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Ordained a priest on December 13, 1969, the future Pontiff discovered his vocation 16 years earlier, on September 21, 1953, liturgical memory of Saint Matthew. That day, the young Bergoglio, passing through the parish where he used to go, feels the need to go to confession and everything changes from that confession.
Tiziana Campisi – Vatican City
Pope Francis celebrates 51 years of priesthood today. Jorge Mario Bergoglio was ordained a priest on December 13, 1969, a few days after his thirty-third birthday (December 17); Eleven years earlier, on March 11, 1958, he had entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus where he made perpetual profession on April 22, 1973. The Pontiff discovered his vocation on September 21, 1953: it is the day of the liturgical memory of Saint Matthew, and the seventeen-year-old Jorge Bergoglio, passing through the parish where he used to go, feels the need to confess.
Feel expected
He meets a priest he did not know and that confession changes his life. “It was an encounter experience for me: I discovered that someone was waiting for me. But I don’t know what happened, I don’t remember, I really don’t know why that priest was there, whom I didn’t know, why I felt this desire to confess, but the truth is that someone was waiting for me – said Francisco on May 18 2013 at the Vigil. Pentecost in St. Peter’s Square with movements, new communities, associations and lay aggregations -. It has been waiting for me for a long time. After Confession I felt that something had changed. I was not the same. I had just heard a voice, a call: I was convinced that I had to be a priest ”. Bergoglio experiences the loving presence of God in his life, feels his heart touched and feels the descent of the mercy of God, who with a look of tender love called him to religious life, following the example of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. It was this episode in his life that inspired the choice of his pontiff motto “miserando atque choosing” – already used as bishop – taken from Homilies of Saint Bede the Venerable, priest (Om.21; CCL 122, 149-151), who, commenting on the evangelical episode of the vocation of Saint Matthew, writes: “Vidit ergo lesus publicanum et quia miserando atque choosing vidit, ait illi Sequere me” (Jesus saw a publican and since he looked at it with a feeling of love and chose it, he said: Follow me)
Priests in the heart of the Pope
Pope Francis often addresses priests in his homilies and speeches. This year, in particular, he cited them several times referring to the current pandemic and the commitment made with the faithful tried for the health emergency. In a letter addressed on May 31 to the Roman clergy, who would have liked to meet at the Chrism Mass postponed due to the restrictions imposed by Covid-19, Francis speaks to the pastors of the people of God who have touched the pain of the town “, to be closer”, “to share and confirm the trip.” “As a priestly community – wrote the Pope – we have not been oblivious to this reality and we have not been looking out the window; drenched by the storm that was Unleashing, you made a lot of effort to be present and accompany your communities: you saw the wolf coming and you did not flee or abandon the flock. ”Francis encouraged the priests to be wise, clairvoyant and common commitment, and for the future he specified that “it will be essential to develop an attentive but hopeful, serene but tenacious, constant but not anxious listening that can prepare and pave the way that the Lord calls us to travel.” “As priests, children and members of a priestly people He, it is up to us to assume responsibility for the future and project it as brothers, “the letter concludes.
Zeal and pastoral concern
Speaking on June 20 to doctors, nurses and health workers in Lombardy, Francis recalled “the pastoral zeal and creative concern of priests” who “helped people to continue the path of faith and not be alone in front of the pain and fear “. “I admire the apostolic spirit of so many priests, who went on the phone, knocking on doors, knocking on houses:” Do you need anything? I do the shopping … “. A thousand things – said the Pope -. Closeness, creativity, without shame. These priests who remained close to their people in daily care and sharing: they were a sign of the consoling presence of God Then he added: “Unfortunately, not a few of them died, as well as doctors and paramedics.” Finally, he addressed the priests who were sick and that “thank God they have been cured” and all the Italian clergy, “who they have shown courage and love for the people. “
