“The secularization phenomenon is undoubtedly present; in the last 50 years, it also produced a certain crisis of ministerial priesthood; however, secularization itself is not all. On the other hand, today we can say that religion is far from fading. Maybe religion is more important than it was in past times”.
Cardinal Camillo Ruini said that today, during his speech at the National Meeting of UNITALSI Assistants (Italian National Union for the Transport of the Sick to Lourdes or International Sanctuaries) in Rome. Over 100 assistants were present; they listened to the report “Jesus Christ, source and centre of priestly life”.
Card. Ruini stated that “in the last 150 years, there was a remarkable change in religious attitude; and that transformation included also a crisis of the vision of ministerial priesthood, whose roots are both remote (linked with the Lutheran reform) and closer (connected to an inadequate assumption of the conciliar message)”.
“However – he went on – a response to such crisis must come from priests themselves, first of all, who are asked to be the first ‘real believers’. In the past, people believed in God because everybody did, but today everyone can actually believe or not believe. Therefore, the priest’s mission is a serious and trustful announcement; the priest must not surrender to pessimism”.