Thousands of priests show their support for Pontiff

Pope Benedict asks forgiveness for abuse scandals, Paul Keenan reports

The Year for Priests has ended with a gathering of 15,000 priests in Rome. Responding to earlier calls to demonstrate the strength of their vocation to the Pope in the Italian capital, priests from 90 countries gathered to take part in a number of conferences over the final week of the special year, and to greet the Pontiff at a mammoth vigil in St Peter's Square on June 10.

Addressing the gathering from under a giant banner depicting St John Vianney, the patron for the Year for Priests, Pope Benedict thank the priests for their ministry and offered words of encouragement to priests who responded with spontaneous applause, not least when he addressed the damage inflicted by abuse scandals.

''So it happened that, in this very year of joy for the sacrament of the priesthood, the sins of priests came to light,'' the Pontiff said, ''particularly the abuse of the little ones, in which the priesthood, whose task is to manifest God's concern for our good, turns into its very opposite.''

Begs forgiveness

Pope Benedict added that the Catholic Church begs forgiveness from God and ''from the persons involved, while promising to do everything possible to ensure that such abuse will never occur again''.

This, the Pope stressed, would begin at the very beginning of a priestly ministry.

''We will do everything we can to weigh the authenticity of their [seminarians] vocation and make every effort to accompany priests along their journey, so that the Lord will protect them and watch over them in troubled situations and amid life's dangers.''

For good and innocent priests, the Pope then said, scandals should help them grow ''in gratitude for God's gift, a gift concealed in 'earthen vessels' which, ever anew, even amid human weakness, makes his love concretely present in this world. Let us look upon all that happened as a summons to purification''.

Leading a prayer to the Blessed Virgin at the end of the Mass, Pope Benedict said: ''Let your presence cause new blooms to burst forth in the desert of our loneliness. Let it cause the sun to shine on our darkness; let it restore calm after the tempest, so that all mankind shall see the salvation of the Lord.''

The Vatican has said that the number of priests reciting the key words of the eucharistic prayer together made the June 11 event the largest concelebration ever held at the Vatican.

Rise and go on mission everywhere - Cardinal Hummes tells priests

'Let us feel ourselves convoked and sent once again by the Lord. It is necessary that we rise and go on mission everywhere.''

This was the message delivered by Cardinal Claudio Hummes, Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, to priests attending a Mass to conclude the Year for Priests last Wednesday (June 9).

Addressing a congregation of priests at the Basilica of St Paul, Cardinal Hummes said ''the great objective of the Year for Priests was to renew in every priest the awareness and concrete carrying out of their true priestly identity and their specific spirituality in order to again continue the mission in a renewed way''.

Quoting the recent words of Pope Benedict, the cardinal reminded priests that ''It is not enough to preserve the existing community, although this is important'. This means that it is urgent to get up and go on mission. This is what the Holy Spirit, in this international meeting, wants to renew in us all''.

''Today there are still hundreds of millions of human beings who are forced to live in dire poverty and even misery and hunger,'' he said. ''They are the first who have the right to receive the good news that God is a Father who loves them unconditionally and that He does not approve the inhuman conditions in which the poor are maintained. Evangelisation and true human development cannot be separated.

''The poor living in the city slums or in rural areas need to feel the closeness of the Church in helping to meet the most urgent needs, defending their rights, and in the common promotion of a society based on justice and peace.''

Confession all-important - Cardinal Meisner

The greatest loss for the Church in the late 20th Century has been the loss of the Holy Spirit in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, a cardinal has told priests and religious.

Addressing some 4,000 bishops, priests and members of religious congregations at the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls, Cardinal Joachim Meisner, Archbishop of Cologne, said that ''when the priest is no longer a confessor, he becomes a religious worker'' and ''a priest who never kneels on the other side of the screen suffers permanent damage in his soul and mission''.

The cardinal stressed that priests who themselves receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation demonstrate their spiritual maturity.

Forgiveness

''To be on both sides of the screen in the confessional allows us, through our witness, to help our people experience Christ,'' he explained. ''In order to truly forgive, we need much love. The only forgiveness that we can really give is that which we have received from God.''

The greatest obstacle to the transmission of Christ, he added ''is sin''.

Criticising what he identified as ''an antipathy'' to confession, Cardinal Meisner said: ''When the faithful ask me: 'How can we help our priests?' I always respond: 'Go to Confession'.''

Year was 'a time of suffering' - Vatican newspaper

AS Pope Benedict sought to deal with the harder issues of the Year for Priests, the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, offered a special front-page commentary on the scandal to coincide with the conclusion of the year and offered a hopeful prediction for the future.

Credibility

''The infidelity, sometimes grave, of some priests in various parts of the world has, in fact, obscured the Church's credibility in the eyes of many people. The wound will take time to heal, and things cannot go on as if nothing happened,'' it said, adding: ''The seed that has been planted of interior renewal of priests and their more incisive witness of the Gospel will bear fruit. The time of trial has been revealed as an opportunity for greater awareness of this ministry in the Church.''