Year for Priests

Christ, the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, so constituted his Church that the people whom he chose and acquired by his blood would have its priests to the end of time, and that Christians would never be like sheep without a shepherd. ~Decree On The Ministry and Life Of Priests, #5

Pope Benedict XVI has declared a “Year for Priests,” beginning today with the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In announcing the Year for Priests, the Holy Father recognized "the necessary, indeed indispensable, aspiration to moral perfection that must dwell in every authentically priestly heart." He said that "Precisely to encourage priests in this striving for spiritual perfection on which, above all, the effectiveness of their ministry depends, I have decided to establish a special Year for Priests."

Pope Benedict XVI also emphasized the great importance of the ministerial priest-hood, "without which there would be neither the Eucharist, nor even the mission nor the Church herself."

The Holy Father requests our prayers during this Year for Priests. "I entrust to your prayers this new spiritual initiative," he said. "May this new jubilee year be a propitious occasion to reflect on the value and importance of the priestly mission and to ask the Lord to make a gift of many priests to his Church."

The Pope has also declared St. John Vianney the Universal Patron of Priests on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the death of the Curé d’Ars.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops offers this prayer for us to pray during the Year of the Priest.

Dear Lord, we pray that the Blessed Mother wrap her mantle around your priests and through her intercession strengthen them for their ministry.

We pray that Mary will guide your priests to follow her own words, “Do whatever He tells you” (Jn 2:5).

May your priests have the heart of St. Joseph, Mary’s most chaste spouse.

May the Blessed Mother’s own pierced heart inspire them to embrace all who suffer at the foot of the cross.

May your priests be holy, filled with the fire of your love, seeking nothing but your greater glory and the salvation of souls.

Amen.

Saint John Vianney, pray for us!