Vatican City, May 25, 2009 / 08:46 am
Priests training to serve as diplomats for the Vatican around the world were received by Pope Benedict XVI in an audience on Saturday and encouraged to remain strongly anchored to Christ amidst the turmoil of the modern world.
The priests who were received by the Pope are studying at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, which is headed by Archbishop Beniamino Stella.
The Pope told the priests that service in apostolic nunciatures, for which they are training, "may to some extent be considered as a specific priestly vocation, a pastoral ministry that involves a particular approach to the world and to its often highly complex social and political problems."
"The dialogue with the modern world that is asked of you, as well as your contact with people and the institutions they represent, require an inner strength and a spiritual firmness capable of safeguarding - indeed of giving ever more prominence to - your Christian and priestly identity."
This, he explained, is necessary in order to avoid "the negative effects of the worldly mentality and not allow yourselves to be attracted or contaminated by an overly earthly logic."