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Vatican Proclaims ‘Year For Priests'
- Period Covers June 19, 2009, to June 19, 2010
- Jubilee Marks 150 Years Since Death of Curé de Ars
- Plenary Indulgence Offered for All the Faithful
The period from June 19, 2009, up to June 19, 2010, has been declared "Year for Priests" by Pope Benedict XVI to mark the 150th anniversary of the death of St. John Marie Vianney, also known as the Curé de Ars, patron saint of confessors and priests.
During this period, the Vatican is offering a plenary indulgence for all the faithful subject to certain conditions.
The Year for Priests follows the Jubilee Year of St. Paul, proclaimed on June 29, 2008, and ending this coming June 29, 2009.
According to a Vatican announcement, Pope Benedict XVI will preside at the opening liturgy for the Year for Priests at the Vatican on June 19, the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, "a day of priestly sanctification." He will celebrate vespers before the relics of the saint, brought to Rome for the occasion by the bishop of the French Diocese of Belley-Ars.
The Year will end in St. Peter's Square, in the presence of priests from all over the world "who will renew their faithfulness to Christ and their bonds of fraternity."
The Holy Father called on priests to be "men of intense prayer who cultivate a communion of love and life with the Lord."
"Without this solid spiritual base, how would it be possible to continue our ministry? Those who work in the Lord's vineyard in this way know that what is achieved with dedication, with sacrifice and for love, is never lost," he said.
The Pontiff spoke about the Year for Priests, which will begin June 19, as a "valuable occasion to renew and strengthen your generous response to the Lord's call, in order to intensify your relationship with him."
"Use this opportunity to the utmost," he said, "so as to be priests in accordance with the dictates of Christ's heart, like St. Jean Marie Vianney, Cure of Ars," whose 150th anniversary of death we are preparing to celebrate.
For priests, the plenary indulgence can be gained by praying lauds or vespers before the Blessed Sacrament exposed to public adoration or in the tabernacle. They must also "offer themselves with a ready and generous heart for the celebration of the sacraments, especially the sacrament of penance."
The plenary indulgence, which under current norms must be accompanied by sacramental confession, the Eucharist and praying for the intentions of the Pope, can also be applied to deceased priests.
Priests are granted a partial indulgence, also applicable to deceased priests, every time they "devotedly recite the prayers duly approved to lead a saintly life and to carry out the duties entrusted to them."
For the faithful, a plenary indulgence can be obtained on the opening and closing days of the Year for Priests, on the 150th anniversary of the death of St. Jean-Marie Vianney, on the first Thursday of the month, or on any other day established by the ordinaries of particular places for the good of the faithful.
To obtain the indulgence the faithful must attend Mass in an oratory or Church and offer prayers to "Jesus Christ, supreme and eternal Priest, for the priests of the Church, or perform any good work to sanctify and mould them to his heart."
The conditions for the faithful for earning a plenary indulgence are to have gone to confession and prayed for the intentions of the Pope.
The elderly, the sick, and all those who for any legitimate reason are unable to leave their homes may obtain the plenary indulgence if, with the intention of observing the usual three conditions as soon as they can, "on the days concerned, they pray for the sanctification of priests and offer their sickness and suffering to God through Mary, Queen of the Apostles."
A partial indulgence is offered to the faithful when they repeat five times the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be, or any other duly approved prayer "in honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to ask that priests maintain purity and sanctity of life."
St. John Marie Vianney
St. John Baptiste Marie Vianney was born on May 8, 1786, at Dardilly, Lyons, France. It took him several years to study for the priesthood for he was not a good student and his Latin was terrible. He was ordained in 1815, and two years later was assigned to the parish of Ars-sur-Formans, France, a tiny village near Lyons, where he remained for the next 40 years.
Ars suffered from very lax attendance, so the new pastor immediately began his pastoral work by visiting his parishioners, especially the sick and poor, spending days in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, doing penance for his parishioners, and leading his people by example.
He soon started manifesting the gifts of discernment of spirits, prophecy, hidden knowledge, and of working miracles. Crowds came to hear him preach, and to make their reconciliation because of his reputation with penitents. By 1855 there were 20,000 pilgrims a year to Ars.
John Vianney died on August 4,1859, in Ars, of natural causes and was canonized on May 31, 1925, by Pope Pius XI. |