Monisgnor Jeffrey Malanog, during the Regional Lay Leaders Conference in Tagbilaran, reminded the Laity not to separate our faith from our actions! True! It is...
Pope Francis marked 2024 as the Year of Prayer, in preparation for the 2025 Jubilee Year. Sangguniang Laiko ng Pilipinas, together with the Diocese of...
By Hannah Brockhaus Vatican City, May 3, 2023 / 02:21 am
Pope Francis said Wednesday that freedom is under threat in Europe as people choose consumerism and individualism over building families and community.
Even today, “freedom is under threat,” he said May 3. “Above all with kid gloves, by a consumerism that anesthetizes, where one is content with a little material well-being and, forgetting the past, one ‘floats’ in a present made to the measure of the individual.”
“This is the dangerous persecution of modernity that advances consumerism,” he underlined.
Pope Francis blesses a rosary after his general audience on May 3, 2023. | Daniel Ibanez/CNA
“But when the only thing that counts is thinking about oneself and doing what one likes, the roots suffocate,” he warned. “This is a problem throughout Europe, where dedicating oneself to others, community feeling, the beauty of dreaming together and creating large families are in crisis. All of Europe is in crisis.”
Pope Francis’ prayer intention for the month of May is for ecclesial movements and groups.
“Ecclesial movements are a gift; they are a treasure in the Church,” the Holy Father said in a video released by the Vatican on May 2.
“These movements renew the Church with their capacity for dialogue at the service of her evangelizing mission,” he said. “Each day, they rediscover in their charism new ways of showing the attractiveness and the newness of the Gospel.”
“How do they do this? Speaking different languages, they seem different, but it is their creativity that creates these differences. But always understanding themselves and making themselves understood.”
He added: “Always be on the move, responding to the impulse of the Holy Spirit to the challenges, to the changes in today’s world.”
Pope Francis encouraged members of ecclesial groups to “remain in harmony with the Church, since harmony is a gift of the Holy Spirit.”
The pope concluded his message with a prayer: “Let us pray that ecclesial movements and groups may daily rediscover their mission, an evangelizing mission, and that they place their own charisms at the service of the world’s needs.” Pope Francis’ prayer video is promoted by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, which raises awareness of monthly papal prayer intentions.
Locals seek security inside Catholic churches and government schools in the Mindanao region
Soldiers stand guard along a road as residents walk to a mosque to pray during the Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, in Marawi City, in the southern island of Mindanao on May 2, 2022. (Photo: AFP)
By UCA News reporter Published: May 03, 2023 11:21 AM GMT
Hundreds of villagers rushed to take refuge in Catholic churches and government schools as the Philippine army launched air strikes on suspected hideouts of an Islamic State (IS)-linked terrorist group in the marshlands of Maguindanao province in Mindanao region.
The Archdiocese of Cotabato reported more than 200 families fled the villages of Magaslong and Datu Piang for safety as mortar shells began pounding the Dawlah Islamiya hiding places in the region on May 2.
Members of the terrorist group were spotted consolidating forces in huts in the local community of Magaslong, Datu Piang, Maguindanao del Sur, Brigadier General Oriel Pangcog said at a press conference.
“We wasted no time, we immediately launched the attack considering the suspects were not in a village or community where civilians could be killed,” Pangcog added.
Artillery bombs were fired from 3 a.m. until 12 noon forcing the villagers to flee in a desperate bid to avoid getting caught in the crossfire or becoming human shields.
“Government forces are running after the terrorists because of the bus bombing in Isulan, Sultan Kudarat that hurt six people. They were also former members of the radical Maute group that lay a siege to Marawi in Lanao del Sur province to establish a caliphate,” Pangcog said.
“From very early in the morning, we could hear helicopters and artillery fires. Our children won’t stop crying because they could hear the explosions and gunfire from the other side of the field,” Susan Guinigundo, a mother of five in Maguindanao, told UCA News.
Guinigundo, a lector at St. Therese of the Child Jesus Parish, in Datu Piang, abandoned her house and fled with her children.
“We didn’t know what to expect. What if those Islamic fighters use us as human shields? We need to protect ourselves by leaving our homes,” Guinigundo said.
Another family said they had requested their relatives from a nearby village to pick them up in a dump truck.
“We follow a protocol in the family. My cousin who owns the truck is supposed to help rescue us in an emergency situation like this,” Miguel Bastardo, a 46-year-old farmer told UCA News.
Cotabato archdiocesan Father Clifford Baira told UCA News that the situation on the ground was “very difficult” and 43 Catholic families were sheltered in parishes across the region.
“Most of them are with children so we are collecting milk and other items for their proper nutrition,” Baira added.
The archdiocesan Social Action Center had tried negotiating with the families and relatives of Dawlah Islamiya members in 2019 but the meetings failed due to “religious differences.”
“They think we Catholics are infidels and so need to be converted or brushed aside by violence. If this is the case, there is very little room for peace and communication,” the priest said.
Lieutenant Colonel Dennis Amorato, a spokesperson of the army’s 6th Infantry Division, told the media on May 2 that the operation was a “pre-emptive action before the group could launch another terrorist attack.”
“We made sure that there would be no collateral damage but of course, we could not prevent residents from rushing to evacuation centers because of the impact of the shelling,” he said.
Amorato said government forces were not sure of the number of terrorists killed, but said the snipers were still hiding in the marshlands.
“We cannot go near the area yet because shots are still being fired at us. Perhaps after a day or two we will conduct our own surveillance and go near the area,” Amorato added.
The Philippines is the world’s third-largest contributor to plastic waste, World Bank says
Workers clean up a beach in Zamboanga province of the Philippines in this undated photo: (Photo: Office the City Environment and Natural Resources, Zamboanga City)
By UCA News reporter Published: May 02, 2023 11:42 AM GMT
Residents in a Philippine province collected thousands of kilograms of plastics from the streets and water bodies and exchanged those for rice from the local government as part of a campaign to tackle pollution.
The pilot campaign ran in Zamboanga province in the Mindanao region throughout April and will be replicated in other provinces struggling to contain plastic contamination, said an official from the Office of City Environment and Natural Resources (OCENR) in Zamboanga City.
The agency director Marigold Aranza told UCA News on May 1 that in the past various campaigns to tackle plastic pollution failed but the latest one became successful.
Aranza said residents received one kilogram of rice for every two kilograms of plastics.
A total of 2,084 kilos of rice were traded to residents in Zamboanga over plastic bags and containers during the “Plastic for Rice” campaign, she said.
Aranza said they asked residents to deposit plastics instead of burning and throwing those into the sea.
Zamboanga City mayor John Dalipe said the program came as they found plastic pollution was on the rise in the region.
“We started in four to five barangays [local communities] along the coastlines. We noticed the increase of floating plastic containers at sea so we thought of a program on how to reduce them. A perfect plan would be to incentivize recycling,” Dalipe said in a press conference on May 1.
Dalipe said altogether a total of 4,144 kilos of plastic bags, not counting plastic containers, were freely given by locals.
“They gave more plastic containers which means the project worked. Some of them just wanted to get rid of their trash,” Dalipe added.
The OCENR Zamboanga chapter chairman Wilmer Cruz told UCA News that local villagers were first hesitant about the sustainability of the project because they did not know the organizers.
“They thought we were a scam… the idea sounds really odd – exchanging plastics for rice. It’s like exchanging trash for food. Who really does that?” he said.
“But when the local government through the Office of the City Mayor introduced us formally to the people, we slowly gained local support,” he added.
Families who participated in the program claimed they were encouraged to gather more plastics to have more kilos of rice to be brought home.
“We have become more conscious not only of what we throw but of what is in the garbage bin. We have slowly realized there is something good in the trash, so we went to other nearby villages to look for plastics so we can exchange them, too, for rice,” fisherman Rodel Enverga, 36, told UCA News.
Some residents went to grocery stores and gasoline stations to collect plastics.
“I know a grocery store here that throws a lot of plastics… even gasoline stations. So, I go there every other day to collect their trash and bring them home so I can exchange them for rice. Not only our bellies are full, but we also help the environment,” Nelly Cervantes, 41, a mother of two, told UCA News.
Cervantes claimed business owners who knew about the project later on sorted the plastics because they knew it meant food for the poor living province’s coastlines.
“They [business owners] instructed their keepers to segregate the plastic for us. Before, they all mixed them together. But now, they have learned to segregate because every kilo meant food for us,” Cervantes added.
The World Bank reported in 2021 that the Philippines is the third-largest contributor of plastic waste in the world, contributing to an estimated 0.75 million metric tons of ocean plastic every year.
“Dubbed as the ‘sachet economy,’ the Philippines is notorious for irresponsible trash haulers and open dump sites that cause the plastic to spill into the seas,” the report said.
Philippine bishops at the International Eucharistic Congress in Cebu in January 2016. The Catholic Church in the country has been dealing with the issue of child abuse by clergy for decades. (Photo: Mark Saludes/ UCAN files)
Crossing the Line Rev. Fr. Shay Cullen, S.S.C.M.E. Published: April 26, 2023 03:37 AM GMT
Priests and religious are bound to obey their conscience and the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth
The latest and most shocking investigation into sexual abuse by Catholic priests has been released in the United States. Hundreds of victims in the Archdiocese of Baltimore have come forward to report their suffering and Archbishop William E. Lori has issued a statement of apology.
The report released on April 5 by Maryland Attorney-General Anthony Brown revealed 156 priests abused more than 600 children since the 1940s through 2002 “while the archdiocese leadership looked the other way.”
“Time and again, members of the Church’s hierarchy resolutely refused to acknowledge allegations of child sexual abuse for as long as possible,” the report said.
The situation in Asian Churches today is not different from what is acknowledged in the Baltimore archdiocese.
In the US, Attorney-General Brown set up a website and a call center to get victims to come forward and hundreds did. However, no such historical research or investigation has ever been done in Asia, particularly the Philippines, by the Church to reach out to the victims and bring clerical sex abusers to account and justice.
There appears to be no change in the policy of the Philippine Church, as Cardinal Archbishop Antonio Tagle told the BBC some years ago that child sexual abuse in the Church is a private internal matter.
“The victims get no therapy, no help, no Good Samaritan to heal and help them”
But there is a big change in the Philippine judiciary. Some priests accused of child abuse are facing the court process even if their alleged crimes were covered up by some bishops.
A Catholic priest accused of multiple rape and sexual assault crimes against a 15-year-old church volunteer is facing justice in Cagayan province. Father Karole Reward Israel is in jail, with no bail.
Father Conrad Mantac was arrested in Saga City in March this year for the alleged rape of a 17-year-old choir member.
A Negros Occidental priest Father Aron Buenacosat was arrested and charged with the alleged rape of a child, only four years old, in February.
We see hope in the Philippine judiciary that is acting on Christian convictions and principles and is more determined to bring healing through justice for the child victims. Hopeful, the clerics and bishops will hand over the pedophile priests to be held accountable and not hide them away in retreat houses and therapy shelters in the false hope of curing them.
The victims get no therapy, no help, no Good Samaritan to heal and help them.
Therapy shelters for pedophiles to avoid justice and accountability will never work nor cure them. The Philippine law is clear — to molest a child 16 years or younger is statutory rape.
Pedophilia is like an addiction, the abuser just has to abuse children to satisfy his sexual desires and urges. Bishops who hide priests away in a shelter are protecting pedophiles and denying justice to the victims. That is a crime in itself, for it amounts to aiding and abetting a criminal.
The children victimized have cried in silence and suffered all their lives with the stigma and pain of having been raped and abused without help or justice. Fear and intimidation prevent children or their parents from reporting clerical child abuse.
Clerical abusers have powerful friends that can pressure judges and prosecutors but the judiciary must stand strong and do justice according to the law.
“One protective bishop called a child abuser priest ‘his son'”
More recently, the prosecutors are petitioning the judges to refer vulnerable children to protective homes where they are healed and empowered.
There are about 10,000 priests in the Philippines for a population of 110 million, many of them Catholics. I’ve never heard in my 53 years here of a priest reporting child abuse by a fellow priest.
One protective bishop called a child abuser priest “his son.”
Pope Francis called them otherwise. “Often, behind their boundless amiability, impeccably activity, and angelic faces, they shamelessly conceal a vicious wolf ready to devour innocent souls,” he said in his Christmas message.
Faith in Jesus of Nazareth is not so much in dogmas, rites, and rituals. It is acting on the belief that goodness, truth and love of neighbor will overcome evil.
How heinous it is when the abuse is done by a cleric who is supposed to represent the values of Jesus of Nazareth but instead betrays them.
This is the challenge facing the People of God: to be a person of integrity, have true faith in standing against evil, and help our neighbor as did the Good Samaritan.
Archbishop-elect Julius Tonel of Zamboanga pledges to promote dialogue between Christians and Muslims in Mindanao
Archbishop-elect Julius Tonel Zamboanga. (Photo: Zamboanga Archdiocese)
By UCA News reporter Published: April 26, 2023 11:43 AM GMT
The newly appointed archbishop of Zamboanga in the conflict-ridden Mindanao region in the Philippines vowed to promote dialogue between Christians and Muslims for peace.
Pope Francis appointed Bishop Julius Tonel of Ipil Diocese as the new archbishop of Zamboanga Archdiocese in the Muslim-majority Mindanao region on April 25.
Following his new appointment, Archbishop-elect Tonel said one of his priorities will be to eliminate Christian bias against Muslims that all Muslims are terrorists or members of jihadist groups.
“There are some continuing biases against Muslims. Even by our political leaders in society, thus we must form them, we must equip them… so that there could be true dialogue by eliminating biases in the pursuit of peace,” Tonel, 67, told UCA News.
The prelate said he is a bit nervous to take up the new position in Zamboanga, but he is determined to continue his advocacy for peace.
“It makes me afraid because my responsibility is now bigger. Zamboanga has faced many challenges as archdiocese both from terrorist attacks and Christian biases against Muslims,” he added.
Tonel was born in Davao City on Aug. 31, 1956. He was ordained a priest in Davao on April 12, 1980.
He studied liturgical theology at the Pontifical Saint Anselm Athenaeum in Rome (1986-1990). He was appointed bishop of Ipil on June 30, 2007, and was consecrated on Aug. 20.
He is the chairman of the Healthcare Commission of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.
Local Christian and Muslim leaders have welcomed the appointment of the new archbishop saying that he is no stranger to the region and the challenges it faces.
“He is a pastor that does not easily judge. He listens and a person who listens is a good facilitator of peace in Mindanao region,” Zamboanga Catholic Francesca Ruizalo, 61, told UCA News.
Ruizalo said the new archbishop is loved by Catholics due to his ability to settle conflicts not only among Christians and Muslims but among Catholics as well.
“He is an administrator who has an eye and sensitivity on delicate issues. He studies history and the background of the parties involved, which made him sympathize very well… when he speaks, his listeners would easily know he did his homework by background checking.” Ruizalo added.
In 2021, Tonel was a key figure in the interreligious dialogue for peace in Sulu province after the extremist bombings that killed 14 people and wounded 75 others.
On Aug. 24, 2020, terrorist group Abu Sayyaf detonated two bombs near the Philippine army carrying out Covid relief efforts. Another suicide bomb attack targeted a cathedral.
Tonel condemned the terrorist acts yet insisted that Catholic parishes should serve as venues of peace where the Catholic Church’s teachings could be taught to all.
In 2002, Muslim extremists launched a series of attacks in the province that killed 11 people and wounded 80 others.
An Abu Sayyaf bomb maker was also arrested in the same province in February 2023 with explosives and other bomb-making materials.
Muslim imam Osman Balba said the new archbishop is a popular figure in the Muslim community for his remarkable contribution to the consultation committee of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) 2018, which created Mindanao as an autonomous region.
“Bishop Tonel was not only supportive of the bill (before it was passed). He was also critical of it. There were revisions and he facilitated the consultation process among Muslim families in his diocese,” Balba told UCA News.
Before the law was passed, Tonel, together with other Mindanao prelates, promised to improve Catholic education by teaching a “more inclusive history” that traces the relationships of Muslim and Christian people.
Mindanao region has endured deadly conflicts for decades between Islamic extremists and the military that left thousands killed.
The main insurgent outfit, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) battled for greater autonomy until BOL was passed in 2018 and the group disarmed thousands of fighters.
However, many of its fighters refused to lay down arms and joined other extremist outfits active in the region such as the Abu Sayyaf group, which pledges allegiance to the transnational terrorist outfit, Islamic State.
Widespread poverty has long been blamed for breeding extremism in a region known as the breadbasket of the country for its promising agriculture sector and natural resources.
About 26.1 percent of the region’s estimated 24 million people were in extreme poverty in 2021, the highest in the country, according to the Philippine Information Agency.
The 435-year-old Baroque-style Malate Church has been recognized by the National Museum for its historic and cultural role
Church and government officials seen on April 22 near the belfry of the 435-year-old baroque-style Our Lady of Remedies Parish, more popularly known as Malate Church, which was declared an ‘important cultural property’ by the National Museum of the Philippines. (Photo: Jef Delamonte)
By UCA News reporter Published: April 24, 2023 11:00 AM GMT
A 435-year-old Baroque-style church in the Philippines was declared an “important cultural property” by the government on April 22.
Nuestra Señora de los Remedios (Our Lady of the Remedies), more popularly known as “Malate Catholic Church” in the capital Manila, was recognized by the National Museum of the Philippines for its historical and cultural role.
“A panel of experts was convened on Dec. 5, 2018, by the director-general of the National Museum of the Philippines” to decide which of certain cultural properties should “be designated as National Cultural Treasures and Important Cultural Properties,” according to a citation by the National Museum.
An “Important Cultural Property” is known for its outstanding “historical, cultural, artistic and/or scientific value” which is highly significant and important to the country, the citation added.
The Cultural Properties Preservation and Protection Act, the National Museum Act of 1998, and the National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009 mandates the government to declare “Important Cultural Property.”
Leonista Distor, the Columban missionary and parish priest, thanked devotees of the Malate church, saying the greatest miracle has been the growing number of devotees that visit each day.
“Our mission is not only to protect the church’s structure but to protect the faith of the Filipino people. Our work in the parish is not focused on taking care of the cultural aspect of the church but also in honing the spirituality and faith of every Filipino,” Distor said during a speech on April 22 when it was conferred the honor by the National Museum. Among those in attendance was Manila Mayor Honey Lacuna-Pangan.
The Columbans-run church played a key role in the Philippine liberation and in 1898 Augustinian friars secretly allowed revolutionaries to take refuge in its belfry.
“For a time, it became a hideout for the revolutionaries because it was very near the Intramuros, the walled city that was the seat of power of colonial Spain” in the Philippines, historian Rafael Murillo told UCA News.
As the oldest church, built in 1588 in the archipelago, it survived the Chinese invasion in 1662, the British occupation in 1762, and a devastating earthquake in 1863, Murillo added.
The church contains the centuries-old image of Our Lady of Remedies, which was shipped to the Philippines in 1538 from Spain by the Augustinian missionaries.
Mothers with sick children and those experiencing diseases visit the church, seeking its intercession.
“In 1995, I was diagnosed with a lump in my uterus. It was growing fast. So, I prayed to Our Lady and attended the daily Mass. A year later, the doctor informed me that the lump had stopped growing and that it was benign,” Marian devotee Cathy Maristela, 43, told UCA News.
Since then, I photocopied novenas and left hundreds of copies in the church pews, Maristela recalled.
“Many women are seeking the help of Our Lady to cure their illness,” Maristela added.
Another mother claimed her second son had pneumonia when she asked the parish priest in 2009 if she could place her son at the altar table while she and her husband prayed to the image. “We were desperate. We were on our way to the Philippine General Hospital and we passed by the Malate church. I offered my son to Our Lady to make him well. A week later, we were discharged from the hospital,” Manila parishioner Anna Liza Logrono, 47, told UCA News
During Chrism Mass in the Vatican on Holy Thursday, Pope Francis thanks priests for the good they do, which so often goes unrecognized. And he encourages them to invoke the Holy Spirit as ‘the breath of each day,’ which, even in times of crisis, gives them joy and points them in the right direction, toward Christ.
By Deborah Castellano Lubov
“Priestly maturity comes from the Holy Spirit and is achieved when He becomes the protagonist in our lives.”
Pope Francis gave this reminder on Holy Thursday morning during the Chrism Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, as he urged priests to invoke the Spirit not only as “an occasional act of piety,” but as “the breath of each day.”
In his homily, the Pope thanked priests for their service, which often goes unrecognized, as he reflected on the Holy Spirit.
The Pope recalled Jesus saying, in today’s readings, that the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him, and underscored that without the Spirit “there can be no Christian life; without His anointing, there can be no holiness.”
Lost without Holy Spirit
Since the Spirit is at the centre, the Pope said, it is fitting that today, “on the birthday of the priesthood, we acknowledge His presence at the origin of our own ministry, and as the life and vitality of every priest.”
Chrism Mass in the Vatican
Holy Mother Church, he recalled, teaches us to profess that the Holy Spirit is the “giver of life.”
“Without the Holy Spirit,” the Pope warned, “the Church would not be the living Bride of Christ, but, at most, a religious association…”
The Holy Father reiterated that we are “temples of the Holy Spirit” who “dwells in us.”
“We cannot lock the Spirit out of the house, or park Him in some devotional zone! No, at the center! Each day we need to say: ‘Come, for without Your strength, we are lost.’”
The Pope said that we can all say that the Spirit is upon us, not out of presumption, but as a reality.
“Dear brothers, apart from any merit of our own, and by sheer grace,” Pope Francis said, “we have received an anointing that has made us fathers and shepherds among the holy People of God.”
Pope Francis at Chrism Mass in the Vatican
The Apostles’ turnaround
The Pope recalled how Jesus chose His Apostles, and, at His call, they left their boats, nets, and homes.
“The anointing of the Word changed their lives,” he recalled, saying with great enthusiasm, saying “they followed the Master and began to preach, convinced that they would go on to accomplish even greater things.” However, then came the Passover, the Pope stated, observing that at this moment “everything seemed to come to a halt: they even denied and abandoned their Master,” recalling the denial of Christ by Peter.
However, the Holy Father highlighted, “It was precisely that ‘second anointing’, at Pentecost, that changed the disciples and led them to shepherd no longer themselves but the Lord’s flock. It was that anointing with fire that extinguished a ‘piety’ focused on themselves and their own abilities.
“After receiving the Spirit, Peter’s fear and wavering dissipated; James and John, with a burning desire to give their lives, no longer sought places of honour – our careerism, brothers; the others who had huddled fearfully in the Upper Room, went forth into the world as Apostles.”
The Pope observed that something similar, to the Apostles’ experience, happens in the priestly and apostolic lives of priests.
Two options at times of crisis
“We too experienced an initial anointing, which began with a loving call that captivated our hearts and set us out on the journey; the power of the Holy Spirit descended upon our genuine enthusiasm and consecrated us. Later, in God’s good time, each of us experienced a Passover, representing the moment of truth. A time of crisis…”
For the anointed, the Pope said, this stage is a watershed.
“We can emerge from it badly, drifting towards mediocrity and settling for a dreary routine, in which three dangerous temptations can arise: The temptation of compromise, where we are content just to do what has to be done; the temptation of surrogates, where to find satisfaction we look not to our anointing, but elsewhere; and the temptation of discouragement – that is the most common-, where dissatisfaction leads to inertia.”
The great danger
This here, Pope Francis said, is the great danger: “While outward appearances remain intact, ‘I am a priest,’ we close in upon ourselves and are content just to get by. The fragrance of our anointing no longer wafts through our lives; our hearts no longer expand but shrivel, disillusioned and disenchanted.” And priests risk their identities as pastors of the people, to becoming clerics of the State.
Yet, he reminded them, this crisis also has the potential to be a turning point in our priesthood.
For it can become, Pope Francis said, the “decisive stage of the spiritual life, in which the ultimate choice has to be made between Jesus and the world, between heroic charity and mediocrity, between the Cross and comfort, between holiness and dutiful fidelity to our religious obligations.”
At this moment, Pope Francis announced that at the end of the ceremony, a writing by Fr. René Voillaume, who founded the Little Brothers of Jesus and was inspired by the life and writings of saint Charles de Foucauld, entitled La Seconda Chiamata (“The Second Calling”), would be offered to all priests present, as a tool to remind clerics how they are called, once again, to let the Holy Spirit transform them.
Pope Francis gives homily during Chrism Mass on Holy Thursday in the Vatican
Setting out on a new journey
The Pope called it a moment of grace when, like the disciples at Easter, we are called to be “sufficiently humble to admit that we have been won over by the suffering and crucified Christ, and to set out on a new journey, that of the Spirit, of faith, and of a love that is strong, yet without illusions.”
This happens, he said, with the help of the Holy Spirit, and requires that we admit the reality of our own weakness.
“That is what the Spirit of truth tells us to do; he prompts us to look deep within and to ask: Does my fulfilment depend on my abilities, my position, the compliments I receive, my promotions, the respect of my superiors or coworkers, the comforts with which I surround myself? Or on the anointing that spreads its fragrance everywhere in my life? “
“Dear brothers, priestly maturity comes from the Holy Spirit and is achieved when He becomes the protagonist in our lives.”
“Once that happens, everything turns around,” Pope Francis insisted, “even disappointments and bitter experiences, and sins, since we are no longer trying to find happiness by adjusting details, but by giving ourselves completely to the Lord who anointed us and who wants that anointing to penetrate to the depths of our being!
“Brothers,” he exhorted, “we discover that the spiritual life becomes liberating and joyful, once we are no longer concerned to save appearances and make quick fixes, but leave the initiative to the Spirit and, in openness to his plans, show our willingness to serve wherever and however we are asked. Our priesthood does not grow by quick fixes but by an overflow of grace!”
The Spirit cleanses and heals
If priests allow the Spirit of Truth to act within them, the Pope said, they will preserve His anointing, because “the various untruths with which we are tempted to live, will come to light.” And the Spirit who “cleanses what is unclean,” will tirelessly suggest to to priests “not to defile our anointing.’”
The Holy Spirit alone heals our infidelities, the Pope said, noting that the Spirit “is that interior teacher to whom we must listen, recognizing that He desires to anoint every part of us.”
