” “Being “close all the time” to priests, helping them and “having at heart their material and spiritual wellbeing”: it is one of the first passages of the speech that Benedict XVI addressed this morning to the Italian bishops, gathered in the Vatican for their 56th general meeting. The Pope recalled that “the main purpose of this meeting of yours is centred on the life and ministry of the priests, from the perspective of a Church that aims at being more and more oriented to its fundamental mission of evangelisation”. Just for this reason, he exhorted the Bishops “first of all, to take care of accurately selecting those who want to become priests, checking their personal bent to take on the commitments associated with their future task; then, cultivating their education not just during the years of the seminary, but also in the following phases of their lives; having at heart their material and spiritual wellbeing; being like fathers to them with a brotherly spirit; never leaving them alone in the fatigues of their task, in sickness and in old age as well as in the inescapable ordeals of life”. Benedict XVI then added: “the closer we are to our priests, the more they will love and trust us, will excuse our personal limitations, will welcome our word and will sympathise with us in the joys and sorrows of our task”.
