Callings at risk, Save the Parish warns

A LOSS of confidence in ordained ministry is the “major obstacle” to tackling the crisis in stipendiary-clergy numbers, a new report from the campaigning group Save the Parish concludes.

The report, Parish Ministry: Addressing the crisis in stipendiary clergy numbers in the Church of England, is due to be launched in Parliament on Thursday. 

It followed a consultation held by Save the Parish at St George’s House, Windsor, in March. Those who attended included principals of theological-education institutions (TEIs), bishops, archdeacons, directors of ordinands, and parish clergy.

Among the challenges identified are what the report describes as the “mixed messages” sent about the vocation to ordained ministry: a call to more ordinands alongside the message given when “nearly bankrupt dioceses” cut the number of stipendiaries they have.

“Our entire project to attract, train and retain clergy relies on a strong and confident theological understanding of what it is to be an Anglican priest, which will be what inspires a postulant and supports a minister throughout long years of service,” the report says. “Confident and joyful priestly ministry will itself engender vocations whether to ordained ministry or to lay callings.”

Without a rise in the number of ordinations, the number of stipendiary clergy in the Church of England will fall to 5400 in 2033 — more than 2000 fewer than the target set under Renewal and Reform, and a 40-per-cent reduction the number in 2000, projections by the Church’s national Ministry Development Team suggest.

The Ministry Council has forecast that the Church needs 630 new clergy per year to achieve the outcomes in the Vision and Strategy projections; but, after a peak, after 13 years, of 591 in 2020, numbers fell to 329 last year. This year, 442 began training.

The severity of the problem has been acknowledged at a national level. In the latest annual report of the Archbishops’ Council, its Secretary-General, William Nye, writes of plans to work with dioceses “to tackle the impending crisis in ministry numbers, to prevent or mitigate a projected decline in stipendiary clergy numbers”. Among the latest developments is a rise in the national minimum stipend.

In recent years, a number of dioceses have announced cuts in stipendiary posts, as they face structural deficits. Restructuring has also prompted debates about what a stipendiary priest does: several dioceses are moving to an “oversight” model.

The Save the Parish report describes the clergy as feeling “undervalued, under-resourced, overworked, frustrated and vulnerable”. There is a need, it suggests, to “challenge secular ideas of success and failure and value the advice and experience of clergy and their parishioners”. The latest Ministry Statistics record that 379 serving clergy resigned in the past year, while 278 retired. A note adds that this does not represent people who have permanently left ministry but includes moves into self-supporting ministry, chaplaincy and PTO roles, among other shifts.

The report also records a concern about the state of theological education, suggesting that “too much utilitarian training is pushing out the nourishing biblical, historical, liturgical and theological knowledge and understanding that will sustain ministry over time and within an often hostile and challenging secular context.” Among the recommendations is the creation of a course on “Anglican basics”, open to anyone.

This week, the Principal of Ridley Hall, Cambridge, the Revd Dr Isabelle Hamley, who attended the Windsor gathering, agreed that the Church had “lost confidence in articulating what it means to be clergy and why we need clergy”.

This was caused partly by financial pressures, she said. “But I also wonder whether, because the place of the Church in wider society is changing, we haven’t quite found a way of articulating a distinctive Anglican understanding of what it means to be a priest in a changed and changing landscape.”

The General Synod was told last year that, from 2014 to 2024, the percentage of new ordinands joining a residential TEI had fallen from 46 per cent to 20 per cent. Dr Hamley spoke of being “deeply worried” by the “utilitarian approach” taken to training. There was a tendency towards talking about ministry as a “set of skills” and asking “How do we get the jobs done?” rather than a process of being “formed as a person”, she said. She sensed a loss of “a sense that the priest is a really complex and demanding role and that we have to train people for it”.

The changing nature of ministry was a factor in vocation numbers, she suggested. “A lot of people want to go into this vocation because they want to care for people and do mission, to teach and preach; but, actually, more and more, the sheer weight of governance and management of buildings and finances is changing your job away from the thing that you really want to do.

“There is something really odd happening, where we are talking about pushing the tasks of ministry — the things that people really want to do: being spiritual leaders — on to lay people, while clergy do the stuff that actually they don’t need to be clergy to do.”

The Save the Parish manifesto for the elections to the Synod includes pledges to “completely halt cutting stipendiary posts as a tool to balance budget deficits” and “work to limit the size of benefices to no more than five manageable parishes”.

This week, the Bishop of Hereford, the Rt Revd Richard Jackson, welcomed the latest report.  “Dioceses do not cut clergy posts willingly but driven by impossible financial pressures,” he said. “But, as the conference articulated, that sets up negative feedback loop with all the current detrimental impacts on clergy wellbeing. I hope this work will encourage us in a national journey to a healthier and balanced financial ecosystem: a virtuous circle and a much more hopeful church.”

“So many of the answers to our problems of attracting and retaining clergy come down to a loss of a sense of the importance of having time to love one another,” the  report observes. “We give clergy multiple churches to care for, in which they struggle, making it ever harder to be a true parson: a person, whose vocation is to ‘be’ in a place and fully present to it.”

Irish Church could learn a lot from Spain (Opinion)

It’s almost 50 years since September 1979, when Pope John Paul II visited Ireland – for the first papal visit to Ireland in history. 

The first definitive image of him was stepping off the Aer Lingus plane at Dublin Airport, kneeling and kissing the ground.

In three memorable days an estimated 2.3 to 2.5 million people attended organised events – an extraordinary figure in that the total population of Ireland, north and south, was then 4.9 million. Events and numbers attending included two significant metrics: the Open Air Mass in the Phoenix Park (in excess of 1 million) and the Galway Youth Mass (250,000-300,000).

When Pope Leo XIV visited Spain recently the crowds attending corresponding events were higher – 1.2 million at the mass and 600,000 at the Youth event but given Spain’s population (almost 50 million) the turnouts at the two events were proportionately much higher in Ireland than in Spain.

But what else was different?

The Irish Church in 1979 was basking confidently in the sun: with more priests than were needed (in Killala diocese curacies were being invented and priests drafted to London parishes to disguise an embarrassing excess of numbers); with religious practice in a list of credible surveys consistently over ninety per cent; with bishops listened to respectfully (even indulged with throwing in the ball in at Croke Park on All-Ireland final day); with impressive churches being needlessly built and now surplus to requirements; with the writ of (some) parish priests running amok; and the reforms envisaged by the Second Vatican Council being unashamedly kicked into touch by a youthful Pope John Paul II.

But whereas the Irish Church in 1979 on a crest of a wave was in buoyant good health and was looking forward confidently to the future, the Spanish Church by the early 2020s was on a downward graph, part of a pattern that was enduring a decline before an advancing secularisation of Europe – with declining priest numbers, religious practice in steep decline, finding itself on the wrong side of history, unpopular and enduring public disapproval – similar to where the Irish Church is now.

Once the heartland of Christendom, the Catholic Church in Europe – a flame that has now passed to a younger more vibrant Church in Africa and Asia – has collapsed and is by common consent in terminal decline. 

But in Spain for some years there are signs that a nation once at the very heart of Christendom is showing signs of reawakening. This is not unconnected with the adoption of a four-year national pastoral plan by the Spanish bishops after broad consultation among the people to road-map a strategy for the Spanish Church which has shown positive signs of a spiritual awakening and among young people a hunger for more than a successful economy can deliver.

So when the Spanish bishops approached the newly elected Pope Leo XIV for help to keep the faith alive in Spain, it resonated with Leo’s conviction, shared with his predecessor, Pope Francis, that Europe needs to change by embracing a new missionary synodal conversion. 

They decided that the Spanish Church needed a re-set through an adoption of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council and the synodal pathway. 

Through the wise leadership of the Spanish bishops it became an opportunity that Leo welcomed to stress-test his prescription for a revival of Europe.

On the basis of the evidence so far, the Spanish papal visit was an overwhelming success and has opened up similar possibilities for Leo to explore through extended visits to Europe, with France next in line. 

Unfortunately, in Ireland there is still no interest from bishops or priests in ‘a national pastoral plan’ and minimal in its focus on a synodal pathway.

The mind-set of the Spanish bishops has been crucial to the success of the recent visit. In a statement they pointed out: ‘In Spain, the era is over in which we said, 'I am Catholic because I was born in Spain'." 

‘The Spanish bishops’ response’, Austen Ivereigh wrote in The Tablet, ‘is an obvious contrast to that of the bishops of England and Wales who have distanced themselves from synodality and which most Catholics in the UK are unaware of’.

Through the messages evident in the many speeches during the Spanish visit, Leo’s enthusiasm was catching and there was a real sense that he wanted to free the Church to ‘welcome new beginnings’, ‘to leave behind structures that do not respond to our needs’.

Here are a number of prophetic comments that Leo used to underline his conviction that change is necessary, if the church in Europe is to survive: don’t be afraid of what the spirit stirs up; if parishes are living communities, vocations will come; parish and diocesan councils are not mere bureaucratic formalities but should be spaces of mutual listening for the exercise of discernment; priests should embrace discernment as one of the greatest opportunities that synodality offers to their ministry; and, in reference to young people, Leo underlined that the mission to young people begins by listening and entering into the chaos of contemporary life.

The crowds of young people were drawn by the presence of Pope Leo as if he was a magnet for those looking for answers to the main questions that haunt their lives. 

‘The way of Christ’, he promised them, ‘would have the last word, – the One who identifies with the stranger, touches the wounds of humanity and calls us to recognise him in every brother and sister who needs to be welcomed, protected, supported and integrated’.

Could Ireland follow Spain and France and avail of ‘the Leo lift’ to engage our young people? 

Sadly there’s little or no chance of that as there is no indication that the ground work has been prepared for such an initiative in any credible way. 

We’re just not ready for that and on almost every metric it is clear that we are not even particularly interested. It is as if at this stage we still don’t know (or don’t care) that attentive listening is part of Leo’s fundamental credo of pastoral outreach. 

What a different church it would be if attentive listening to the young and the not so young became the rule rather than the exception.

‘Everything can’t be done as it was’

Bishop Denis Nulty has warned that declining priest numbers are forcing Kildare & Leighlin to rethink Mass schedules, workloads and how its 117 churches are served.

In a pastoral letter read out at Masses on Sunday, Bishop Nulty said priests being recalled by religious orders or returning to their home dioceses, combined with the ageing profile of local clergy, have created a “new reality” for the diocese’s 56 parishes, now grouped into 11 pastoral areas. 

A search found a working count of 124 Sunday Masses and 59 Saturday Vigils totalling around 183 regular parish weekend Masses across the diocese.

Msgr John Byrne, PP of Portlaoise, said the situation facing priests is “daunting. As we age and progress… all that’s facing you is more work, more duties than you had to do last year, with less personnel,” he said. “Everything can’t be done as it was in the past.” 

Msgr Byrne said co-operation across the new groupings is already increasing, including around schools and sacramental preparation. “Pastoral areas need more than just colours on a map,” he said. “It needs the activity.”

Fr Declan Foley of Bagenalstown similarly pointed to an ageing clergy. “All of us are becoming older and… there’s no great replacements,” he said. “We’re also in many ways becoming kind of busier as well. When it comes to doing Masses, we still have to do them.”

However, Fr Foley said the pressure is uneven, with south Carlow less affected so far than “the northern parts of the diocese where you will have the huge towns”.

In Naas, Fr Liam Morgan said the wider pastoral area has around 12 weekend Masses, having already removed three from its schedule around three years ago, and is now down one priest.

Fr Tom Little of Askea, a priest for 50 years, described ministry extending beyond Mass to schools, funerals, sacramental preparation, sick calls, hospitals, nursing homes, childcare and elderly care.

Greater lay participation presents its own challenge, he said: “It’s very difficult to get people to volunteer now,” with safeguarding, insurance and governance adding further demands.

Fr Bernard Reyhart, PP of Carbury and originally from Sri Lanka, said overseas priests must adjust to cultural differences. “It’s about adaptation,” he said.

But he argued the challenge goes deeper than priest numbers. “People have faith,” he said, “but the thing is, people do not know the religion,” warning that Mass can become “kind of like a show” where people expect priests “to entertain them”.

“Catechism is very, very important,” he added.

Bishop Nulty has called for greater cooperation, lay involvement and sustainable solutions as the pastoral areas develop.

Polish bishops warn of marginalisation as school religion cuts take effect

The bishops of Poland have reaffirmed their opposition to changes to religious education within the school curriculum as the ministry of education has ruled out reversing its implementation. 

The Church has warned that the reduction in religious education would marginalise the Faith in schools.

Bishop Wojciech Osial of Łowicz called the decision to halve the religious education from two hours per week to one “unfair”. Bishop Osial, who is chairman of the Catholic Education Commission of the Polish Bishops’ Conference, said: “We do not accept the marginalisation of religion classes.”

Warren priest refused to sign restructuring form. Then his parish was audited

A Catholic priest in Warren believes he was targeted by the Archdiocese of Detroit after he refused to sign a document that the organization required dozens of its priests to sign as part of its massive restructuring process now underway.

By signing the document, the Rev. Hoang Lam, the pastor of Our Lady of Grace in Warren, would have resigned his office at the end of June 2027 and could have been reassigned to another parish as part of the archdiocese's restructuring process.

Lam, who is currently on a medical leave of absence, wants to remain at Our Lady of Grace on Ryan Road and said his current assignment there doesn't end until 2028. In an interview before his leave of absence was announced, Lam said that if a priest is rotated into his position who doesn't speak Vietnamese — his parish serves Metro Detroit's Vietnamese-American community — the move could affect church attendance.

Lam said that after he decided not to sign the document, his parish was audited. He said the Archdiocese of Detroit plans to remove him from his position. If he is removed, he could then be transferred to another parish.

"They intend to remove me, right? ... That's why they audit me," he said.

Lam, who now has an attorney, said that if he is removed from his post, that would affect "the whole parish."

"People will scatter," he said. "People will not come in here. People will not ... because we are the only ... national Vietnamese parish in the whole Archdiocese of Detroit."

Holly Fournier, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Detroit, didn't confirm or deny whether the audit had anything to do with Lam's refusal to resign his post as part of the restructuring process and said the archdiocese does not comment on human resources-related matters. She said the archdiocese's primary concern is "the dignity and privacy" of the individuals it serves and works alongside.

"Audits are an established part of our financial oversight," Fournier said, "and may be conducted as a routine measure or when circumstances warrant a closer review, independent of personnel matters."

The Rev. Mario Amore, executive director of parish renewal for the archdiocese, said an audit of Our Lady of Grace Vietnamese Parish was completed "in accordance with the Archdiocese’s normal processes and procedures." The findings have been shared with Archbishop Edward Weisenburger and will soon be shared with parish leadership, he said.

Amore said that as part of the archdiocese's restructuring efforts, Weisenburger asked 97 parish priests whose current assignments extend beyond June 30, 2027, to resign their offices effective that date. It was unclear Sept. 1 how many of those 97 signed the form agreeing to resign their posts.

The resignations are not effective until June 30 next year. A resignation means that a priest "no longer possesses the stability of office that comes with a formal pastoral assignment from the Archbishop," Amore said. It provides the archbishop with "the flexibility to make new assignments" based on the pastoral needs of the archdiocese, he said.

Amore said that generally, a priest would be permitted to complete his term of office if he refused to sign the resignation form.

Priests submit resignations

The Archdiocese of Detroit has about 250 priests, but those numbers are expected to sharply fall over the next decade, which is one factor in its multi-phase restructuring plan. Most of its priests are 50 years or older, according to the archdiocese's restructuring website, and the total number of priests is projected to decline 40% in the next 10 years.

As part of the restructuring, the archdiocese plans to shift to a "pastorate" model of service, in which one pastor would serve multiple churches. And a "large-scale reassignment of priests" should be expected, according to the archdiocese.

Previously, in 2021 and 2022, the archdiocese's then 216 parishes came together in 51 groupings called “families of parishes," according to the archdiocese's digital news service, Detroit Catholic. The Rev. Sean Bonner, the pastor at St. Mary Parish in Wayne, said the majority of pastors in the archdiocese started their existing assignments in 2021 or 2022.

Their assignments will expire in 2027 or 2028, as pastors generally serve a six-year term at a parish, Bonner said.

A majority of the active priests in the archdiocese will get new assignments starting in July 2027 as part of the restructuring process, Detroit Catholic said.

Bonner said he believes priests whose terms end after 2027 were asked to submit resignations to the archdiocese. That would allow them to be reassigned to another parish before the end of their term.

Bonner said he didn't have to submit a letter of resignation because his term expires in 2027.

Lam doesn't sign the document

Lam, who has been Our Lady of Grace's pastor since 2015, said his assignment ends in 2028. He said Weisenburger asked him and other priests to resign.

Lam said he worries about how his parish would be affected without a pastor who speaks Vietnamese. Parishioners, some of whom live far from the parish, would go to Mass closer to where they live, he said.

The archbishop gave priests two options, Lam said: Either they say yes or they say no, and Lam said no. He met with Weisenburger and said that he is happy at his parish and isn’t seeking a new assignment.

About a month or two months later, his parish was audited.

“And then they audited without notice,” Lam added.

A few representatives of the archdiocese just showed up one day, he said. Lam said an auxiliary bishop said the parish is to be audited by the archbishop, and he showed him a letter with all of the items to audit.

Lam recalled that a priest told him that if he doesn’t comply with all of the items, he could be removed from his post. The priest said he was surprised, but he complied with the audit.

Lam said that the way the priest spoke to him made him “feel stress.” He met with his doctor, who suggested he take a leave of absence for six months.  

Removal process

When the archdiocese audited the parish, it couldn't find "anything wrong" about him personally but did find some administrative issues with the parish, Lam said.

The archdiocese has communicated that Lam could learn more about "administrative duty" by going to another parish, he said.

Lam said the archdiocese told him that he wouldn't be removed if he signed the resignation document and took a psychological test.

"If I agree to all that, then I can stay here, and the audit's almost like gone," he said.

Lam said that his lawyer suggested that he not sign the document, because if he does, the archbishop could remove him at any point.

Lam rejected the archdiocese's offer. He now believes he is in the process of being removed.

Lam couldn't be reached for additional comment after the archdiocese's late August announcement that he had been granted a leave of absence. Amore said Lam’s medical leave is "a private matter unrelated to restructuring."

Weisenburger's letter said that while Lam is on leave, Bishop Robert Fisher will serve as the administrator of the parish. 

He said the Capuchin Franciscans will provide sacramental assistance, including "the Vietnamese language Sacraments."

Survivors experience Christian Brothers’ litigation strategy as abuse by other means (Opinion)

The case for greater understanding of the Christian Brothers and for older members of the congregation who neither abused children nor had any responsibility for what happened in the past was made by Fr Tony Flannery this past month. 

There is humanity in that concern.

Indeed, it was survivors themselves who first raised concerns about the distress caused to older Christian Brothers receiving High Court summonses in cases where they may have had no personal involvement in the abuse. 

Survivors should never have been placed in the position of having to worry about causing such distress.

The reason individual Brothers have been drawn into these proceedings is important. The Order’s leadership has declined to nominate a person to accept proceedings on behalf of the congregation, leaving survivors seeking civil justice having to pursue individual members instead.

This is a choice the leadership of the Order continues to make in its dealings with survivors of sexual abuse, including those whose abusers have been convicted. It is a choice that also has consequences for its own innocent members.  

At the centre of this discussion must be the children who were abused. The word “abuse” can sometimes conceal rather than convey the reality. Many children were subjected to rape and other forms of sexual violence and humiliation.

These were children, and they are the injured parties. They did not choose what happened to them, the imbalance of power between child and adult, or the consequences they would carry throughout their lives.

That reality matters when we are asked today to consider where our compassion and understanding should lie.

A religious congregation which places the Gospel at the centre of its identity can reasonably expect its leadership to be judged against Gospel values. Compassion, justice, truth, humility and concern for those who have been harmed are not standards being imposed from outside. They are values Christianity itself proclaims.

People tend to be vocal and magnanimous in their condemnation of “historic” abuse, (although for survivors that term is a misnomer as the consequences are lifelong); however, the secondary harm being caused in the present is ignored and confronted by silence.

The reason for this may be indifference or perhaps a lack of understanding. Regardless, when those who do speak up and question whether the response of a religious institution reflects its own values, they should not be dismissed as occupying some moral high ground. It is a legitimate question as to how institutional power is being exercised over survivors seeking justice today

As children, survivors experienced a devastating imbalance of power and control. Their ability to choose, to resist, to be heard and, in many cases, even to be believed was taken from them. That is why many survivors experience the Christian Brothers’ current litigation strategy as abuse by other means.

The abuse of childhood and the litigation strategy of today are plainly different but, for survivors, the experience of powerlessness can connect for them in a damaging way. The leadership of the same religious Order now exercises power and control over the process by which survivors seek justice. For people whose childhoods were defined by coercion and the loss of agency, that dynamic can be familiar and re-traumatising.

Secondary harm should not be diminished because it occurs decades later or takes a different form. The restoration of choice and agency to people from whom both were taken as children is fundamental to healing. Listening to survivors has little meaning if the institutional response that follows leaves them facing further obstacles to how they pursue justice.

Fr Flannery, in his Rite and Reason column of August 16th last, also refers to mediation, as described in the Christian Brothers’ own statement. But that is the Order’s account of the process. For survivors, whose pathway through the civil courts is effectively blocked, mediation, if offered, takes place against the backdrop of the Order’s litigation strategy and with individual Brothers rather than the congregation itself. Questions of power, control and agency remain.

I agree with Fr Flannery that forgiveness can have an important place in healing. But years caught in the Order’s litigation strategy hardly create the conditions in which peace, healing or forgiveness can flourish. The toll extends beyond the courts, intruding on family life and the space survivors need for therapy and healing.

There is certainly room for the compassion Fr Flannery asks us to extend to individual Christian Brothers. However, while his account of the formation of young Christian Brothers may help to explain the environment in which they lived, it offers little comfort to survivors. Understanding how Brothers themselves were formed cannot diminish responsibility for what was done to children, nor can it explain decisions being made by the Order’s leadership today.

The litigation strategy being pursued presently carries a human cost. Responsibility for that rests with the Order’s leadership, not with innocent Brothers drawn into proceedings or survivors seeking justice.

'You'll be sorely missed by many': Heartbreak as beloved Limerick priest bids farewell

BELOVED Limerick priest Fr Chris O’Donnell is saying goodbye to the Ballyhoura region after seven years in the area.

The popular cleric had been serving in Kilmallock/Ballingaddy, Bulgaden/Martinstown, Effin/Garrienderk, Glenroe/Ballyorgan, Kilfinane and Ardpatrick.

Fr O’Donnell told Limerick Live: “I will remember my time with great fondness as it has been a total privilege to serve the people of this area. There is so much good here and to be part of these communities has been a blessing.”

He credited the members of the local community with making his time in the area special: “I have loved my time with the young people and getting to work with them. We are blessed with the principals, teachers and staff in the local schools who have been a pleasure to work with. Also the parishioners who serve in various ministries, especially our sacristans have encouraged me no end as they give of their time to keep faith alive and to encourage community and belonging.

“The people who worship with us every day naturally have a special place in our hearts as their quiet daily witness nourishes us. Equally the people who come every weekend, those who continue to practice their faith in the midst of the busyness of their lives and the challenges they face have inspired me.”

Fr Chris said that priesthood isn't just about “what we try to offer to people but it is also about what we receive from our people in terms of friendship and fun and faith”.

“The area is large and the demands are great and so it can be overwhelming at times but I have been blessed to work with good priests here. Canon Michael as Moderator has been a great example and colleague and friend as have the other priests especially Bishop John Flemming and Fr Pat Bluett who are currently retired here.

“I cannot but miss this area. It is a beautiful side of Limerick with great people.”

Asked for his favourite memory from his time in the area, he said: “There are no outstanding moments as it has been through the day-to-day life here that I have been truly blessed. While at times the work has been all consuming and sometimes you might wonder can you sustain it, the best thing has been just the warmth and kindness of the people both young and old.”

Fr Chris celebrated his last Mass in the area last weekend, which he described as “a lovely weekend”.

“I have been totally humbled by the lengths local people went to in organising the night and I am deeply appreciative and I have been greatly humbled by the people who turned up and their kindness. It was a lovely parish night and the great sense of community spirit that was evident showed the importance of community and belonging which is at the heart of our faith.”

Relocating to a new region is a bittersweet experience for him.

“Moving is a difficult and yet an important part of the ministry. Leaving the priests you have worked with and the parishioners you have served is lonely, not to mention the ordeal involved in moving house! No doubt for all of the priests who are moving it is a busy time filled with lots of emotion.”

He continued: “In the midst of the loneliness of leaving I look forward to serving the people in my new parishes. People are great wherever you go and I look forward to getting to know and love my new parishioners. If I am lucky enough to be as happy there as I have been here I have a lot to look forward to!”

In a post on Facebook, Kilmallock GAA Club thanked Fr Chris for “everything”, adding that he will “always have a special place in the hearts of the people of Kilmallock”.

“Kilmallock will certainly be a little different without you, and you will be sorely missed by so many”.

Kilmallock & District Community Council also wrote a post on Facebook about his departure, saying: “Kilmallock has been so incredibly lucky to have had you with us, and today is a very sad day for our whole community.”

The post continued: “We will never see the likes of you again. There was, and always will be, something very special about Father Chris.

“Thank you for every conversation, every visit, every smile, every bit of encouragement and every moment you gave to the people of Kilmallock.

“Go with our very best wishes and every blessing for the future. You will be missed more than you will every know.”

Priest unaware of €2,500 bail surety

A PRIEST, who turned up to Cavan District Court to bail a man accused of smearing his faeces, blood and urine in a garda station and hospital recently, did not realise he had to pay a €2,500 independent surety into the court.

The defendant, Finbar Manning, was subsequently kept in custody at Castlerea Prison.

Mr Manning, who appeared at the sitting via video link from prison, was in court awaiting DPP directions on a raft of charges arising from the period of Saturday, July 25 until Monday, July 27, during which time he was in custody at Cavan Garda Station.

Over that weekend, a total of eight officers from the Armed Response Unit had to be assigned on rotation to protect the defendant, others and state property from himself.

When the 44-year-old was brought to the first sitting of Cavan District Court after his violent spree, he was accompanied by two armed gardaí in full riot gear. He himself appeared with a bandage to his forehead and cuts to the bridge of his nose.

Finbar Manning of no fixed abode had been charged with 14 separate offences including threatening to “break every window” in his former partner’s home on July 25 to spreading faeces on his cell mattress after he was arrested and taken to Cavan Garda Station on the same date.

He is also charged with smearing his faeces on his cell wall, the cell he was moved to next door, and then again on the first cell where he was held.

Mr Manning is further charged with smashing a window at Cavan Garda Station by ramming his head through it and smearing his faeces and blood on five garda uniforms, some of which were worn by gardaí at the time.

When he was brought to Cavan General Hospital for psychiatric assessment it is alleged Manning proceeded to urinate on the hospital floor, engaging in threatening or abusive words or behaviour, and three counts of resisting arrest.

Manning was granted bail subject to very strict conditions including providing a suitable bail address and payment of an independent surety of €2,500. However, when he couldn’t meet the bail terms, he was taken into custody at Castlerea Prison.

BACK IN COURT

When he appeared in court again on August 28, it was to receive DPP directions. As sitting Judge Mary McAveety tried to explain she could remand the defendant to a further two or four weeks in custody on his consent, Mr Manning told her he was getting bail.

“Fr Tom McKiernan is in court to bail me out,” the defendant said but there was no priest in court.

When he was called over the tannoy, Fr McKiernan came to courtroom number one and confirmed he was there to assist Finbar Manning with his bail application. 

However, when Sergeant Damien Galligan explained that he was nominated as Manning’s independent surety and would therefore have to pay €2,500 into the court, the priest said he wasn’t aware of that condition.

“I’ve explained the €2,500 and he’s skeptical,” Sgt Galligan said of a conversation he had with Fr McKiernan at the side of the courtroom. 

The sergeant then applied to have Manning remanded for a further week.

Finbar Manning tried to argue that presiding judge at Cavan District Court, Raymond Finnegan, had told him he could be bailed on €500 but Judge McAveety was decisive in her response.

“No, the note on your court file is very clear,” she told Manning, “In any case, I’m going to remand you in custody for one week for you or Fr Tom to sort an independent surety or to give you time to get someone else to act as independent surety.”

Czerny calls for progress in inculturation and asks what place indigenous "spiritualities" have in the Church

Cardinal Michael Czerny has defended that inculturation remains a “difficult but necessary” path for the Church in the Amazon and has raised the question of what place the knowledge, voices, spiritualities, and decisions of the Amazonian peoples occupy in its mission. 

The cardinal also asked how to ensure that the region is not merely a territory of evangelization, but also a place “from which God evangelizes and transforms us.”

Czerny made these remarks in a message addressed to the XXV Interinstitutional Meeting of the Amazonian Itinerant Team, held from August 29 to 31 in Brazil to mark the 25th anniversary of this initiative. 

The network, initially promoted by Catholic Church institutions and the Society of Jesus, carries out its work among communities in the Amazon region.

The message was one of Czerny’s final interventions as prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, a post he left on September 1. The Canadian Jesuit was also one of the two special secretaries of the Synod for the Amazon held in Rome in 2019.

“Inculturation is a difficult but necessary path”

Addressing the present state of the Catholic mission in the region, Czerny maintains that the expression “Church with an Amazonian face” must go beyond its institutional dimension.

“The call for a Church with an ‘Amazonian face’ cannot be reduced to an institutional expression. Inculturation is a difficult but necessary path,” he states.

The cardinal then poses a series of questions about the participation of the region’s peoples in the Church’s mission.

“What does it mean today for the Itinerant Team to have a truly Amazonian face? What do we learn from the peoples with whom we walk? What real place do their knowledge, voices, spiritualities, and decisions have?” Czerny asks.

The cardinal adds another question: “How do we allow the Amazon not to be merely the place where we carry out our itinerant mission, but also the place from which God evangelizes and transforms us?”

These considerations are in continuity with some of the proposals made during the 2019 Synod for the Amazon, in which Czerny participated as a special secretary. Its final document called for progress toward a Church that is “inserted and inculturated,” with an “Amazonian face and heart,” and maintained that in the process of inculturation the peoples themselves must be the protagonists.

An “examination of conscience” after 25 years

The XXV Interinstitutional Meeting served to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Amazonian Itinerant Team, but Czerny asked that the anniversary also serve to review the work carried out.

“A true Christian anniversary must also be an examination of conscience,” he states.

The cardinal organizes his reflection around three questions: “What have we done for Christ? What are we doing for Christ? What will we do for Christ?”

Looking back over the past two and a half decades, Czerny asks participants where they have been a close presence, where they have accompanied “threatened life,” and to what extent they have learned from the region’s communities.

“Where have we learned from the peoples of the Amazon, allowing them to be true interlocutors and protagonists? Where have we woven communion among different charisms and been a force for integration?” he asks.

The cardinal also recalls the four dimensions of conversion proposed during the Amazon Synod: pastoral, cultural, ecological, and synodal.

For Czerny, these expressions “are not words to decorate our mission,” but rather “concrete paths of conversion that demand an honest review of our lives.”

Czerny places Leo XIV in continuity with Francis in the Amazon

The cardinal also addresses the situation of the Amazon under the pontificate of Leo XIV. It is Czerny who presents the current Pontiff’s actions as being in continuity with the path of listening initiated during Francis’s pontificate.

According to the cardinal, Leo XIV, “in continuity with Pope Francis,” is helping to discern the Church’s new steps in the region “with his own rhythm and tone” and through concrete calls to unity, peace, care for creation, and the protection of life.

Czerny raises four questions in this regard: “What has matured? What needs conversion? What must begin? What must cease?”

The cardinal recalls the message Leo XIV addressed in March of this year to the VI Assembly of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA). On that occasion, the Pope used the image of the shihuahuaco, a slow-growing tree that over the years becomes an ecosystem and refuge for numerous forms of life.

Czerny takes up that image to present the Church’s call to be a “sign of unity in diversity and a safe refuge that generates and protects life.”

He also recalls Leo XIV’s request to proclaim the kerygma, accompany those who suffer, safeguard creation, and respect “life in all its forms, especially human life.”

“The Amazon remains wounded”

Czerny also refers to the current conditions of the region and states that “the Amazon remains wounded, even more than ever.”

According to the cardinal, its inhabitants continue to face “threats, abuses, exploitation, and new forms of violence.”

“Our common home continues to be attacked,” he notes.

The cardinal maintains that the work of the Itinerant Team should not be limited to bringing something to the communities, but also involves “listening, learning, accompanying, and allowing oneself to be transformed.”

Looking ahead, Czerny does not propose concrete measures in the message and asks participants to discern what initiatives, alliances, and ways of carrying out the mission will be necessary.

“What must die so that something new can be born?” he asks.

The cardinal concludes by wishing that the meeting be “celebration and conversion; memory and discernment; gratitude and examination of conscience.”

Czerny, born in Brno, in what was then Czechoslovakia, in 1946 and who emigrated with his family to Canada as a child, entered the Society of Jesus and was ordained a priest in 1973. Francis appointed him undersecretary of the Section for Migrants and Refugees in 2016, special secretary of the Synod for the Amazon in 2019, and created him a cardinal that same year. Since 2022 he has headed the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

Koch: "The Christian voice will become increasingly weaker" if Churches disagree on man and society

Cardinal Kurt Koch, Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, has warned that differences over marriage, family, sexuality, gender, and issues related to the beginning and end of life are creating new divisions among Christian confessions and weakening their ability to offer a common witness before an increasingly secularized Europe.

“Previously, the watchword was that faith divides while action unites. Today we almost have to say the opposite,” the Swiss prelate states in an interview given to Tribune Chrétienne published this Wednesday, September 2.

Koch, who has led the Vatican body responsible for ecumenical relations since 2010, notes that over the past decades Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants have managed to reach agreements on some matters of faith while new fractures have emerged precisely in the moral and anthropological sphere.

“We have been able to reach ecumenical consensus on numerous questions of faith. But new tensions and divisions have appeared in the ethical sphere, especially on issues of marriage, family, sexuality, and gender on the one hand, and on bioethical questions, particularly those related to the beginning and end of human life, on the other,” he explains.

Koch calls for bringing moral issues into ecumenical dialogue

The Vatican prefect believes these differences cannot be left outside conversations among the various Christian confessions. In his view, ecumenical dialogues must also address ethical controversies and attempt to reach consensus on them.

“If the Christian Churches cannot speak with one voice on the fundamental questions concerning the human person and life in society, the Christian voice will become increasingly weaker in Europe’s secularized societies,” Koch warns.

The differences highlighted by the cardinal have become particularly visible in some Western Protestant communities, which over recent decades have modified their positions on issues such as same-sex marriage, homosexuality, gender identity, or ordained ministry.

A recent example is found in the Church of Norway, whose bishops were received by Leo XIV at the Vatican at the end of August. The Norwegian Lutheran confession has ordained women since 1961 and has celebrated same-sex marriages since 2017. During that trip, the delegation was also scheduled to meet with Koch himself.

Koch does not single out any specific Church in the interview nor does he evaluate these decisions individually. His warning focuses on the consequences that moral divergences have for ecumenism itself.

The cardinal includes in the same problem the bioethical questions relating to the “beginning and end of human life.” Hence he considers it necessary that these matters form an explicit part of the dialogues among Christian confessions.

Secularization cannot be the foundation of unity

Europe’s progressive secularization could, under certain circumstances, favor greater cooperation among Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants, Koch acknowledges, but the cardinal rejects the idea that Christianity’s loss of social influence could become the ultimate reason for ecumenism.

“Secularization constitutes a common challenge for all Christians in France,” he explains. This reality can help them discover what they have in common and encourage them “to give witness together” before the challenges of French society.

However, Koch immediately introduces a distinction: “To recover the unity of Christians, secularization can certainly constitute an important occasion, but it cannot be its true reason.”

The foundation of that unity, he maintains, “can only lie in the effort to recover unity in faith,” specifically “in that apostolic faith which is transmitted and entrusted to each Christian in baptism.”

The statement thus places the doctrinal question at the center of ecumenical dialogue and rules out a conception of Christian unity limited to practical cooperation in the face of advancing secularization.

“It cannot be a matter of calling into question” the primacy of the Pope

Another issue addressed by Koch is the primacy of the Bishop of Rome, one of the main historical difficulties in achieving full communion between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches.

The cardinal acknowledges that “many Christian communities consider the question of the Papacy an important obstacle” on the path to unity. At the same time, he recalls that for the Catholic Church “the ministry of unity of the successor of Peter is a precious gift of the Holy Spirit given to the Church.”

Koch maintains that the Catholic Church cannot reserve that gift for itself, but must also offer it to other Churches and ecclesial communities. Yet he sets an explicit limit to this search.

“It cannot be a matter, in doing so, of calling into question Catholic doctrine on the primacy of the successor of Peter,” he states.

The prefect refers to the encyclical Ut unum sint, published by Saint John Paul II in 1995. In it, the Polish Pope invited the leaders of other Churches and Christian communities to enter into dialogue on a form of exercising primacy that could cease to be a factor of division without renouncing its mission.

The Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity published in 2024, with the approval of Francis, the study document The Bishop of Rome. Primacy and Synodality in Ecumenical Dialogues and in the Responses to the Encyclical Ut unum sint, which for the first time gathered the responses received to the encyclical and the contributions of the various ecumenical dialogues on primacy.

Koch now explains that the work of his dicastery consists in compiling and evaluating the responses of the different Churches and ecclesial communities before considering how primacy might be exercised.

“Only on the basis of this work would it then be possible to consider the manner in which papal primacy could be exercised. The result should then be presented to the Pope to learn his opinion,” he indicates.

“One cannot be Christian and antisemitic”

Koch is also president of the Commission for Religious Relations with Judaism, integrated into the same dicastery. From that responsibility he warns of “an alarming increase of antisemitism in European societies.”

Faced with this situation, he maintains that Christians have the responsibility to oppose these trends by recalling that “one cannot be both Christian and antisemitic.”

“The popes have stated this clearly and repeatedly since the Second Vatican Council,” he adds.

At the same time, the cardinal points to the need to pay attention to Christians in Israel and throughout the Middle East, who are experiencing a difficult situation as a consequence of armed conflicts.

Koch recalls at this point words of Leo XIV on the need to “continue vigorously the precious dialogue between Jews and Catholics” even “in these difficult times, marked by conflicts and misunderstandings.”

The prelate also mentions the position maintained by the Holy See in favor of a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians and considers that this issue must also be addressed within Judeo-Christian dialogue.

Koch hopes Leo XIV will strengthen the faith of French Catholics

The interview concludes with the upcoming visit of Leo XIV to France. Koch hopes that French Catholics will prepare for the trip in such a way that it can become “an encouraging event that allows for a deepening of the faith.”

The prefect identifies three major axes of the visit: education, science, and culture during the Pontiff’s stop at UNESCO in Paris; “the renewal of faith and the deepening of Marian devotion,” together with special attention to the sick, in Lourdes; and “the rediscovery of Europe’s Christian roots at the service of peace and unity” during the commemoration of Robert Schuman in Metz, in northeastern France.

Koch concludes by addressing French Catholics directly and recovering the historical designation of France as the eldest daughter of the Church.

“I wish the Catholic Church in France, eldest daughter of the Church, that the encounters with Pope Leo XIV, through his word and the celebrations of holy Mass, may strengthen the bonds of the Church in France with the Holy Father and with Rome, and may arouse a new joy of belonging to a universal Church.”

Cardinal Zen loses appeal against his conviction over the Hong Kong protesters' relief fund

Cardinal Joseph Zen, bishop emeritus of Hong Kong, has lost his appeal on Thursday to overturn the conviction he received in 2022 for failing to register the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, created to cover medical and legal expenses of people detained during the 2019 anti-government protests.

The Hong Kong Court of Appeal has rejected the appeal filed by Zen, 94, and four other former fund administrators, thereby upholding the convictions handed down four years ago. 

According to Associated Press, the defense has announced it will now take the case to the Court of Final Appeal, the highest judicial body in the territory.

Zen was found guilty in November 2022 along with singer Denise Ho, academic Hui Po-keung, and former pro-democracy lawmakers Margaret Ng and Cyd Ho. Each was fined 4,000 Hong Kong dollars—about 440 euros—for violating the Societies Ordinance.

The offense for which they were convicted consisted of failing to register the 612 Fund as a society or to request an exemption within the one-month period established by Hong Kong law.

The court rules that the 612 Fund had to be registered

The 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund was created in June 2019 (it ceased operations in 2021) and provided financial, medical, and legal assistance to people detained, injured, or affected during the protests that shook Hong Kong that year. Zen was part of the group of trustees responsible for its management.

Judges Jeremy Poon, Aarif Barma, and Derek Pang have now ruled that the organization was not simply a sum of money managed through a trust, as the defense argued, but fell within the definition of a society established by Hong Kong law.

According to the ruling reported by AP, the magistrates noted that the five administrators intended to use the fund as an instrument to solicit, collect, and allocate donations to support the 2019 protests.

The court also rejected the argument that the registration requirement imposed a disproportionate burden on the exercise of freedom of association.

Following the ruling, Margaret Ng announced that the convicted individuals would appeal to the Court of Final Appeal. The former lawmaker and lawyer argued that the highest court must clarify what can be considered a “society” and the extent of the obligation to register with the police when several people jointly carry out an activity.

“It has a major impact on Hong Kong’s civil society,” Ng stated.

Detained under the National Security Law, but not convicted under it

The cardinal and the other administrators of the 612 Fund were detained in May 2022 on suspicion of “collusion with foreign forces,” an offense under the National Security Law imposed by Beijing on Hong Kong in 2020.

However, Zen was not charged or convicted of any offense under that law. The case that went to trial and for which he received the 4,000 Hong Kong dollar fine was exclusively related to the failure to register the 612 Fund.

His detention under the national security legislation caused considerable international attention and concern within the Catholic community at the time.

After receiving the conviction in November 2022, Zen himself asked that the case not be interpreted as one related to religious freedom in Hong Kong.

The prelate’s legal situation came back into the spotlight in December 2025, when the Court of Appeal examined the appeal filed by the five former administrators. The ruling announced on Thursday is the result of that proceeding.

A fund born during the 2019 protests

The Hong Kong protests began in 2019 in rejection of a bill that would have allowed the extradition of criminal suspects to mainland China. Although the bill was eventually withdrawn, the demonstrations continued for months and evolved into a broader movement against Beijing’s growing control over the territory.

It was in that context that the 612 Fund was created, intended to cover, among other expenses, the legal defense of detained protesters and medical assistance for the injured.

In June 2020, the National Security Law came into effect, covering offenses such as secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with foreign forces. Since then, numerous pro-democracy leaders and activists have been prosecuted and imprisoned.

Authorities in Beijing and Hong Kong maintain that the legislation restored stability after the serious unrest of 2019, while critics argue that it has significantly reduced the space for political opposition and freedom of association in the former British colony, returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.

Zen, one of the most critical Catholic voices toward Beijing

A Salesian and bishop of Hong Kong between 2002 and 2009, Joseph Zen was created a cardinal by Benedict XVI in 2006. Since his retirement, he has continued to speak publicly both about the political situation in the territory and about the conditions in which Catholics live in China.

Zen has also been one of the most prominent critics of the provisional agreement between the Holy See and Beijing on the appointment of bishops and has repeatedly warned about the situation of Catholics who for decades remained outside the ecclesiastical structures recognized by the communist authorities.

At 94 years old, the cardinal appeared in court with the help of a cane. The dismissal of his appeal keeps the 2022 conviction in force, but does not yet close the case: the former administrators of the 612 Fund have announced their intention to take the matter to Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal.

Pope Leo XIV recalls that priestly formation must be "without shortcuts" and asks seminaries to be a "school of affections"

Pope Leo XIV has asked this Thursday that seminaries be «a school of affections» and has urged formators to accompany future priests through relationships that are «authentic, personal and communal, made of truth and charity.» 

The Pontiff has also insisted on the need for formation without «shortcuts» and has rejected the idea that the seminary could be considered «a luxury» or «an outdated institution.»

Leo XIV made these remarks during the audience granted in the Vatican Apostolic Palace to the seminarians of the Pontifical Regional Seminary of Apulia «Pius XI,» in Molfetta, and of the Episcopal Seminary of Aversa, both in Italy. 

In his address, the Pope placed the relationship with God at the center of priestly formation, highlighted fraternity and the ecclesial dimension of vocation, and recalled that the seminary prepares the future priest to be sent to families, young people, the elderly, the marginalized, and those who «have lost the meaning of existence.»

Below is the complete address of Pope Leo XIV:

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Peace be with you.

Dear brothers in the episcopate, priests, seminarians and family members:

First of all, I thank you wholeheartedly for your presence here today.

You come from two different paths and two different lands, but this year your houses are celebrating an anniversary together. In Molfetta you commemorate the first centenary of the new seat, desired by Pope Pius XI, whose name your seminary bears, while in Aversa you celebrate the tercentenary of the opening of the current seat.

In meeting you, I wish to highlight one dimension of your formative journey: the relationship with the One who has called you. Study, discipline and the stages of the journey are important elements that must be kept very much in mind, but they only have value if they are grounded in the relationship with God.

Saint Mark, in his Gospel, recounts that Jesus «went up the mountain, called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. And he appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, to be with him and to be sent out to proclaim the message» (Mk 3:13-14).

In these few words everything is already contained. Stopping at this brief pericope we can discover an admirable synthesis of the experience valid for all who have been called, for all who wish to deepen the truth of their vocation. There is the mountain to be climbed, where one reaches Christ and, above all, where one remains with Him. The heart of the seminary experience is all here: learning to be with the Master, the Lord Jesus.

The evangelist relates that the Lord «called those whom he desired» and immediately highlights the freedom of God, from which every vocation flows. There is no competition, there is no ranking, nor is it written that he chose the best: he chose those he desired. In a world that strives so much to celebrate personal self-realization, it is truly important to reaffirm that none of you and none of us is here because we have deserved it, but only by a free choice of God the Father, a sign and pledge of a gratuitous love that always precedes us and never disappoints.

Dear seminarians, your very presence in the seminary is a sign of hope for the whole Church. Not of a vague optimism, but of the certainty that the Lord always calls, in every age of history and in every place. Looking at each one of you, I contemplate the wonder of God, who never tires of whispering to the hearts of young people the beauty of giving their lives for Him and for the Church.

Every vocation is born of an intimate dialogue with God, cultivated in silence and prayer, which often takes place «despite the sometimes deafening noise of the world» (Leo XIV, Message for the LXIII World Day of Prayer for Vocations, March 16, 2026). It is there that everything is decided, and for that dialogue to take place it is necessary to learn to be with Him.

You have many examples, but I believe that for all of you the venerable Bishop Don Tonino Bello shows with particular clarity what it means to be a priest and to be a bishop: not with words, but in every gesture and every decision, and bearing witness to it to the end.

That is why the time of the seminary remains necessary today no less than yesterday. In a world that is in a hurry and that looks with suspicion at every prolonged pause, one might think that it is a luxury or an outdated institution, but it is not so. Precisely because our time is fast and noisy, a place and a stage of life are needed in which one learns to remain, to discern, to allow oneself to be formed without shortcuts. The seminary is not a postponement of the mission, but its condition. Do not underestimate it.

After having heard the voice of the Lord, one must indeed reach Him and climb the mountain, and this at times can be tiring, because one climbs on foot, at some moments with shortness of breath, without yet seeing the summit.

However, the effort of the spiritual life is sustained by the beauty of fraternity and of sharing the mission. Indeed, on the mountain Jesus does not call a single man, but twelve, of very different and sometimes improbable personalities in our eyes. The Lord gathers them, keeps them together, so that they may learn that the Church is lived together: it is not the property of any of us and we are all called to love and serve it as one body. You who come from Molfetta experience this in a particular way, for in the regional seminary the communion among the Churches of Apulia is not an ideal, but a concrete friendship that is born during these years and that will accompany you as presbyters throughout your lives.

Because, just as «no pastor exists alone» (Leo XIV, apostolic letter A Fidelity that Generates the Future, December 8, 2025, 15), neither can a seminarian conceive a private path with the Lord: he must always feel and experience the beauty of ecclesial mediation. The seminary, therefore, even before being a place where knowledge is acquired, «should be a school of affections» (ibid., 12). And to you, dear formators, I ask that you be the first teachers of that care and that fraternity which are manifested in authentic, personal and communal relationships, made of truth and charity. One does not improvise as a formator: yours is a most delicate ministry for which one must prepare with knowledge, patience and love.

There remains the last step: that in which one descends from the mountain, because the mountain is not a refuge. Jesus does not take the Twelve up high to put them in safety, but so that, after having experienced God, they may be sent to communicate to the world this newness of life.

You will therefore be called to come down from the mountain to be sent to the people of your lands: to those families who move forward with difficulty, to the young people who at twenty pack their bags to look for work, to the elderly who are alone, to the marginalized, to those who have lost the meaning of existence. The priest is sent to all to proclaim to all the beauty of faith in Jesus Christ, the good news of our salvation. It is the salvation that has been given to us through Mary. Entrust yourselves to Her, as to the One who was the first to do what is asked of you today. Ask Mary for the grace to learn to say your «yes» to the Lord Jesus every day.

Dear seminarians, before we say goodbye I want to thank you. Thank you, in the name of the Church, for the «yes» you have pronounced and which you pronounce again every day: it is not easy nor can it be taken for granted in today’s world, and the Church knows this well.

And I wish to express particular thanks to the families present here. A vocation never arises without an appropriate context and often needs a home, parents who pray and who know how to let go. To you, dear families, my thanks and those of the whole Church.

I greet and bless the deacons who will be ordained priests in a few days: I carry you in my personal prayer, that you may always be faithful, joyful and courageous disciples of the Lord. We will pray for you, all of us.

I bless you all from the heart, together with your bishops, your formators, your families and those communities that await you and who already pray for you. Thank you.