Vatican City, Jul 7, 2010 / 18:32 pm
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood at a recent Mass in St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, said the mission of the priest is “to bring heaven down to earth, to bring about the communion of all men and women with God.”
During his homily at the July 6 Mass in Rome, the cardinal explained that the mission of the priest “consists in giving hope to people, in proclaiming that God is good, in alleviating the sorrows of the afflicted, in bringing the meaning of heaven to those who overwhelmed by the tribulations of this earth.”
“As a priest and bishop many times I have experienced the beauty and strength of the Gospel of Jesus, which is truly capable of changing the lives of people,” Cardinal Bertone noted. “In order to understand the live of a priest, one doesn’t necessarily need to ask what a priest does, but rather who a priest is.”
A priest, explained the prelate, “is someone in love with Jesus Christ, his friend.”