Letter from the Patriarch of Babylon for Chaldeans to priests. Behaviours to be corrected
Letter from the Patriarch of Babylon for Chaldeans to priests.
Behaviours to be corrected
Baghdad, 10.
“Over the last few years the weakening role of central authority, the vacancy of numerous episcopal sees, the lack of security and the perpetual state of socio-political crisis in Iraq, has also had an impact on the identity and spirituality of priests, creating a situation that cannot continue and must be addressed with decisiveness, through rediscovering the source of grace and the true essence of the priestly vocation and mission”. This strong and direct appeal is contained in a letter from His Beatitude Raphael Louis Sako I, the Patriarch of Babylon for Chaldeans, to the priests of his Church, urging them to bear witness to the nature of their ministry as service for the salvation of all. In the letter, dated 3 July ( the feast of St Thomas the Apostle), the Chaldean Patriarch, according to the news agency 'Fides', expressed his respect “for the large part” of priests in his Church and gratitude for their work. At the same time, however, Sako exposed situations and dynamics that need to be corrected without delay: “Some priests have made their parishes into little empires. Others have left Iraq without their superiors' permission, have applied for political asylum or have left their own Church to join another Church. Others, still, do not celebrate Mass except on Saturdays and Sundays. Some do not preach or, when they do, they turn their homilies into insults or requests for money. The priesthood”, continued the Patriarch, remembering Pope Francis' recent appeals, “is a mission, not a profession or a business. The priest is the human lung which purifies sins with the air of God's grace, and his success is the fruit of God's infinite power and not the result of his individual performance”.
fuente: http://www.osservatoreromano.va/portal/dt?JSPTabContainer.setSelected=JSPTabContainer%2FDetail&last=false=&path=/news/religione/2013/157q13-Lettera-del-patriarca-di-Babilonia-dei-Cald.html&title=Behaviours%20to%20be%20corrected&locale=en
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