\naddressed participants in a short course on the internal forum on March 11 hosted and organized by Archbishop Fortunato Baldelli and Bishop Gianfranco Girotti, OFM Conv., of the Apostolic Penitentiary<\/a>. Next
\nto the celebration of the Mass, there is likely no other important work of a
\npriest than to reconcile sinners to God. This is a helpful teaching of the Pope’s since at the seminary dinner table these days there’s much conversation about the priest’s ministry of forgiveness. Note what I think are the important
\npoints the Holy Father makes regarding the dialogue of salvation.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n
Your course is placed, providentially, in the Year for Priests, which I Where do the roots of heroism and fruitfulness sink, We live in a cultural context marked by a hedonistic and We must not forget, in fact, that there is a sort of vicious In the conditions of liberty in which it is Dear brothers, it is necessary to The “crisis” of the Sacrament of Penance, St. John Mary It is the priest’s task<\/span> to foster Dear priests, what an <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Benedict XVI addressed participants in a short course on the internal forum on March 11 hosted and organized by Archbishop Fortunato Baldelli and Bishop Gianfranco Girotti, OFM Conv., of the Apostolic Penitentiary. Next to the celebration of the Mass, there is likely no other important work of a priest than to reconcile sinners to God. … Continue reading Internal Forum: the priest’s confessional as a dialogue with salvation<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2330,1822,2331,2332,2333,2007,1799],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25402"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25402\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nproclaimed for the 150th anniversary of the birth in heaven of St. John Mary
\nVianney, who exercised in a heroic and fruitful way the ministry of
\nreconciliation. As stated in the letter of proclamation: “All of us
\npriests must hear those words which regard us personally that he (the Curé
\nd’Ars) put in Christ’s mouth: ‘I will charge my ministers with proclaiming to
\nsinners, whom I am always ready to receive, that my Mercy is infinite.’ From
\nthe Holy Curé d’Ars<\/i> we priests can learn not only an inexhaustible trust in the
\nsacrament of penance, which drives us to put it at the center of our pastoral
\nconcerns, but also the method of the ‘dialogue of salvation’ that should be
\ncarried out in it<\/span>.”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nwith which St. John Mary Vianney lived his own ministry of confessor? First of
\nall in an intense personal penitential dimension. The awareness of one’s own
\nlimits and the need to take recourse to Divine Mercy to ask for pardon, to
\nconvert the heart and to be sustained on the path of sanctity, are essential in
\nthe life of the priest<\/span>: Only one who has first experienced its greatness can be
\na convinced herald and administrator of the Mercy of God. Every priest becomes
\nminister of penance<\/span><\/i><\/b> by his ontological configuration to Christ<\/b>, High and
\nEternal Priest, who reconciles humanity with the Father; howeve<\/b><\/i><\/span>r<\/span><\/i><\/b>, fidelity in
\nadministering the sacrament of reconciliation is entrusted to the responsibility
\nof the presbyter.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nrelativistic mentality, which tends to cancel God from the horizon of life,
\ndoes not favor the acquisition of a clear picture of values of reference and
\ndoes not help to discern good from the evil and to mature a correct sense of
\nsin. This situation makes even more urgent the service of administrators of
\nDivine Mercy.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n
\ncircle between obfuscation of the experience of God and the loss of the sense
\nof sin. However, if we look at the cultural context in which St. John Mary
\nVianney lived, we see that, in several aspects, it was not so dissimilar from
\nours<\/i>. Also in his time, in fact, a hostile mentality to faith existed,
\nexpressed by forces that sought actually to impede the exercise of the
\nministry. In such circumstances, the Holy Curé d’Ars made “the church his
\nhome,” to lead men to God. He lived radically the spirit of prayer<\/span>, the
\npersonal and intimate relationship with Christ, the celebration of Mass,
\nEucharistic adoration and evangelical poverty, appearing to his contemporaries
\nas such an evident sign of the presence of God, as to drive so many penitents
\nto approach his confessional.<\/span><\/p>\n
\npossible to exercise today the priestly ministry, it is necessary that the
\npresbyters live in a “lofty way” their own response to their
\nvocation, because only one who becomes every day the living and clear presence
\nof the Lord can arouse in the faithful the sense of sin, give courage and have
\nthe desire born for the forgiveness of God.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nturn to the confessional, as place in which to celebrate the sacrament of
\nreconciliation, but also as place in which to “dwell” more often<\/span>, so
\nthat the faithful can find mercy, counsel and comfort, feel loved and
\nunderstood by God and experience the presence of Divine Mercy, close to the real
\nPresence in the Eucharist.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nso often talked about, is a question that faces first of all priests and their
\ngreat responsibility to educate the People of God to the radical demands of the
\nGospel. In particular, it asks them to dedicate themselves generously to the
\nlistening of sacramental confessions<\/span>; to guide the flock with courage, so that
\nit will not be conformed to the mentality of this world (cf. Romans 12:2), but
\nwill be able to make choices also against the current, avoiding accommodations
\nand compromises. Because of this it is important that the priest have a
\npermanent ascetic tension, nourished by communion with God, and that he
\ndedicate himself to a constant updating in the study of moral theology and of
\nhuman sciences.
\nVianney was able to establish with penitents a real and proper “dialogue
\nof salvation,” showing the beauty and greatness of the Lord’s goodness and
\narousing that desire for God and heaven, of which the saints are the first
\nbearers. He affirmed: “The good God knows everything. Before you even
\nconfess, he knows that you will sin again and yet he forgives you. How great is
\nthe love of our God, which drives him to willingly forget the future, so as to
\nforgive us” (Monnin A., Il Curato d’Ars. Vita di Gian-Battista-Maria
\nVianney<\/i>, Vol. 1, Turin, 1870, p. 130). <\/span><\/p>\n
\nthat experience of “dialogue of salvation,” which, born of the
\ncertainty of being loved by God<\/b>, helps man to acknowledge his own sin<\/b> and to
\nintroduce himself, progressively, into that stable dynamic of conversion of
\nheart<\/b>, which leads to the radical renunciation of evil and to a life according
\nto God (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church<\/i>, No. 1431).<\/span><\/p>\n
\nextraordinary ministry the Lord has entrusted to us! As in the Eucharistic
\nCelebration he puts himself in the hands of the priest to continue to be
\npresent in the midst of his people, similarly, in the sacrament of
\nreconciliation he entrusts himself to the priest so that men will have the
\nexperience of the embrace with which the Father receives the prodigal son,
\nrestoring him the filial dignity<\/span> and reconstituting him fully heir<\/b> (cf. Luke
\n15:11-32).