Pope Benedict has announced he will proclaim St. John of Avila Doctor of
the Universal church.
His announcement came on Saturday at a Mass for
young seminarians in the cathedral of Santa María la Real de La Almudena
in Madrid. Emer McCarthy reports from the Spanish capital.
On
Saturday, to the joy of Spaniards, priests and Catholics around the
world Pope Benedict XVI declared he would make St John of Avila a Doctor
of the Universal Church.Madrid’s neo-gothic cathedral of Santa María la
Real de La Almudena filled with the voices of young men raised in
prayer Saturday morning, the future pastors of the Spanish Church.
“Looking at you”, - Pope Benedict told them, - “I again see proof of how
Christ continues to call young disciples and to make them his apostles,
thus keeping alive the mission of the Church and the offer of the
Gospel to the world”.
The Mass with the young seminarians, was the Pope’s second appointment of the day. Earlier in the morning, as the sun rose over the city, he had travelled to the vast park in the very heart of the capital, the Jardines del Buen Retiro. There since midweek priests – from all over the world – have been on hand to offer the Sacrament of Reconciliation to pilgrims. 200 open-air white wooden confessionals line the park, and there on Saturday morning - for the first time ever during WYD events - Pope Benedict joined the confessors to administer the Sacrament to four young pilgrims- two French speaking, one German speaking and one Spanish speaking.
Later, in his homily in
Almudena cathedral, he returned to the role of the priest as minister of
God’s forgiveness: “Ask him to let you imitate him in his perfect
charity towards all, so that you do not shun the excluded and sinners,
but help them convert and return to the right path. Ask him to teach you
how to be close to the sick and the poor in simplicity and generosity.
Face this challenge without anxiety or mediocrity, but rather as a
beautiful way of living our human life in gratuitousness and service, as
witnesses of God made man, messengers of the supreme dignity of the
human person and therefore its unconditional defenders”.
Pope Benedict XVI also gave words of advice to the over 6,000 young men many of whom assisted in the celebration from the courtyard outside the Cathedral. He said their years in the seminary “should be years of interior silence, of unceasing prayer, of constant study and of gradual insertion into the pastoral activity and structures of the Church”.
He
told them to model themselves on Christ, supreme pastor: “ Relying on
his love, do not be intimidated by surroundings that would exclude God
and in which power, wealth and pleasure are frequently the main criteria
ruling people’s lives. You may be shunned along with others who propose
higher goals or who unmask the false gods before whom many now bow
down. That will be the moment when a life deeply rooted in Christ will
clearly be seen as something new and it will powerfully attract those
who truly search for God, truth and justice”.
“Approach the priesthood – Pope Benedict said - only if you are firmly convinced that God is calling you to be his ministers, and if you are completely determined to exercise it in obedience to the Church’s precepts”.
Then to
the joy of the young men before him and the priests and lay faithful
around the world, Pope Benedict XVI announced he would shortly declare
the great XVIth century preacher,St. John of Avila , doctor of the
universal Church.
There are currently 33 doctors of the Church, including St. Augustine, St. Francis de Sales and St. Teresa of Avila. St. Therese of Lisieux was the last to be proclaimed doctor of the Church in by Blessed John Paul II in 1997.