Pope Francis ordains eight new priests, calls for an "open door" Church
Translated from Spanish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.
TLDR
- Pope Francis ordained eight new priests for the Diocese of Rome in a solemn ceremony at St. Peter's Basilica.
- He urged the new priests to be "channels, not filters," and to keep the Church's "door open."
- The group included six Italians, one Cameroonian, and one Colombian, along with two other religious figures from Mexico and Saudi Arabia.
In a deeply spiritual ceremony held within the hallowed walls of St. Peter's Basilica, Pope Francis elevated eight new priests to serve the Diocese of Rome.
Today more than ever, especially when numbers seem to mark a distance between people and the Church, keep the door open! Let people in and be ready to go out.
During the solemn rite, the pontiff implored the newly ordained to embody the spirit of service, urging them to act as "channels, not filters" and to maintain an "open door" policy within the Church. This message resonates particularly in today's world, where a sense of distance between people and the institution can sometimes prevail.
The diverse group of new priests—six from Italy, one from Cameroon, and one from Colombia, Yordan Camilo Medina—stood before the Pope, responding with the traditional affirmation, "Here I am." The Pope also ordained two additional religious figures, one from Mexico serving the Diocese of Miao in India, and another from Saudi Arabia.
There are affiliations that suffocate, companies where it is easy to enter and almost impossible to leave. This is not the Church of the Lord, this is not the company of his disciples.
Pope Francis emphasized that the Church, unlike certain affiliations that stifle freedom, is a place where individuals are not suffocated. He encouraged the new shepherds to be bearers of peace, especially in times when the pursuit of security can lead to aggression and the scapegoating of others. He also touched upon the importance of nurturing celibacy, likening its continuous renewal to the growth and fruitfulness of marital love over time. The Pope concluded by urging them to engage with the world, its people, and its life.
Dear brothers, go out and encounter culture, people, life.
DistantNews Editorial
Originally published by El Deber in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.
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