(ANS – Rome) – This morning, on the day we celebrate the institution of the Eucharist, the Rector Major sent a special greeting to members of his General Council. He took his cue from an address by Pope Francis some days before his election: it is an encouragement to experience today and the whole Easter Triduum as an experience of spiritual depth and fraternal communion.

“My dear friends,
I feel the need to be in touch with you this Maundy Thursday when we celebrate the Institution of the Eucharist and the Priesthood and we were given our identity card – the commandment of love expressed through service of our brothers and sisters.

We are going through a time of change in the life of the Church beginning with the unexpected but exemplary resignation of Pope Benedict and the equally unexpected (for the 'Vaticanisti') election of Pope Francis, a true gift of the Holy Spirit”.

The Rector Major invites them to tale Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio's reflections on the morning of 9 March during the General Congregation of Cardinals, and make them their own. His address, which began to focus the Cardinals' attention on him, was given spontaneously and then asked for in writing by Cardinal Jaime Ortega y Alamino, Archbishop of San Cristobal in Havana, and recently made public.

“I feel certain that you will take much pleasure in reading this address by the then Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio and that it will be an encouragement to live this Easter period intensely, experiencing the new and renewing energy of the Risen Lord, which our Congregation too has need of, and which the theme for GC27 makes reference to: being witnesses to the radical nature of the Gospel.

For our confreres who are part of Christ's Priesthood, my congratulations and my prayer that the Holy Spirit may continue to conform you ever more to Christ, the High Priest.

To all of you my huge affection, esteem and thanks”.

Fr Pascual Chávez V., SDB
Rector Major

Published on 28/03/2013