The Mass was concelebrated by the Cardinal Vicar of Rome, Agostino Vallini; Archbishop Filippo Iannone, Vicegerent of Rome; and the auxiliary bishops of Rome; along with the rectors of the seminaries and the pastors of the newly ordained.
Eleven of the new priests were ordained for the diocese of Rome. Pope Francis, wanting to meet personally the men he would be ordaining, received the eleven deacons of the Diocese of Rome on April 25, at the Casa Santa Marta.
Two other men, a religious of the Order of Discalced Augustinians from Pakistan and a Vietnamese seminarian from the Diocese of Vinh, were also ordained.
In his homily, based on the homily recommended in the Pontifical, Pope Francis spoke about the vocation to the sacramental priesthood. Those who are ordained, he said, “are configured to Christ the high and eternal priest, are consecrated as true priests of the New Testament” so that they become “preachers of the Gospel, and shepherds of the People of God, and will preside over the liturgical actions, especially in the celebration of the Sacrifice of the Lord.”
He called on the newly ordained to “be aware that you were chosen from among men and established in their favour to attend to the things of God;” to “exercise the priestly work of Christ with joy and sincere charity;” to be intent “on pleasing God, and not yourselves.”
Pope Francis concluded his homily saying, “Have always before your eyes the example of the Good Shepherd, who did not come to be served, but to serve, and to seek and to save those that were lost.”
Text from Vatican Radio website
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