Message to the Seminarians of Spain (8 November 1982)

The Holy Father sent a Message, dated 8 November 1982, from Valencia, to the Seminarians of Spain, inviting them “to prepare and assume a free and irrevocable option of total fidelity to Christ, to his Church and to your own vocation and mission.”  

Dear sons who are preparing for the priesthood: 

1. Every day I present to the Lord the urgent need that the Church of our time, also in Spain, has to find young people like you, generous and willing to assume the joyful task of making Christ ministerially present to the generation that is preparing or that will see the third millennium of the Christian era; and in an “epoch particularly hungry for the Spirit” ( Redemptor hominis , 18). 

It is your turn to live a special and unrepeatable moment in the life of the Church. Do you realize the grace that the Lord has already granted you? He has made the call resonate in you to leave everything and follow him (Cf. Matth . 4, 19-20); to be with Him and to be sent to preach (Cf. Mark 3, 14); waiting to communicate his Spirit to you with the laying on of hands, which he will make of you his priests, his personal sign in a world that needs to see clear traces of the Gospel. In a special way you are, for the bishops of this beloved land and for the ecclesial communities over which they preside, the hope for the future of the Church in Spain. The Pope shares that hope, expresses his trust and affection to you, and prays for you daily.

There are many saints, children of this blessed land, who have felt in their hearts the call to collaborate in the comprehensive formation of priests, or future priests, according to the model of the Good Shepherd and the Apostles. Saint Teresa of Jesus wanted to give this dimension to the renewal of Carmel by also contributing prayer and sacrifice, especially for the sanctification of priests. Saint John of Ribera dedicated his best efforts to priestly formation and renewal. Saint John of Avila, a great promoter of seminaries in his time and patron of the Spanish secular clergy, stated: “If the Church wants good ministers, she must promote education” (St. John of Avila, Memorial I , n. 10 ). 

This task of preparation is what occupies you now, with the solicitous help of your bishops, superiors and formators. It is a path that requires time and long maturation, to transform into new men, who know how to respond to the demands of a new stage of evangelization. 

I am not going to recall now all the aspects of this preparation, outlined for centuries also in your ecclesial tradition, and more recently with the Second Vatican Council; especially in the Optatam Totius Decree and the various documents that have followed it, outlining the lines to which priestly formation must conform. I will limit myself to remembering that you prepare to be “ministers of Christ and administrators of the mysteries of God” ( 1 Cor. 4-1). And it is well known that, in administrators, the first thing that “is sought is that they be faithful” ( Ibid . 4, 2). Be it yourselves, truly and with all your heart! 

2. From now on you are invited to prepare and assume a free and irrevocable option of total fidelity to Christ, to his Church and to your own vocation and mission. 

Fidelity has a dialogic, interpersonal, nuptial and committed character. It means a mutual donation, a deep friendship, complete trust, a permanent commitment. To understand what it means to be faithful, we must look to Christ, the Son of God made our brother, who affirms: “I seek not my own will, but the will of him who sent me” ( Io . 5, 30). We must direct our gaze to Jesus, “whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world” ( Ibid . 10, 35) as “Good Shepherd who gives his life for his sheep” ( Ibid . 10, 11), as Redeemer who “ He learned obedience from his sufferings” ( Hebr . 5, 8). Fidelity is not, therefore, a static attitude, but a loving following, which takes shape in personal donation to Christ, to prolong it in his Church and in the world.

When you contemplate Christ, you will notice his obedience of pastoral charity, his fidelity to the saving designs of the Father, as a sign or expression of the fidelity of the God-Love to his promises of salvation.

Your dedication must be marked by this total commitment. The priest's “yes” is given once and for all, although it is renewed every day; and has its model in the “yes” pronounced by Christ himself (Cfr. 2 Cor. 1, 18-19; Hebr . 10, 7). The seminary must be a school of this fidelity. I ask you to meditate with me on these three aspects that I have already mentioned: Fidelity to Christ, to the Church and to one's own vocation and mission.

3. Fidelity, first of all, to Christ. His call is a declaration of love. Your response is dedication, friendship, love manifested in the donation of your own life, as a definitive follow-up and as permanent participation in his mission and in his consecration. To be faithful to Christ is to proclaim him as the risen Lord present in the Church and in the world, the center of creation and history, the reason for our own existence.

To be faithful to Christ is to love him with all your soul and with all your heart, so that this love is the norm and the driving force of all our actions. This fidelity to Christ demands, therefore, that we be men of pastoral charity learned in prayer or dialogue with the Lord. Then we will experientially accept his person, his doctrine, his sanctifying action and his mission.

It is in prayer, especially liturgical, where the mystery of the fidelity of Christ and Christ is learned. That is why in the seminary we must cultivate, above all, friendship with Christ, centered on the Eucharist and nourished by contemplation and study of the Word of God. You cannot exercise your ministry well if you do not live in union with Christ. Without Him we can do nothing (cf. Io 15, 5). When working for Him ( per ipsum ), it is necessary to do it with Him ( cum ipso ); more so, in Him ( et in ipso ). Union and friendship with Christ will be the key to the necessary balance between interior life and apostolic action (Cf. Presbyterorum Ordinis , 13). 

The Church hopes to find in priests spiritual people, that is, those who with their life and conduct testify, in a credible and convincing way, to the presence of God and the values ​​of the spirit in our society; which is largely characterized by theoretical or practical materialism, but also by an unquenchable thirst for God and spiritual values. This has to be experienced from the seminary years. Witnesses to the experience of God are needed.

Allow me, then, to repeat to you what, a few months ago, I said to a group of Croatian seminarians: “Live the Eucharist fully from now on; Be people for whom the center and culmination of all life is the Holy Mass, communion and Eucharistic adoration. Without a deep faith and love for the Eucharist, one cannot be a true priest... Offer your young heart to Christ in meditation and personal prayer. Prayer is the foundation of spiritual life... Pray with joy and full conviction, not just out of duty and custom. May your prayer be the concrete expression of your love for Christ. Strive to become good teachers of prayer, so that tomorrow you will be able to worthily guide Christian communities in divine service” ( Allocutio ad seminaristas et iuvenes croatas habita , die Apr. 27, 1982: Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo II , V, 1 ( 1982) 1332 ss). 

Christ's fidelity to the saving designs of the Father for the good of all humanity reaches its maximum and culminating expression on the cross. Hence, to become a personal witness of the Good Shepherd, renunciation and mortification are essential; Without a healthy asceticism and availability of service, deeply rooted in your hearts, already from the years of preparation, you will not become the transparency of Christ or good priests. The habit of self-forgetfulness is an indispensable condition for truly loving and caring only for the interests of Christ. This effort to renounce the old man, of which the Apostle speaks, will make you “the ultimate testimony of love” ( Presbyterorum Ordinis , 11). 

In your future priestly life you will encounter difficult moments, contradictions and loneliness. “The disciple is not more than the teacher,” the Lord warned us ( Matth . 10, 24). They are privileged occasions to grow in love, in giving to others and to transform sensitive loneliness into a loneliness full of God. 

Do not forget, furthermore, that it was from the cross that Jesus gave his own Mother as Mother to the beloved disciple; and in it, especially to all future priests and apostles. You will not be able to become true priests according to the Heart of Jesus if you do not take Mary as your Mother who, precisely at the foot of the cross, definitively corroborates her virginal and maternal fidelity.

4. Fidelity, secondly, to the Church . “Christ loved the Church and gave himself for her” ( Eph . 5, 25). Your entire formation must be impregnated with the “mystery of the Church” ( Optatam Totius , 9). 

In the Church you were born as Christians; She followed you later when your priestly vocation dawned, and lovingly prepares you for the sacrament of Orders.

All of this invites you to be faithful to the Church, penetrating and loving its “mystery.” The Church is not a merely human reality, but the People of God, the Body of Christ, the Temple of the Holy Spirit, the “universal sacrament of salvation” ( Ad Gentes , 1). Fidelity to Christ is thus prolonged in fidelity to the Church, in which Christ lives, is present, approaches all his brothers and communicates himself to the world.

Fidelity to the Church is equivalent to accepting it in all its charismatic and institutional integrity, as a “mystery” or expression of the love of God, which captivates the hearts of the friends of Christ. The pilgrim Church is made up of poor signs that can cause scandal in men of little faith; But for every good Christian, and even more so for you, the important thing is to discover in it the risen Christ, who is present and acts through these ecclesial signs.

There are many facets of fidelity to the Church: filial love, missionary responsibility, obedience, sense of Church, community spirit, service to the particular Church as a member of the presbytery, unity with the bishop himself and with the entire episcopal order. Of all of them, I am going to stop now on one that touches on a very important aspect of your training.

The Church listens to the Word in all its integrity and is faithful in delivering it to men in each specific circumstance. The priest must also faithfully give the divine Word that he has previously received and assimilated. It is not about an ideology or a personal opinion, but about the Word revealed by God, preached by the Church, celebrated in the liturgy, assimilated in contemplation, lived by the saints, deepened by the doctors. The future priest needs, therefore, a solid doctrinal formation in the different branches of theological and philosophical knowledge. I do not insist, because you are convinced and I know that you are determined to acquire it.

Sometimes you may not immediately notice the direct relationship between those studies and the future ministry. You have to be patient. This is the time to enrich your mind with some knowledge and with some essential methods to know how to guide yourself and to be able to guide others. In the light of the mystery of Christ you will discover the importance of all philosophical and scientific knowledge, and you will appreciate the service of the Magisterium of the Church, discovering its meaning and adhering to it faithfully (Cf. Optatam Totius , 13-18). 

As ministers of the Word, in your future priestly life, you must know how to transmit the Gospel in a way that deeply penetrates the intelligence and hearts of your believers, and that it is incarnated in every culture and human, personal and social situation. 

Fidelity to the Church trains for an openness to all the truth. To do this, we must put the Word of God, which the Church “listens religiously” (Cf. Dei Verbum , 1), at the very basis of the study. In this way you open yourself harmoniously to the new lights and graces that God grants to his Church in each historical era, to respond to new human situations (Cf. Gaudium et Spes , exp. prael.). 

When you receive priestly ordination, you will be called to very diverse ministries, which you cannot now foresee in detail. Dedicate yourself, therefore, with determination to the task of acquiring a solid doctrinal preparation. Studies carried out in depth require, of course, sacrifices and dedication; One could not delve deeper into the mystery of Christ, especially during theological courses, if that study were simply complementary to other works or other studies that require time and attention.

Risking everything to follow Christ also includes this full dedication to priestly formation, especially in the years immediately prior to ordination. We must prepare to be able to illuminate today's human situations in a Christian way, especially in the field of fundamental human rights, of the family, of youth, of the sociological and cultural sectors, etc., until we reach the point of impregnating the centers with the Gospel. nerves of our society.

It is essential to ensure that your intellectual life, your liturgical and spiritual life, are also united with a certain practice of pastoral life (Cf. Optatam Totius , 4 et 19-21). For this reason, along with the good and safe treatises on theology, you must also study the classic authors of spirituality. And advice in the readings is essential, to simultaneously guarantee adequate information and training coherence with faith and piety. 

These and other facets of fidelity to the Church will lead you to make yourself available for an evangelization that has no borders. Your missionary fidelity will be demonstrated in unconditional and generous service, from now on, in the community life of the seminary and, later, in any position that the Church entrusts to you within the diocese or at the service of the universal mission.

5. Fidelity, thirdly, to the charisma of the vocation and mission . You have received a grace or charism (that of vocation) that leads you towards participation, through the sacrament of orders, in the being, actions and lifestyle of Christ the Priest Good Shepherd, to prolong it in the Church and in the world. . It is a participation in his priestly and pastoral anointing and mission.

Experiential coherence with the demands of one's vocation is an essential facet of fidelity. It is about adjusting one's life to the objective of the fundamental option assumed. This implies leading a coherent and consistent lifestyle, which takes into account the needs of our brothers and our society, according to the mission that each one is called to perform.

In fact, all seminary education “must tend toward the formation of true Shepherds of souls” ( Optatam Totius , 4). It is, therefore, a formation that has a liturgical, spiritual, intellectual, community, disciplinary and pastoral service dimension in the ecclesial community. Fidelity to one's vocation is fidelity to the mission, which must be carried out as a participation in the mission of Christ, received through the Church. Therefore, this fidelity is based on fidelity to Christ and his Church, leading the candidate for the priesthood to undertake his spiritual itinerary with a spirit of joyful self-giving, made of optimism and love.

Your fidelity to Christ and the Church, according to your own charism and your own mission, becomes the greatest fidelity to man and society of our times. It is fidelity of deep friendship with Christ, which is manifested by total pastoral availability. A permanent sign and stimulus of this unconditional dedication to Christ and the pastoral mission is celibacy freely assumed before ordination. The “sequela Christi” for the “apostolic life” means leaving everything to follow Him and participate, in this way, in His mission that has no borders either in the heart or in the apostolic action. The Good Shepherd was obedient, chaste and poor (Cf. Presbyterorum Ordinis , 15-17). 

With the Council, I remind you that you must learn to use supernatural and natural means to live this surrender, taking special care of the spiritual and ascetic norms, which are approved by the experience of the Church and which are no less necessary in today's world ( Cf. Optatam Totius , 8-11; Presbyterorum Ordinis , 18). Thus you will be able, among other things, to accept any ministry entrusted to you, without subordinating your acceptance to conformity with personal conveniences or projects. In fact, we must become available to “collaborate in the pastoral work of the entire diocese and even the entire Church” ( Lumen Gentium , 28).  

This fidelity, which is personal coherence, is also understood as sincerity and authenticity. In one's own life there is no shortage of darkness and even weaknesses. It is time for personal spiritual direction. If you speak confidently, if you expose your own inner struggles with simplicity, you will always move forward, and there will be no obstacle or temptation that will separate you from Christ.

Since there will be no shortage of small shadows that cloud that image of Christ, which you must offer with your lives, be lovers of frequent sacramental confession, where your souls are purified and you receive the necessary grace to continue being faithful to Christ, to the Church and to the priestly vocation.

A healthy friendship and community life, starting from the seminary, will prepare you for the “intimate fraternity” or “sacramental fraternity” that must reign in every diocesan presbytery (Cf. Lumen Gentium , 28; Presbyterorum Ordinis , 8), as a guarantee of perseverance in dedication and apostolic fruitfulness.

Your secular brothers must also make Christ present in the world. But in a different way from that of your future and irreplaceable priestly ministry. What God has placed in your hearts with his call corresponds to a specific vocation, which is that of “acting as in the person of Christ the Head” ( Presbyterorum Ordinis , 2) and that of being, in the particular Church or diocese, the bond of union between all charismas and vocations (Cf. ibid . 9). 

Try to bear witness to your faith and your joy. You, with your “Easter joy” ( Presbyterorum Ordinis , 10), are the witnesses and promoters of priestly vocations among adolescents and young people of your age. I encourage you with all my strength to be the first apostles of priestly vocations. Pray and help others to come to your side. May your seminary offer the attractive example of a family community that joyfully lives the presence, word and love of the risen Christ.

Let us together raise our trusting prayer to the “Lord of the harvest” so that, in this beloved land of Spain, always so fertile in priests, many young people have an open soul to perceive the so-called friend of Christ; and so that they have the availability to know how to say “yes” with enthusiasm.

May this request and these wishes reach heaven through the mediation of Our Lady, whose tender devotion I am sure you nourish every day. May the Mother of Jesus, priestly Mother and Queen of the Apostles, always be with you, from now on, in your years of preparation for the ministry; and may it help you to become witnesses of Christ for all people, “like those who left the Cenacle of Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost” ( Redemptor hominis , 22). Do not fear, She will accompany you in your future ministry, as she accompanied the first Apostles with her maternal affection and with her intercession.

May the faithful Virgin help you confirm your commitments and fulfill them to the end, in this “new stage of the life of the Church” that “demands from us a particularly conscious, deep and responsible faith” ( Ibid . 6).  

As a pledge of constant divine help, I impart with deep affection to you, the seminarians of Spain, to your superiors, teachers and family members, my cordial Apostolic Blessing. 

Valencia, November 8, 1982. 

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