By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Priests from all over the world are expected to gather in Rome this week to attend a world meeting of clergy from June 9-11 to mark the end of the Year for Priests.
According to the Vatican Press Office, the theme of the meeting is “Faithfulness of Christ, faithfulness of Priests.”
On the first day of the meeting, which convenes today, Cardinal Joachim Meisner, archbishop of Cologne, Germany, will preside at a meditation in the basilica of St. Paul’s Outside-the-Walls, which will also be relayed to the basilica of St. John Lateran. This will be followed by a period of Eucharistic adoration during which the Sacrament of Confession will be administered. Later, Cardinal Claudio Hummes O.F.M. and Archbishop Mauro Piacenza, prefect and secretary of the Congregation for the Clergy, will preside at Eucharistic celebrations in, respectively, St. Paul’s Outside-the-Walls and St. John Lateran.
The theme for tomorrow’s events will be: “The Cenacle: invocation to the Holy Spirit with Mary, in fraternal communion”. Cardinal Marc Ouellet P.S.S., archbishop of Quebec, Canada, will preach a meditation in the basilica of St. Paul’s Outside-the-Walls, which will be relayed to the basilica of St. John Lateran. This will again be followed by a period of Eucharistic adoration during which the Sacrament of Confession will be available. Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B. and Archbishop Robert Sarah, secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples will then preside at Eucharistic celebrations in, respectively, St. Paul’s Outside-the-Walls and St. John Lateran.
Tomorrow evening, a vigil will be held in St. Peter’s Square. In the course of the event a number of priests will bear witness; there will also be television linkups with Ars, the Cenacle in Jerusalem, and poor neighborhoods of Buenos Aires and Hollywood, a dialogue between the Pope and the priests, and adoration of the Eucharist.
At 10 a.m. on Friday 11 June, Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Year for Priests will officially come to an end with a Eucharistic concelebration presided by the Pope in St. Peter’s Square. During the Mass the clergy will renew their vows and the Pope will proclaim the holy “Cure of Ars” as patron saint of all priests.
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