- Cardinal Beniamino Stella, prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS   
    Vatican City, 24 April 2014 (VIS) - On Friday 18 the Holy Father accepted the   
   resignation of Rev. Dom Umberto Beda Paluzzi, O.S.B., from the pastoral care   
   of the territorial abbey of Montevergine in Italy, in accordance with canon   
   401 para. 2 of the Code of Canon Law.   
    On Thursday, 17 April, the Holy Father:   
    - appointed Rev. Jose Augusto Traquina Maria as auxiliary of the patriarchate   
   of Lisbon (area 3,735, population 2,237,000, Catholics 1,871,000, priests 551,   
   permanent deacons 86, religious 1,516), Portugal. The bishop-elect was born in   
   Alcobaca, Portugal in 1954 and was ordained a priest in 1985. He holds a   
   licentiate in theology from the Portuguese Catholic University. He has held a   
   number of pastoral roles, including canon of the Cathedral of Lisbon, vicar,   
   coordinator of the permanent secretariat of the diocesan presbyteral council,   
   and spiritual director.   
    - appointed Jose Trinidad Fernandez Angulo as auxiliary of the archdiocese of   
   Caracas (area 991, population 4,644,000, Catholics 3,960,000, priests 490,   
   permanent deacons 9, religious 1,597), Venezuela. The bishop-elect was born in   
   Merida, Venezuela in 1964 and was ordained a priest in 1989. He holds a   
   licentiate in philosophy from the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, and   
   has held a number of pastoral roles, including director of studies, deputy   
   director of various seminaries, and professor.   
    - Rev. Can. Francisco Jose Villas-Boas Senra de Faria Coelho, as auxiliary of   
   the archdiocese of Braga (area 2,857, population 964,800, Catholics 886,700,   
   priests 465, permanent deacons 12, religious 676), Portugal. The bishop-elect   
   was born in Mozambique in 1961 and was ordained a priest in 1986. He studied   
   theology and philosophy, and holds a licentiate in history of the Church from   
   the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome. In 2008 he was awarded a doctorate   
   from the Phoenix International University in the U.S.A. During his pastoral   
   ministry he has served as a professor of theology, spiritual director, canon   
   of the Cathedral, parish priest and religious assistant.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    HOLY WEEK:   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    CHRISM MASS: ANOINTED WITH THE OIL OF GLADNESS   
    Vatican City, 17 April 2014 (VIS) - At 9.30 this morning, in the Vatican   
   Basilica, Pope Francis presided over the Holy Chrism Mass which is celebrated   
   today, Holy Thursday, in all Cathedral Churches throughout the world. The Holy   
   Father concelebrated with the Cardinals, Bishops and priests (diocesan and   
   religious) present in Rome. During the Eucharistic celebration, the priests   
   renewed the vows they made on the day of their ordination; the oils used for   
   catechumens, to anoint the sick, and for confirmation were then blessed.   
   Following the Gospel reading, the Pope pronounced the following homily:   
    "In the eternal 'today' of Holy Thursday, when Christ showed his love for us   
   to the end, we recall the happy day of the institution of the priesthood, as   
   well as the day of our own priestly ordination. The Lord anointed us in Christ   
   with the oil of gladness, and this anointing invites us to accept and   
   appreciate this great gift: the gladness, the joy of being a priest. Priestly   
   joy is a priceless treasure, not only for the priest himself but for the   
   entire faithful people of God: that faithful people from which he is called to   
   be anointed and which he, in turn, is sent to anoint.   
    Anointed with the oil of gladness so as to anoint others with the oil of   
   gladness. Priestly joy has its source in the Father’s love, and the Lord   
   wishes the joy of this Love to be 'ours' and to be 'complete'. I like to   
   reflect on joy by contemplating Our Lady, for Mary, the 'Mother of the living   
   Gospel, is a wellspring of joy for God’s little ones'. I do not think it is an   
   exaggeration to say that the priest is very little indeed: the incomparable   
   grandeur of the gift granted us for the ministry sets us among the least of   
   men. The priest is the poorest of men unless Jesus enriches him by his   
   poverty, the most useless of servants unless Jesus calls him his friend, the   
   most ignorant of men unless Jesus patiently teaches him as he did Peter, the   
   frailest of Christians unless the Good Shepherd strengthens him in the midst   
   of the flock. No one is more 'little' than a priest left to his own devices;   
   and so our prayer of protection against every snare of the Evil One is the   
   prayer of our Mother: I am a priest because he has regarded my littleness. And   
   in that littleness we find our joy. Joy in our littleness!   
    For me, there are three significant features of our priestly joy. It is a joy   
   which anoints us (not one which 'greases' us, making us unctuous, sumptuous   
   and presumptuous), it is a joy which is imperishable and it is a missionary   
   joy which spreads and attracts, starting backwards - with those farthest away   
   from us.   
    A joy which anoints us. In a word: it has penetrated deep within our hearts,   
   it has shaped them and strengthened them sacramentally. The signs of the   
   ordination liturgy speak to us of the Church’s maternal desire to pass on and   
   share with others all that the Lord has given us: the laying on of hands, the   
   anointing with sacred chrism, the clothing with sacred vestments, the first   
   consecration which immediately follows ... Grace fills us to the brim and   
   overflows, fully, abundantly and entirely in each priest. We are anointed down   
   to our very bones ... and our joy, which wells up from deep within, is the   
   echo of this anointing.   
    An imperishable joy. The fullness of the Gift, which no one can take away or   
   increase, is an unfailing source of joy: an imperishable joy which the Lord   
   has promised no one can take from us. It can lie dormant, or be clogged by sin   
   or by life’s troubles, yet deep down it remains intact, like the embers of a   
   burnt log beneath the ashes, and it can always be renewed. Paul’s exhortation   
   to Timothy remains ever timely: I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God   
   that is within you through the laying on of my hands.   
    A missionary joy. I would like especially to share with you and to stress   
   this third feature: priestly joy is deeply bound up with God’s holy and   
   faithful people, for it is an eminently missionary joy. Our anointing is meant   
   for anointing God’s holy and faithful people: for baptising and confirming   
   them, healing and sanctifying them, blessing, comforting and evangelising them.   
    And since this joy is one which only springs up when the shepherd is in the   
   midst of his flock (for even in the silence of his prayer, the shepherd who   
   worships the Father is with his sheep), it is a 'guarded joy', watched over by   
   the flock itself. Even in those gloomy moments when everything looks dark and   
   a feeling of isolation takes hold of us, in those moments of listlessness and   
   boredom which at times overcome us in our priestly life (and which I too have   
   experienced), even in those moments God’s people are able to 'guard' that joy;   
   they are able to protect you, to embrace you and to help you open your heart   
   to find renewed joy.   
    A 'guarded joy': one guarded by the flock but also guarded by three sisters   
   who surround it, tend it and defend it: sister poverty, sister fidelity and   
   sister obedience.   
    The joy of priests is a joy which is sister to poverty. The priest is poor in   
   terms of purely human joy. He has given up so much! And because he is poor,   
   he, who gives so much to others, has to seek his joy from the Lord and from   
   God’s faithful people. He doesn’t need to try to create it for himself. We   
   know that our people are very generous in thanking priests for their slightest   
   blessing and especially for the sacraments. Many people, in speaking of the   
   crisis of priestly identity, fail to realise that identity presupposes   
   belonging. There is no identity - and consequently joy of life - without an   
   active and unwavering sense of belonging to God’s faithful people. The priest   
   who tries to find his priestly identity by soul-searching and introspection   
   may well encounter nothing more than 'exit' signs, signs that say: exit from   
   yourself, exit to seek God in adoration, go out and give your people what was   
   entrusted to you, for your people will make you feel and taste who you are,   
   what your name is, what your identity is, and they will make you rejoice in   
   that hundredfold which the Lord has promised to those who serve him. Unless   
   you 'exit' from yourself, the oil grows rancid and the anointing cannot be   
   fruitful. Going out from ourselves presupposes self-denial; it means poverty.   
    Priestly joy is a joy which is sister to fidelity. Not primarily in the sense   
   that we are all 'immaculate' (would that by God’s grace we were!), for we are   
   sinners, but in the sense of an ever renewed fidelity to the one Bride, to the   
   Church. Here fruitfulness is key. The spiritual children which the Lord gives   
   each priest, the children he has baptised, the families he has blessed and   
   helped on their way, the sick he has comforted, the young people he catechises   
   and helps to grow, the poor he assists... all these are the 'Bride' whom he   
   rejoices to treat as his supreme and only love and to whom he is constantly   
   faithful. It is the living Church, with a first name and a last name, which   
   the priest shepherds in his parish or in the mission entrusted to him. That   
   mission brings him joy whenever he is faithful to it, whenever he does all   
   that he has to do and lets go of everything that he has to let go of, as long   
   as he stands firm amid the flock which the Lord has entrusted to him: Feed my   
   sheep.   
    Priestly joy is a joy which is sister to obedience. An obedience to the   
   Church in the hierarchy which gives us, as it were, not simply the external   
   framework for our obedience: the parish to which I am sent, my ministerial   
   assignments, my particular work ... but also union with God the Father, the   
   source of all fatherhood. It is likewise an obedience to the Church in   
   service: in availability and readiness to serve everyone, always and as best I   
   can, following the example of 'Our Lady of Promptness' who hastens to serve   
   Elizabeth her kinswoman and is concerned for the kitchen of Cana when the wine   
   runs out. The availability of her priests makes the Church a house with open   
   doors, a refuge for sinners, a home for people living on the streets, a place   
   of loving care for the sick, a camp for the young, a classroom for catechising   
   children about to make their First Communion... Wherever God’s people have   
   desires or needs, there is the priest, who knows how to listen (ob-audire) and   
   feels a loving mandate from Christ who sends him to relieve that need with   
   mercy or to encourage those good desires with resourceful charity.   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Meridian MS=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)