Pope Benedict XVI has called the whole Church to celebrate a Year for Priests beginning on 19th June 2009, the Feast of the Sacred Heart.

His purpose for this year is to encourage priests in their “striving for spiritual perfection on which, above all, the effectiveness of their ministry depends” and to highlight “the importance of the priest’s role and mission in the Church and in contemporary society”.

To do this the Holy Father calls us to a renewed focus on the centrality of Christ in our lives and in the Church and that “brings with it the correct appreciation of the ministerial priesthood, without which there would be neither the Eucharist, nor even the mission nor the Church herself”.

Pope Benedict's message

On the eve of the Year for Priests, Pope Benedict wrote to his brother priests:

"'The priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus', the saintly Curé of Ars would often say. This touching expression makes us reflect, first of all, with heartfelt gratitude on the immense gift which priests represent, not only for the Church, but also for humanity itself. I think of all those priests who quietly present Christ’s words and actions each day to the faithful and to the whole world, striving to be one with the Lord in their thoughts and their will, their sentiments and their style of life.

How can I not pay tribute to their apostolic labours, their tireless and hidden service, their universal charity? And how can I not praise the courageous fidelity of so many priests who, even amid difficulties and incomprehension, remain faithful to their vocation as 'friends of Christ', whom he has called by name, chosen and sent?"

 

150th anniversary of the death of St John Vianney

This same year is the 150th anniversary of the death of St John Vianney, the patron saint of priests, and also the occasion of the visit to England of the relics of St Therese of Lisieux – who from her Carmelite convent showed her life-long devotion to priests by praying for them, supporting them and corresponding with them.

Archbishop Piacenza wrote to priests to mark the 150th anniversary of the death of St John Vianney, Patron of all Priests:

"May his love for Christ, which was the bearer of his humanity and sincere affection, be for us an encouragement to love every more deeply 'our Jesus': may His be the sight we seek in the morning, the consolation which accompanies us in the evening, the memory and the companionship of every breath we take by day.

To live according to the example of St. John Mary Vianney, as lovers of the Lord, means to always maintain at a high level of missionary tension, becoming progressively but concretely living images of the Good Shepherd and of him who proclaims to the world, 'behold the Lamb of God'."

 

Resources

To help celebrate the Year for Priests the diocese has produced a prayer calendar that lists all the priests of the diocese (active and retired) and allocates each one a special day so that we can all join in prayer for them one by one during the year.

Click on the image on the right to download your copy (PDF format) of this calendar.

 

 

The diocese has also issued a prayer card with prayers for priests. It invites us to join St. John Vianney, the 150th Anniversary of whose death we commemorate this year, and St. Thérèse of Lisieux, whose relics arrive in our country on 16th September, in praying for our priests and priests throughout the world.

To download your copy (PDF format) click on the image on the left.