Priests cannot fulfill their missionary mandate by staying in their rectories and churches waiting for people to come to them, said Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes, president of the Congregation for Clergy."It is also necessary to rise up and go to where people and families dwell, live and work," the cardinal said in a letter to priests marking the Aug. 4 feast of St. John Vianney, the famed French parish priest.
"When priests move, the church moves," said the cardinal, emphasizing the importance of a priest's example in getting every Catholic parishioner to take seriously his or her obligation to share faith in Jesus.
The mandate to preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth still requires foreign missionaries, he said, but missionary work also must take place where, despite the fact that Christianity has been present for centuries, the faith of many people has weakened or is nonexistent.
"The sower does not limit himself to throwing the seed out of the window but actually leaves the house," Cardinal Hummes wrote in the message published on the congregation's Web site: www.clerus.org.
Cardinal Hummes told the world's priests that they are "the great richness, the energy, the pastoral and missionary inspiration" of the entire church.
"Little or nothing will happen" without their example and leadership, he said.
The cardinal also said, "Only a small minority of priests have gravely deviated" from their promises and mission "and the church seeks to repair the harm that they have done."
"On the other hand, it rejoices in and is proud of the immense majority of its priests, who are good and exceedingly worthy of praise," he said.
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