Priests' international congress opened

Around 1,000 priests including 15 cardinals from 283 dioceses in 81 countries are taking part in an International Congress for Priests which opened in Malta yesterday.

Mgr Joseph Mercieca, Archbishop of Malta, yesterday evening welcomed the international gathering at St John's Co-Cathedral in Valletta during an opening solemn Mass presided by Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy.

During his welcome Mgr Mercieca said that the seed of evangelisation St Paul planted in Malta had proved fruitful. "Twenty centuries down the line, Malta continues to cherish its deeply rooted religious imprint. Our people's attachment to our religious heritage remains. It is sustained by our people's strong desire to remain faithful to the precious legacy which goes back to St Paul," he said.

Mgr. Mercieca said the Church in Malta continues to look forward. "In her efforts to read the signs of the times and respond better to present-day challenges, from 1999 to 2003 the Archdiocese of Malta celebrated a diocesan synod. The synod proved to be a particularly significant experience of co-responsibility in the Church in Malta, strengthened by an enthusiastic participation of the laity," he said.

In his homily Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos greeted the people of Malta, who he said "have firmly preserved the integrity of the faith of your fathers, not without problems in a culture nullified by secularism and a sad ethical and existential relativism".

The cardinal said that prayer was the first and principal commitment and task for the entire Christian community. "It is a responsibility that invests everyone and consists in rediscovering that fundamental dimension of our faith for which life itself, every human life, is the result of a call from God and can be completely fulfilled only as an answer to that call," he said.

Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos said that as priests "we cannot carry forth our 'own' ideas, breaking free from Christ, He who called upon us. It is He who confers redeeming effectiveness to our preaching, that light enlightening human uncertainties and fears, that warmth that heals the mortal tiredness of living experienced by men far from God.

"We are not the 'authors', of the sacraments, Christ is, He who through the will of God the Father makes us the instruments of His sanctity for the good of all," he said.

The Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy said that priestly sanctity and the ministry of evangelisation are inseparable. "Because sanctity is intimacy with God, the imitation of the poor, chaste and humble Christ; love with no restrictions for souls and giving for their real good; love for the Church that is saintly and wishes us to be saints, because this is the mission Christ has entrusted to her," he said.