though not without serious challenges. However, notwithstanding the two thousand years’ presence of Christianity in India, there is much to do here, there are still great apostolic and missionary challenges to confront. Only 2% of the population is Catholic.

Something which should be highlighted is the recent canonisation of the first woman saint of India, Saint Alphonsa, a simple religious who lived in our times and showed to the universal Church that holiness is attainable through ordinary life and patient suffering. The beatification of the Albanian born missionary, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, who became an adopted daughter of India and is one of the most admired figures of the contemporary world due to her solidarity with the poor and the marginalized, has brought to the limelight the authenticity of the missionary Church in India. Blessed (Fr.) Kuriakose Elias Chavara, Blessed (Sr.) Mariam Thresia, Blessed (Fr.) Augustine Thevarparambil, Blessed (Sr.) Euphrasia are true sons and daughters of the Church in India who gave testimony to Christ through their heroic lives. To this list we should also add two other eminent Christians of Indian origin, Saint (Fr.) Gonsalo Garcia, who embraced martyrdom in Japan in the sixteenth century and Blessed (Fr.) Joseph Vaz, who was the apostle of Sri Lanka in the seventeenth century.

It seems right for me to recall this significant history, because the Year for Priests wishes to provide priests with a strong missionary impulse. In fact, the mission has always renewed the Church. The priest too, when he decides to be truly missionary, both ad gentes and in the already established parish, finds anew his true missionary identity and is renewed in the ministry.

The Second Vatican Council strongly underlined that the Church is essentially missionary. Today, God be praised, missionary consciousness is growing in the face of an acknowledged missionary urgency in the whole world, even in the countries of the Christian west. Pope Paul VI, of happy memory, wrote the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi on evangelisation in the contemporary world. The Venerable John Paul II wrote the Encyclical Letter Redemptoris Missio on the mission and, at the same time, called the whole Church to a new evangelisation in the places where the Church was already established, “with a new missionary ardour, new methods and new means”. Our beloved Pope Benedict XVI from the beginning of his pontificate has tirelessly reminded the Church to be more missionary. To the Bishops of Germany in 2005, stating that all of Europe has become a land of mission, he said, “it is not enough that we seek to conserve the existing flock, even if this too is necessary” (Discourse to the Bishops of Germany in the Piussaal of the Seminary of Cologne, 21^st August 2005). In Brazil in 2007 he called the whole Church in the country to become more missionary and to be close to the people, to the poor “the outskirts of the cities or the countryside” above all, given that “the Gospel is addressed in a special way to the poor” (Discourse to the Bishops of Brazil in the ‘Catedral da Sé’ in São Paulo, 11^th May 2007, n.3). Moreover, in his annual message for World Mission Day, he encourages mission ad gentes and he calls to mind with admiration the many missionaries of today and yesteryear.

Missionary consciousness lives continuously in India as well, as you showed in the Missionary Congress of last October in Mumbai. Your own Cardinal Gracias, presenting that congress, said that it pointed to the emergence of the richness of the life of the Indian community and would support its missionary impetus”, and he singled out Mother Teresa of Calcutta as “a living privilege and example of the mission in India and for India” (Osservatore Romano, 10^th October 2009).

As you know, the missionary process always requires four elements, that is service, dialogue, proclamation, and, finally, the establishment and eventual witness of the community of Christians. Cardinal Gracias, in opening the Congress, underlined the service in the educational field provided by schools, universities and institutes, and then the service of the “the large and small charitable works which reach as far as the rural areas and provide aid to the poor who otherwise have no access to basic health services”. It is true. The service of charity is usually the opening for the missionary in a non-Christian society which is to be evangelised. Jesus said, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn. 13: 35). This love must be a distinguishing mark of Christians both in the works of charity within general society and in the fraternal love which unites the believers in their ecclesial communities. Seeing this love, non-Christians ask themselves: why do Christians love in this way: they love even their enemies? Such an enquiry becomes the atmosphere in which Jesus Christ can be proclaimed, his love for humanity, his death and resurrection for our salvation, and his entire message as good news for humanity. He is the fundamental reason for our fraternity and charity. But by the example of the same Christ the Gospel is never imposed but proposed, while the freedom of the listener remains to adhere to him or not. That is to say that proclamation and dialogue always go hand in hand. God Himself always dialogued with man. From this proclamation, those who join are led to Jesus Christ, so that he might transform them into his disciples, who are then placed in the community of believers, who engage them in their own turn as fellow workers in a continuous missionary process in the world.

I cannot but recall the words of your own Cardinal Toppo. In the course of the Missionary Congress in Mumbai he said, “The Church is missionary; this mission is addressed to non-Christians and in particular to the poorest of the poor, the tribal peoples and the Dalits, always exploited and oppressed in Indian society”, and afterwards the Cardinal recounted his own story as the first tribal Cardinal, saying, “Faith in Jesus, sustained by educational and social work of the first missionaries, freed and transformed me and my people” (cf. Asia News, 17^th October 2009).

Dear Priests, following the footprints of so many missionary men and women, continue to be missionaries, both towards the non-Christians and towards the baptized of your own parishes who have grown distant and thus need to be re-evangelised. It does not suffice to welcome only those who come to the parish. One must, as a good shepherd, go out in search of the sheep that are far away. The mission will certainly renew you in the understanding and realization of your priestly identity and of your ministry.

However, the mission also requires the inculturation of the Gospel. The Son of God made man, Jesus Christ, became a Jew and inculturated his message in the Judaic culture of the period. Following his example, the Church must also, through the centuries, be able to inculturate the Gospel ever anew in different cultures. India has a rich a variegated millennium long cultural patrimony, which today also feels the ever increasing presence and influence of the dominant global culture. This represents a stimulating challenge for the inculturaltion of the faith and the evangelisation of culture. As we know, the inculturation of the faith is the process by which the central mysteries of our salvation are manifested, namely the mysteries of the incarnation of Christ, his work of redemption and the event of Pentecost. In effect, in the process of inculturation, the Christian faith, in its encounter with a particular culture, seeks to assume the true values of that culture in a process of incarnation, it then purifies the culture from its harmful and sinful content in a process of redemption, of death and resurrection, and at the end, from this process, under the transforming action of the Holy Spirit, a new society and a new man emerges, as a pentecostal fruit. It is a process that is not destructive of culture, but assumes it, redeems it and renews it in Christ, fulfilling its true meaning.

In all this that has been said, dear brothers – and there is a lot more that could be added – the beauty and necessity of the ministry of Priests for the Church and for society is manifested. This suggests an enormous responsibility, which human effort alone could never be able to bear. Divine grace is needed, which God willingly bestows upon every Priest. The very sacrament of Order is the most treasured, efficacious and permanent font of such grace. Nonetheless, grace must be welcomed in the context of a sound spirituality, as the council’s Presbyterorum Ordinis teaches. At its root this spirituality is identified with being a disciple of the Lord, a very special disciple, who has been configured to Him, Head and Shepherd of the Church. Thus every priest, by virtue of his ordination, is head and shepherd of the ecclesial community entrusted to him. However, being head and shepherd does not mean being a dictator over the flock, but rather a servant, a zealous guide, a defender against Evil, ready to give one’s life for the salvation of the sheep, and always on the road seeking the lost sheep and leading them back to the fold. This requires a true and mature closeness with the Lord, to be renewed and reinvigorated ever anew through the prayerful reading of the Bible, especially the Gospels, the daily celebration of the Eucharist, personal and communal prayer, the recitation of the Rosary, the regular frequentation of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and many other spiritual practices. A rich and sound spirituality will also be the necessary context to live the charism of celibacy in a coherent, serene and happy way. We all know how much harm is caused to the Church and to the faithful by the infidelity of ordained ministers.

The spirituality, life and ministry of Priests also require a strong communion with the successor of Peter, the Pope, with their Bishops, amongst the Priests themselves and with the community of the faithful entrusted to them. It is of Ecclesial Communion we speak. Concerning this communion, Jesus himself prayed intensely to the Father, “Holy Father, keep them in thy name, which thou hast given me, that they may be one, even as we are one […] I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. The glory which thou hast given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them even as thou hast loved me” (Jn. 17: 11 and 20-24). Dear brothers, this communion must constantly be sought out and built up amongst us. Bishops have a very special role in promoting and protecting unity, but Priests also have the need to feel themselves loved and acknowledged by their Bishops and the ecclesial community. Priests in turn cannot but be in communion with their Bishops, and also show their love and their complete willingness in their regard. Jesus taught that unity gives credibility to our message in the world.

Considering all that has been said to this point, we see that the priestly vocation is a very special ministry, irreplaceable and treasured, at the service of the Church and of society, a vocation, moreover, which calls for witness, the giving of one’s life and, at times, martyrdom in the strict sense of the term. But all this will be the font of true joy, of the happiness and the experience of the transcendent sense of the priestly ministry, at the service of Christ, the Good shepherd, for the salvation of humanity. This leads us to understand how necessary is the ongoing formation of Priests, so as to provide them with the best possible conditions to live and actuate the vocation and the ministry. The Pope insists upon this and requests that the local Churches commit themselves to offering such ingoing formation. There is a great deal being done already, but we know that more remains to be done, and to be improved upon.

The universal Church is celebrating now the 150^th death anniversary of St. John Maria Vianney, who was a perfect “priest of Christ”, and who remains a shining example of the “faithfulness of priest” to Christ and to the Church. He remains for us all a model to be faithfully followed.

Concluding, I wish that this Congress may bear many fruits and that God may bless each of us. Thank you!

Cardinal Cláudio Hummes

Prefect of the Congregation for Clergy