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Appreciating Priests

    We continue our new daily series in uncovering the great treasuries of the Church contained in her Deposit of Faith. Today, we continue with the Hierarchy, featuring the first of several parts on priests and their role and their vital importance to the life of the Church. For the twenty-sixth installment, click on APPRECIATING THE PRECIOUS GIFT OF OUR FAITH

THE HIERARCHY

    The priesthood is the highest dignity on earth. The dignity of a priest surpasses that of emperors, and even of angels. No angel can convert the bread into the Body of Christ by the mere power of his word; nor can any angel forgive sins. The priest stands between God and man. He is God's representative, God's ambassador. Therefore whatever honor we pay to the priest, we render to God Himself. Saint Francis of Assisi said that if he met an angel and a priest at the same time, he should salute the priest first. Priests, especially parish priests who assist the bishops in the care of souls, are the captains in the great army that is the Church.

    Parish priests receive their orders and jurisdiction from the bishop, and are bound to carry out his commands. In the parish the parish priest represents the bishop, and no one may, without his consent or the bishop’s, exercise spiritual functions there, such as marrying, baptizing, preaching, burying, giving extreme unction, etc. All sacramental duties are the priest's alone but an ordained deacon authorized by the bishop may perform marriages, the last rites and preaching but not the Sacrament of Confession or the Holy Eucharist.

    A vicar forane (called also urban and rural dean) is a parish priest having supervisory power in the name of the bishop over neighboring parishes. A vicar-general is the chief among the officers of a diocese. Parish priests of large districts have priests helping them, called curates, assistants, or associate pastors.

    The duties of parish priests are many, varied, and of great responsibility. Like all priests, they are pledged to lifelong celibacy. Daily they must recite the Breviary, the priests’ prayer book, which requires about an hour’s time. On account of these heavy responsibilities all Catholics have the obligation to pray for their priests, and to help them as much as possible.

    A parish priest and his curates have to visit the sick of the parish any time of the day or night. He has to give the last sacraments to the dying, however contagious or repellent the disease. He hears confessions hour after hour. He must renounce the world with all its amusements for the love of God. As shepherd of his flock, he is responsible to God for the souls of those committed to his care. On the day of judgment, he has to render a strict account of his stewardship.

    Priests who belong to a religious order have different regulations than Diocesan priests. While they are still responsible to the bishop of their see, they are also responsible to their superior at the provincial level and the general level. Priests of religious orders such as Franciscans, Dominicans, Benedictines, Jesuits, Oblates, Servites, etc. all take three vows - the Vow of Chastity and Obedience like the Diocesan priests, but also the Vow of Poverty. This way they do not, as is normally the case, earn a stipend salary like a Diocesan priest but rather are dependent on the Order and communal property is shared with the bare minimum encouraged to practice the virtue of poverty. This is especially true of the Franciscans who were founded on that rule. Religious priests have the same requirements Diocesan priests do in regards their daily prayers, etc. and often head parishes, staff schools and other Catholic institutions.

    No matter the duties of a priest, it is not something someone attains to overnight. It takes a minimum of six to seven years major seminary studies in Theology and moral theology plus philosophy and other studies in preparation for the priesthood. Religious priests undergo a period of time called Novitiate during this preparation, something Diocesan candidates do not go through. Religious also take the tonsure and the steps to the priesthood called Minor and Major Orders which we will cover in detail later on. Suffice it to say, the words of David from the Lord in Psalm 110: 4, ring true: "Thou art a priest forever, according to the order of Melchisedec."

tomorrow: The Sacrament of Holy Orders

Cardinal Egano Righi-Lambertini, now 93, served his Church well in the Vatican Diplomatic Corps

    Our one-hundred-seventh red-hat we feature, in alphabetical order is nearly 94 year-old Italian prelate Cardinal Egano Righi-Lambertini, Korea's first Apostolic delegate who served diplomatic missions in France, England, Lebanon, and Chile as well as serving as special envoy to the Council of Europe. He was one of the oldest cardinals to receive his red hat at the age of 73 during Pope John Paul II's first Consistory of June 30, 1979. For more on Cardinal Egano Righi-Lambertini, click on COLLEGE OF CARDINALS COLLECTION

107.   Cardinal Egano Righi-Lambertini

    Cardinal Egano Righi-Lambertini is one of the older Italian prelates, now closer to 94 and in full retirement in Rome. Despite his age, he has only been a cardinal for twenty years. He was born in Casalecchio di Reno, Italy on February 22, 1906 during the third year of Pope Saint Pius X's pontificate. Inspired by the Holy Pontiff, he entered the seminary during high school and was ordained at the age of 23 on May 25, 1929, the same year Pope Pius XI signed a concordat with Benito Mussolini granting the Holy See the autonomy of Vatican City State.

    After ten years of further studies and pastoral work, Father Righi-Lambertini entered the diplomatic corps at the Vatican in service to the Secretariat of State in 1939 as war was breaking out throughout Europe. He remained working in the office inside the Vatican until after the war when in 1949 he was sent to France on diplomatic missions until 1954. In 1955 Costa Rica was the assignment followed shortly thereafter by an assignment to England until 1957 when Pope Pius XII appointed him First Apostolic Delegate to Korea on December 28 where he remained until October 28, 1960, the date Pope John XXIII named him Titular Archbishop of Doclea and transferred him to Apostolic Nuncio in Lebanon. He remained in this post until 1963 when he was made Apostolic Nuncio to Chile. In 1967 Pope Paul VI recalled him to Rome to serve as Apostolic Nuncio to Italy until 1969 when he was appointed to the same post for France. It was while in Paris that he also served as special envoy at the Council of Europe from 1974 to 1979.

    He was elevated to the cardinalate during Pope John Paul II's first Consistory on June 30, 1979 becoming a cardinal deacon and the titular church of Saint Mary along the Via in Rome. After his retirement from active duty and the College of Cardinals, he was transferred to the order of cardinal priests by the Holy Father on November 26, 1990.

   Today we commemorate the Twenty-seventh Wednesday in Ordinary Time along with the Feast of Saint Bruno, priest, hermit and religious founder plus the Feast of Blessed Marie-Rose Durocher, virgin and religious founder. Tomorrow we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, first instituted as Our Lady of Victory by Pope Saint Pius V in 1571. For the readings, liturgies, meditations, and vignettes on these feasts, click on DAILY LITURGY.

Wednesday October 6:
Twenty-Seventh Wednesday in Ordinary Time and
Feast of Saint Bruno, Priest, Hermit and Religious Founder andFeast of Blessed Marie Rose Durocher, Virgin and Religious Founder

Green or White vestments

First Reading: Jonah 4: 1-11
Psalms: Psalm 86: 3-6, 9-10, 15
Gospel Reading: Luke 11: 1-4

Feast of Saint Bruno, Priest, Hermit and Religious Founder

      Born in 1035 in Cologne, Germany, Saint Bruno Hartenfaust became a priest and canon of the famous cathedral there, gaining great renown as an eloquent preacher. He strongly supported Pope Saint Gregory VII in his great reform, encouraging his fellow clergy members to strengthen their own morality and fight simony. Though he was appointed Bishop of Rheims, he politely declined and retired to a Cistercian monastery in 1082 where he lived practically as a hermit. He left there a few years later and traveled to Grenoble where he was given a place of solitude at Chartreuse and helped begin the Carthusian Order with its founder Robert of Molesmes. His counsel was so valuable that Blessed Pope Urban II who had studied under Bruno in Germany, called him to Rome to be the personal advisor to the supreme pontiff. However in 1092 the notorious antipope Clement III forced Bruno from Rome. He journed to Calabria in south Italy, founding a charterhouse for the Carthusian Order. Shortly before his death, in an effort to suppress the Berengarius heresy, he publicly made a profession of faith declaring the True Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity. He died in Calabria in shortly after the turn of the century in 1101.

Feast of Blessed Marie Rose Durocher, Virgin and Religious Founder

      This Canadian-born holy woman Blessed Marie Rose Durocher, whose canonization is imminent, was born in Quebec City, Canada in 1811 as the tenth of eleven children into a good Catholic family. One of her brothers, a Missionary Oblate of Mary Immaculate priest, asked Marie, when she turned 18, to help at his parish where she served as a lay apostle for thirteen years. With the assistance of the Oblates, she established the first parish sodality in all of Canada. In 1843 she so impressed her Bishop that he asked her to found the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, patterning it on the same religious congregation in Marseilles, France where the Oblates founder Saint Eugene de Mazenod was Bishop. In keeping with the Oblate mission of ministering to the poorest and most abandoned children, Marie Rose recruited many women to join. She died a happy death in 1849 and ten years later the Sisters expanded into the United States with a mission in Oregon. Pope John Paul II beatified Marie on May 23, 1982.

Thursday October 7:
Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary

White vestments

First Reading: Malachi 3: 13-20
Psalms: Psalm 1: 1-4, 6; 40: 5
Gospel Reading: Luke 11: 5-13

FEAST OF OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY

     As a result of the miraculous victory of the Christians over the superior Turk fleet in the landmark Battle of Lepanto on October 7, 1571 produced through Our Lady's intercession from the reverently praying her Holy Rosary, Pope Pius V proclaimed the date as the feast of Our Lady of Victory. The Rosary had been promulgated since Saint Dominic was given the Rosary in a vision in the early 14th Century. A century and a half later Pius V, a Dominican, realized intuitively that this was a manifestation of the power of the Rosary and declared it a great feast. His successor Pope Gregory XIII in 1573 made it obligatory for Rome and for the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary. Pope Clement XI established the feast in the Roman Calendar earmarking it for the first Sunday in October as the Dominicans had been celebrating it. In 1960, Pope John XXIII officially proclaimed October 7 as the set day and changed the name from to Our Lady of the Rosary which it has remained as to this day. Over the past two centuries the Rosary has been emphasized in the Mother of God's many, many apparitions - especially at Fatima and Medjugorje where Mary has stressed the vital importance of praying her Holy Rosary for Peace. She reiterates how it is the most powerful weapon we have, that each bead is a rose forming a beautiful bouquet she presents to God on our behalf and that each bead becomes a firm link in the chain that will bind satan forever. Outside of the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, the Rosary is the most important devotion we have in Holy Mother Church.

    Since we brought you the prayer honoring Saint Bruno yesterday, today we bring you the Opening Prayer for the Mass honoring Blessed Marie-Rose Durocher:

Lord, You enkindled in the heart of Blessed Marie-Rose Durocher the flame of ardent charity and a great desire to collaborate, as a teacher, in the mission of the Church. Grant us that same active love so that, responding to the needs of the world today, we may lead our brothers and sisters to eternal life.

Famous tenor Placido Domingo endorses Pope for Time's Man of the Century

    The Spanish tenor Placido Domingo when approached by Time Magazine on the selection of the "Man of the Century" did not hesitate in offering Pope John Paul II for all he has accomplished and the truth and goodness he has brought to the world and how he has effected world politics with the fall of communism. The honoree of the distinction as "Time's Man of the Century" will be revealed in December, about the same time the DAILY CATHOLIC reveals their TOP CATHOLIC OF THE CENTURY. For more, click on Pope John Paul II for Man of the Century.

    ROME, OCT 5 (ZENIT).- "Time" magazine's survey of those considered the 100 most influential personalities of the 20th century will end in December, when the "Person of the Century" will be named. In order to help the editors in the selection, "Time" has asked an outstanding group of personalities to give their choice. Spanish tenor Placido Domingo proposed Pope John Paul II.

    "As the first non-Italian Pope (in many years), John Paul II is very different from the Popes who preceded him. The son of laborers, he is a poet and dramatist who fought the Nazis during the Second World War and Communism when he was Bishop of Krakow. He has shown tremendous energy and great facility to analyze the Catholic Church, both in the political and social dimensions," the Spanish tenor said.

    "He has had enormous influence since 1978, visiting half the world and being seen by millions. I believe his visit to Cuba will turn out to be especially significant. He has tried to give the Church simplicity and to open her to the people. With just a look or a few words he expresses truth, hope and love to the weak and poor. He has suffered much in the 21 years of his pontificate, and this has left him with emotional and physical scars that make his presence especially moving," Domingo commented.

    "Because he has lived and suffered through so much, he can understand and sympathize with the weakness and pain of others. I remember what was said at the time of his election: 'This will spell the end of Communism.' " Placido Domingo concluded. ZE99100507

Refugees in East Timor emerge from mountain hiding hungry and weak, but buoyed by the fact they persevered

    The spirit of East Timor is beginning to show again as, protected by UN peacekeepers and with most of the pro-Indonesian militia having fled, people are more confident to come out of hiding, hungry and weak, but encouraged that they have perservered as efforts got underway for the massive project of not only feeding tens of thousands who haven't eaten much in weeks, but bringing back the hundreds of thousands refugees who were deported or fled to West Timor. The Catholic nation's spiritual leader Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo is expected back in Dili today. For more, click on Recovery in East Timor .

    DILI, East Timor (CWNews.com) - Thousands of East Timorese came out of hiding the mountainous countryside on Tuesday to seek food being handed out by international peacekeepers.

    Hundreds of thousands of people took to hiding in the forests last month after anti-independence militias, aided by Indonesian military and police, began a rampage following a vote for independence in the territory. Indonesia, the most populous Muslim nation in the world, invaded mainly Catholic East Timor in 1975 and annexed it the following year in a move not recognized by the United Nations. In August, the region held a Jakarta-proposed referendum to allow Timorese to choose either autonomy within Indonesia or full independence.

    The thousands of refugees lined up outside the torched home of Bishop Carlos Belo of Dili to receive the largest food aid since the peacekeepers arrived 15 days ago. Organizers distributed 13,000 110-pound bags of rice to families -- enough to feed 60,000 people for a month.

    The United Nations also planned to start bringing back hundreds of thousands of refugees from neighboring West Timor where they had been forced to flee at the height of the violence. Australian Maj. Gen. Peter Cosgrove, the head of the international peacekeeping force also announced he had written to Indonesian commanders to demand that four of their officers be returned to Dili as part of the investigation into the slaying of a Dutch journalist.

Sacrilegious and Catholic-bashing film angers New York Catholics as they clash with stars of irreverent movie "Dogma"

    A film that mocks Catholic teaching and makes fun of Jesus Christ and all Catholics hold sacred is drawing protests from all circles of society in New York when it was previewed Monday at the New York Film Society. It is especially offensive to Catholics segment who vigorously oppose the movie "Dogma" for its content and irreverence and lack of sensitivity toward the Roman Catholic Church. Believe us, folks, this is only the tip of the iceberg and its stars Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and Chris Rock as well as the director and producers are going to come under heavy criticism for this atrocity and rightly so. Wouldn't you know Disney, though they pawned it off, are behind this latest Catholic-bashing effort. For more, click on "Dogma" is for the dogs

    NEW YORK (CWNews.com) - Hundreds of Catholics protested a new film starring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck that attacks Jesus and the Catholic Church at the New York Film Festival on Monday.

    The movie "Dogma" features Alanis Morrisette as God, Chris Rock as a "wisecracking 13th apostle," Damon and Affleck as fallen angels trying to get back into Heaven on a technicality, and Linda Fiorentino as a descendant of Jesus who works at an abortion clinic.

    The film was originally owned by controversial Miramax Films, but when the Walt Disney Co., which holds exclusive distribution rights for Miramax, told the company it would not distribute it, Miramax's owners Bob and Harvey Weinstein bought it, paid for its production, and found an independent distributor.

    The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property, which joined the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights and others at Monday's rally, said in fliers that "Dogma," "mocks everything we hold sacred -- God, the Church, the Mass, and Mary's virginity. It condones what we condemn -- murder, obscenity, violence, profanity, drugs, drunkenness, and rebellion!"

National Conference of Diocesan Vocation Directors' meeting in St. Louis encourages directors and faithful that the fruits of vocations are ripening

    Several positive things came out of last week's annual National Conference of Diocesan Vocation Directors held in St. Louis, Missouri. Over 200 directors representing 97% of the dioceses in the United States were in attendance and came away renewed with the theme of recommitment to their calling and to evangelizers for the new millennium in a society that is badly in need of priests and their ministry to helping heal the soul. The challenge also went out to go to confession more regularly and to make the Sacrament of Reconciliation more available to all and encourage the faithful to partake in this healing sacrament. For more, click on Vocations for the new millennium.

    ST. LOUIS, 5 (NE) The Archdiocese of St. Louis was home last week to the 1999 National Conference of Diocesan Vocation Directors, which gathered from September 24-30 more than 200 vocation directors from all over the United States. The event focused on the challenges of attracting vocations in the new millennium, offering several reflections on priestly identity.

    Fidelity to the ministry to which priests have been consecrated was one of the main themes stressed during the National Conference. "Priests will be evangelizers for a new age by doing what they were consecrated to do - by being what they were consecrated to be," said during the conference Father Mark O'Keefe, the St. Louis Review reported.

    "The challenge for priests of today and tomorrow," stated Father O'Keefe, who is president-rector of St. Meinrad School of Theology in Indiana, "is to be faithful and effective agents of the new evangelization."

    Approximately 97 percent of all U.S. dioceses were represented at the conference, during which the centrality of sacramental life in priests was also stressed. Priests, it was said, "should frequently receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation and make it readily available to all," devoting as well themselves "to the Eucharist for the sake of fulfilling their own vocation and call to holiness."

For more headlines and articles, we suggest you go to the Catholic World News site at the CWN home page and Church News at Noticias Eclesiales and the features, dossiers and Daily Dispatches at ZENIT International News Agency. CWN, NE and ZENIT are not affiliated with the Daily CATHOLIC but provide this service via e-mail to the Daily CATHOLIC Monday through Friday.

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October 6, 1999 volume 10, no. 190  DAILY CATHOLIC