PROVIDENCE — The Diocese of Providence will mark the upcoming special year for priests with monthly Adoration and other events in which the faithful can gather to pray for priests and for an increase in vocations to the priesthood.
Profiles of diocesan and local religious order priests will appear weekly in the Rhode Island Catholic , and personal reflections written by priests on a variety of topics relating to their vocation and ministry will be offered on the Commentary pages throughout the jubilee year.
Pope Benedict XVI declared a year of the priest during an audience held in March to encourage “spiritual perfection” in priests.
The pope will open the special year with a vespers service at the Vatican June 19 — the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the day for the sanctification of priests. He will close the celebrations during a World Meeting of Priests in St. Peter's Square June 19, 2010.
During this jubilee year, the pope will also proclaim St. John Vianney to be patron saint of all the world's priests. At present he is considered the patron saint of parish priests.
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the death of this 19th-century saint who represents a “true example of a priest at the service of the flock of Christ,” the pope said.
St. John Vianney is widely known to Catholics as the Cure (parish priest) of Ars who won over the hearts of his villagers in France by visiting with them, teaching them about God and reconciling people to the Lord in the confessional.
“We should be very grateful to our Holy Father, Pope Benedict, for initiating the Year of the Priest, with St. John Vianney as its patron,” said Bishop Thomas J. Tobin. “I know that it will be a great blessing for the Church around the world and here in the Diocese of Providence. It’s a very special opportunity to celebrate the gift of the ministerial priesthood, to thank and support our priests, and to renew our efforts to encourage more vocations to the priesthood.”
Father Michael J. Najim, diocesan Vocation Director, said that he was “excited” about the special year.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for the spiritual renewal of the priesthood, and an opportunity to encourage more vocations to the priesthood,” said Father Najim.
“This is an opportunity for us as priests to reflect on our own lives in light of the life of St. John Vianney and ask ourselves, ‘Are we leading lives of holiness?’”
Father David Gaffney, diocesan Director of Spiritual Formation and Chaplain, Bishop Hendricken High School, Warwick, noted that the special year will allow the faithful to focus on the dedicated service that priests perform on behalf of God’s people.
“I think it will be an opportunity for everyone — clergy, laity and religious — to highlight the work of priests they have known in the past and those that they now know within parishes and ministries — and to highlight the important work that they do,” he said.
Father Najim said that each of the 12 deaneries in the diocese will host a monthly period of 24-hour Adoration. Services will be announced in the Rhode Island Catholic.
For more information, call the Vocations Office at 331-1316.
With wire reports from Catholic News Service
