Beautiful ministry

Fr Emmanuel Goulard, rector of St-Sulpice Seminary at Issy-les-Moulineaux, France, on August 27 wrote in La Croix International about priesthood:

“While the vocation of the diocesan priesthood is struggling, the diocesan clergy remains the ‘backbone’ of the Church’s life and mission. Rooted in a specific area and belonging to a presbyterium, diocesan priests are close to all the baptised, who have varied spiritual motivations and live through unique situations (birth, illness, death). This beautiful ministry is lived out in faithful and joyful discretion in the heart of a vast missionary field with limited means.”

Italian bishop criticises Meloni

Bishop Francesco Savino of Cassano al Ionio, vice president of the Italian bishops’ conference, criticised Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s proposal of “differentiated autonomy”. He said the plan would create “two Italys, one prosperous, the other abandoned to its fate” and will produce “more poverty, more depopulation, and greater differences with the north”.

On dignified work

In a statement to mark Labour Day, Bishop Mark Seitz and Archbishop Borys Gudziak, chairpersons of the US Bishops’ Conference committees on migration and domestic justice and human development said:

“Dignified work reflects that our humanity gives us an active role to play in cultivating a world around us. Through work, we exercise dominion over how we provide the material needs for ourselves and our families. God desires for us to do more than survive but to thrive. Yet, in today’s economy, too many people and families are living in poverty due to jobs with low pay that provide little or no benefits, erratic work schedules, and offer insufficient protections.”

Pope’s prayer

The pope’s prayer intention for September is that “each one of us will hear and take to heart the cry of the Earth and of victims of natural disasters and climactic change, and that all will undertake to personally care for the world in which we live.”

(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)