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Pope urges Ethiopian priests and
seminarians to 'walk in holiness'
Translated from
January 29, 2011
On Saturday morning, the Holy Father granted an audience in the Hall of the Popes of the Apostolic Palace to the community of the Pontificio Collegio Etiopico which is located in the Vatican Gardens.
[The Pontifical Colleges of Rome, sometimes known as the Roman colleges, are institutions established and maintained in Rome for the education of future priests. Traditiona;ly, each college is for students of a particularly nationality and also serve as their residence. Incidentally, the private apartment to which Cardinal Angelo Sodano retired after his term ended as Secretary of State is in the Ethiopian college.]
Here is a translation of the Pope's address, delivered in Italian:
I am happy to welcome you on the happy occasion of the 150th anniversary of the birth in heaven of St. Giustino de Jacobis. I cordially greet each of you, dear priests and seminarians of the Pontificio Collegio Etiopico, which Divine Providence has situated near the tomb of the Apostle Peter - a sign of the ancient and profound bond of communion uniting the Church in Ethopia and Eritrea with the Apostolic See.
I especially greet the Rector, Fr. Teclezghi Bahta, whom I thank for the kind words with which he introduced our meeting, recalling the various significant circumstances which motivated it. I welcome you today with special affection, and together with you, I would like to reflect on your community of origin.
I wish to dwell on the luminous figure of St. Giustino de Jacobis, whose anniversary you celebrated last July 31. Worthy son of St. Vincent de Paul, Giustino lived in an exemplary way his principle of 'doing everything for everyone', especially in the service of the Abyssinian people. [Abyssinia is the old name for Ethiopia].
Sent at age 38 by Cardinal Franzoni, the then Prefect of Propaganda Fide [Propagation of the Faith, old name for the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples], as a missionary in the Tigrai region of Ethiopia, he worked first in Adua and then in Guala, where he soon thought about formation of Ethiopian priests. giving life to a seminary that he called Collegio dell'Immaccolata.
With zealous ministry he worked tirelessly so that that portion of the People of God would recover the original fervor of the faith that had been sowed by the first evangelizer St Frumentius (cfr PL 21, 473-80). Justin intuited with farsightedness that attention to the cultural context should be a favored way through which the grace of the Lord would form new generations of Christians.
Learning the local language and promoting the plurisecular liturgical tradition of the rite that was proper to the community, he also did his best to do effective ecumenical work.
For more than two decades, his generous ministry, first as a priest then as bishop, worked for the benefit of all he econountered and loved as vital members of the people entrusted to his care.
For his passion to educate, especially in the formation of priests, he can rightly be considered the patron of your college. Indeed, even today, this worthy institution welcomes priests and candidates for priesthood in their effort for theological, spiritual and pastoral formation.
Re-entering your communtties of origin, or accompanying fellow nationals who have emigrated abroad, you must learn to inspire love of God and of the Church in each one , following the sxample of St. Giustino De Jacobis.
He crowned his fecund contribution to the religious and civilian life of Abyssinians with the gift of his life, silently given back to God after many sufferings and persecutions. He was beatified by the Venerable Pius XII on June 25, 1939, and canonized by the Servant of God Paul VI on October 26, 1975.
Dear priests and seminarians, even for you, the way of holiness is indicated. Christ continues to be present in the world and to reveal himself through those who, like St. Giustino De Jacobis, allow themselves to be animated by his Spirit.
We are reminded of this by the Second Vatican Council, when it says: "In the life of those who, while taking part in our human nature, are nonetheless more perfectly transformed into the image of Christ (cfr 2 Cor 3,18), God vividly manifests his presence and his face to men. In them it is he himself who speaks to us and shows us the sign of his Kingdom" (Dogmatic Const. Lumen gentium, 50).
Christ, the Eternal Priest of the New Covenant, who through the special vocation to the priestly ministry, has 'conquered' our life, does not suppress the characteristic qualities of a person. On the contrary, he uplifts, he ennobles, and making priests his own, calls them to serve his mystery and his work.
God needs each of us "to show future generations the extraordinary richness of his grace through his goodness to us in Christ Jesus"
(Eph 2,7).
Notwithstanding the individual character of each one's vocation, we are not separated one from the other - instead we support each other, in communion within one spiritual organism.
We are called to form the total Christ, a unity recapitulated in the Lord, vivified by his Spirit to become his pleroma [manifestations of divine power] and to enrich the canticle of praise that he raises to tbe Father.
Christ is inseparable from the Church which is his Body. It is in the Church that Christ conjoins to him most closely all who are baptized, and nourishing them at the Eucharistic banquet, makes them take part in his glorious life (cfr Lumen gentium, 48).
Holiness is at the very heart of the ecclesial mystery and it is the vocation to which we are all called. Saints are not an ornament which adorn the Church externally but are like the flowers of a tree that reveal the inexhaustible vitality of the sap that runs through it.
It is beautiful to contemplate the Church this way, in ascent towards the fullness of the Vir perfectus, the perfect man, in continuous, progressive maturation, dynamically impelled towards total fulfillment in Christ.
Dear priests and seminarians of the Pontificio Collegio Etiopico, with joy and dedication, live this important period of your formation in the very shadow of St. Peter's dome - walk resolutely on the way to holiness.
You are a sign of hope, especially for the Church in your countries of origin. I am sure that your experience of communion here in Rome will help you make your contribution to growth and peaceful coexistence in your beloved countries.
My prayers are with you, and through the intercession of St. Giustino De Jacobis and the Virgin Mary, I impart with affection my Apostolic Blessing, which I gladly extend to the Sisters of the Child Mary, to the personnel of the college and all the persons dear to you.
NB: Christianity in Ethiopia dates to the fourth century AD, and this long tradition makes Ethiopia unique among the sub-Saharan African countries. Christians make up 63% of the population but the largest group are the Orthodox Christians, numbering about 32 million. There are less than 600,000 Roman Catholics compared to 14 million Protestants.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 30/01/2011 08:05] |