by

His Most Reverend Eminence the Cardinal

Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy

PRIESTS, THE FORGERS OF SAINTS IN THE THIRD MILLENNIUM

"To all the beloved of God in Rome, called to be holy. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus" (Rom 1,7). This blessing expressed by the Apostle Paul and addressed at Christians in Rome, re-echoed with particular vigour in the hearts and minds of over one thousand priests gathered between the 18^th and the 23^rd of last month on the island of Malta for the VI International Congress of Priests, promoted by this Congregation for the Clergy on the subject: "Priests, forgers of saints for the new millennium". And today, this same Pauline expression echoes in this thirty-second International Theological videoconference about the same subject, providing a privileged opportunity for all Christians and in particular for priests, for rediscovering the greatness of the mystery of mercy and love for which every priest in the minister.

Loved by God and a saint by vocation, the priest has been made capable of speaking with Christ’s self: in his benedictory gesture and in his hands raised in the Eucharistic Sacrifice, flows the life and redeeming action of Christ Himself, for the good of human kind. This is the greatness of the identity of the priest of the New Alliance, the source of his joy, the certainty of his life! (see John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Pastores dabo vobis, no. 18).

To everyone Christ repeats: "So be perfect just as your heavenly father is perfect" (Mt 5,48), calling to sanctity all men from all nations and conditions; and he repeats this above all to priests, fulfilling the exhortation contained in the Book of Leviticus: "Be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy" (19,2).

With his life, the priest bears witness that sanctity is not an end unto itself, but rather the path towards God who is saintly and man who have thirst of God (see Second Vatican Council, Decree Apostolicam actuositatem, no. 2).

Contemporary man has only one great expectation as far as priests are concerned: meeting Christ! Human beings ask to contemplate in him God’s merciful face, they yearn to know the person who, "taken from among men and made their representative before God (Heb 5,1), can say together with Saint Augustine: "Christ is our science and our wisdom too is Christ. It is He who bestows faith upon us regards to temporal realities, and it is He who reveals those truths that concern eternal realities" (Saint Augustine, De Trinitate 13, 19, 24: NBA 4, p 555).

In a live audio-visual conference with the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father recently confirmed this, exhorting the priests assembled in Malta as follows: "The Lord invites you, dear friends, to be his apostles first and foremost through the holiness of your lives. It is your task to make vibrant everywhere the force of the words of Gospel truth that alone can work deep changes in the human heart and give a person peace." (Speech by John Paul II from the Consistory Room made on October 21^st 2004, no. 2: in the O.R. no. 245 dated 22.10.2004, page 4).

This is what will be emphasised and explained in this session in the papers presented by the Theologians invited to speak, and in particular in papers by the most distinguished Professor Juan Esquerda-Bifet, Professor .Jean Galot, Professor Monsignor Antonio Miralles and Professor Paolo Scarafoni who will speak from Rome, from the head offices of the Congregation for the Clergy. They will emphasise that the priestly ministry, called upon to be constantly in contact with God’s transcendent sanctity, becomes, in Christ, the bearer of this sanctity "within the world", in history, in the homes and heart of men.

They will remind us that priests are called upon to permeate in a capillary manner human society’s environment, at times rendered arid by the culture of death and ethical and existential relativism, rendering it fertile with the water flowing from God’s sanctity, which in the sacraments becomes redeeming charity, capable of providing humankind with eternal life.

In the papers presented by Professor Michael Hull from New York, by Professor Ivan Kowalewsky from Moscow, by Professor Alfonso Carrasco Rouco from Madrid and by Professor Louis Aldrich from Taiwan, various aspects will be discussed concerning how the priest becomes the guide and teacher of sanctity, to the extent that he is an authentic witness of Christ’s sanctity. A witness of He who came to serve and not to be served, and to redeem all human realities, humiliating Himself in the cave in Bethlehem, on the redeeming wood of the Cross and recently, in these times of the Church’s testimony, in the bread of eternal life becoming nourishment for all in the Eucharist. Sacerdos et Hostia! The priest rediscovers in the Eucharist the real meaning of the amoris officium, of that pastoral charity Saint Augustine speaks of (In Iohannis Evangelium Tractatus 123, 5: CCL 36,678): dono di sé in Cristo alla sua Chiesa.

From Regensburg, His Excellency Monsignor Müller, from Bogotà Professor Silvio Cajiao, from Sydney His Excellency Julian Porteous, from Manila Professor José Vidamor Yu, from Johannesburg Professor Stuart Bate, will enable us to understand that the Church, in the five Continents, through her priests, grows as the "house of sanctity" which "reveals and relives the infinite richness of Jesus Christ’s ministry and ensures that the sanctity of God enters every state and situation in life" (see John Paul II, Message dated September 8^th 2001, for the 39^th World Day of Prayer for Vocations in 2002).

This because the sanctity arising from the sacrament of Holy Orders and the ministry of evangelisation are inseparable: they are intimacy with God, imitation of the poor, chaste and humble Christ; they are unconditional love for souls and the donation of their real goodness; they are love for the Church who is saintly and needs saintly priests, because this is mission Christ has entrusted to her (see John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation, Pastores dabo vobis, 33).

I wish to end this introduction, as always, by thanking the Prelates and the Theologians invited to speak, and also reminding you that their speeches will take place through a live link-up, from ten nations on the five Continents. I hope you all enjoy the conference.