Aid to the Church in Need: Catholic charity ACN backs Vatican's Year for Priests

Catholic charity ACN backs Vatican's Year for Priests

Posted by ACN News on 9/4/2009, 12:36 pm
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ACN News, Thursday, 8th April 2009

ACN backs Vatican's Year for Priests

"Thousands of priests are sharing the poverty of the poor, especially in the current financial crisis" says International ACN President

By Eva-Maria Kolmann

Today, Holy Thursday, the day traditionally regarded as the day of the institution by Christ of the Christian priesthood, the president of the international Catholic pastoral charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Father Joaquín Alliende has recalled that all over the world thousands of priests, " are sharing the poverty of the poor, especially in the current financial crisis" and that many more are being persecuted, threatened and deprived of their freedom on account of their Faith. He went on to say that ACN has been aware of this reality for the past 61 years and continues to accompany priests on all five continents. For this reason, he added, ACN was grateful to the Holy Father for having proclaimed a Year for Priests.

In a personal letter to Pope Benedict XVI, Father Alliende writes, "Holy Father, we wish to support you and all the priests in the world during this Year for Priests and to sustain you through our prayers, our life and our work". He expressed the wish that this Year for Priests might be "a year of great gratitude for priests and for their vocation and a new discovery of the priestly identity, not only for the priests themselves but for the entire Church" and that "the grace of this Year for Priests may help priests to rediscover the beauty of their vocation and give them a new faith in their priesthood". The priest is "never alone", his letter continues, but lives "in a vital bond with Christ, who shares everything with him – all his treasures, but also his loneliness and his sacrifice for the redemption of the world". Father Alliende also prays that the faithful too may "rediscover the gift of the priesthood and learn to treasure it" and so " attain, through their priests, to the Heart of God".

(Father Joaquín Alliende)

Without the priest, he adds, the "pastoral ministry is impossible". The Church stands and falls together with her priests. In this sense the priest is "the most important man on earth, since as an alter Christus, he holds the life of the Church in his hands".
Father Alliende goes on to say that "through the charism of its founder, Father Werenfried van Straaten, his Charity, ACN is profoundly imbued with the priestly character of the Church". Father Werenfried had understood that " as a pastoral charity, we can only truly ease human suffering if we work together with, and for priests", he continues; hence the spiritual formation of the priest and the financial support of the priestly ministry in over 150 countries was a priority of ACN.

The Chilean born ACN president goes on to say that Christ had "taken a great risk in entrusting such a sacred and sensitive mission into human hands". Given recent and "painful events", this Year for Priests was a call to everyone to "rediscover a purified vision of the priesthood", he concludes.

The Year for Priests, which the Holy Father has proclaimed, begins on 19 June 2009, the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and ends on 19 June 2010. Its special theme will be: "Faithfulness of Christ, faithfulness of priests".

Editor’s Notes:

Directly under the Holy See, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need. ACN is a Catholic charity – helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.
Founded in 1947 by Fr Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An Outstanding Apostle of Charity”, the organisation is now at work in about 145 countries throughout the world.
The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 45 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.
For more information, please contact the Australian office of ACN on (02) 9679-1929. e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org or write to Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148. Web: www.aidtochurch.org

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Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148 ABN: 62 418 911 594
Ph/Fax (02) 9679-1929 e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org web: www.aidtochurch.org