In June and July some young Sons of Charity on different continents will be ordained. Some to the priestly ministry: Zeferino Sakapepa in Portugal, (Album photos) Xavier Séclier in France (Album photos) and Julio César da Silva in Brazil. Others as deacons in view of the priesthood: Emmanuel Kangah, Théodore Mbaloula, and Simon Mbete in Ivory Coast.

This is an opportunity to thank God, who goes on calling youths to put themselves at the service of the Church and of the world, following the steps of Jesus Good Shepherd, and because there are still some youths who answer that call. That reminds us also the importance of being a community that convokes, as an instrument of the Lord’s call.

But perhaps some are wondering: is there anything particular in the fact that some youths who are ordained priests are religious, that is, belonging by their perpetual vows to a religious family or congregation? The priestly ministry that they are called to live is exactly the same as that lived by the priests who are not religious, that is to say those who belong to a diocese under the exclusive authority of a bishop.

The sacrament of Holy Orders is the same for any priest. It unites and configures to Christ Good Shepherd who gives his life for his sheep, also for those “who are not of the flock” (Jn 10, 16). Like any other priest, the religious receives a sacrament that is a gift and a responsibility. That is how the bishop recalls it on the day of the ordination: to serve and to guide the people, letting oneself by guided by the Holy Spirit, to announce the Gospel through one’s life and through the Word, to celebrate the sacraments with the people of God, especially the Eucharist and the Reconciliation, to pray for all men, to unite oneself to Jesus, offering oneself with him for love of mankind.

Then, what is particular to the religious? Exercising the priestly ministry with the evangelical feature of the founder of the congregation. In our case, Fr. Anizan, his passion for God and his passion for the working people. He felt particularly moved by the image of Jesus Good Shepherd of the crowds of Palestine he met with went forsaken, hurt and demoralized like sheep without a shepherd. Fr. Anizan compared that to the crowds of poor and of workers that he met. The love, the charity in Jesus Good Shepherd, is what our founder wanted to live and transmit to those who would come after him. The priest Son of Charity brings in a special way that same passion in his priestly ministry. As he is a religious he also does it in community with his other brothers; we say “as a team”.  All that brings a particular apostolic liberty, in order to seek the way more and more adapted and most pertinent to announce to the poor and to the workers of any time and place that love of God reflected in Jesus. The particularity, with all its consequences and its applications is what the priest Son of Charity brings to his ministry. That is why the Church ordains him a priest. The congregations through those in charge has to make sure that things are that way and has to propose him to a given diocese and a bishop so that he be integrated to the mission of all that Church, which through that will come out enriched.

Photo : Pascal Guérot