Pope Francis writes to world’s parish priests aleteia.org

The Church could not go on without your dedication and your pastoral service.” This is what Pope Francis said to parish priests around the world in a letter handed out to the 300 of them who took part in a meeting near Rome, from April 29 to May 2, 2024. This meeting was held in preparation for the Synodal assembly on the future of the Church scheduled for next October, as part of a major reflection process on the state of the Church that began in 2021.

“A synodal Church needs its parish priests,” Pope Francis wrote. “I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation for the generous work that you do each day, sowing seeds of the Gospel in every kind of soil.”

In the summary document of the October 2023 synod session in Rome, the participants had asked “to find ways to involve the clergy (deacons, priests, bishops) more actively in the synodal process” and to understand “better the reasons why some have felt resistant to the synodal process.”…

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