Year For Priests

Pope Benedict XVI has declared a “Year for Priests” beginning with the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on June 19, 2009. The year will conclude in Rome with an international gathering of priests with the Holy Father on June 19, 2010.

In a letter to the priests of the archdiocese, Archbishop Henry J. Mansell quoted from our Holy Father's address explaining the reason for declaring a Year for Priests: (it was) "precisely to encourage priests in their striving for spiritual perfection on which, above all, the effectiveness of their ministry depends." The Holy Father requested that each diocese make efforts "to promote and coordinate the various spiritual and pastoral initiatives that seem useful for making the importance of the priest's role and mission in the Church and in contemporary society ever more clearly perceived."

Archbishop Mansell has asked Monsignor Gerard Schmitz, Vicar for Priests, and Father Joseph DiSciacca, Minister for Priests, to coordinate efforts within the archdiocese for the Year for Priests.