Manila (AsiaNews) - "For the first time so many priests of the Philippine Church will come together for a Congress being convened exclusively for them." With these words Gaudencio Rosales, Archbishop of Manila announced the First National Congress of the Clergy, promoted by the Bishops Conference of the Philippines, to be held July 5th to 9th at the World Trade Center in Pasay City, Metro Manila. The Chair of the Coordinating Committee of the Congress, Tita de Villa declared that 3,659 priests and 90 bishops from 86 Dioceses, Vicariates and Prelatures have already registered, far surpassing the organizers expectations.
Already 2,500 families in the city have volunteered to host the priests as their family guests.
During the Congress- on the them "A Renewed Clergy, A Renewed Church, A Renewed Country", two-days of prayer is expected followed by discussions and reflection on serious pastoral and theological issues affecting the clergy, particularly the vocation shortage crisis. The biblical passage, "And they shall look at him whom they have pierced" (John 19:37), will guide the participants' meditations.
The Filipino Church is experiencing a decrease in priestly vocations currently in urban areas like Manila: of the 180 seminarians in San Carlos Seminary in Makati, for example, only 30 are from the Archdiocese of Manila. Among the 200 priests in Manila serving 92 parishes, one third of them will retire within five years.
The Congress is important, says Mons. Rosales, because of the emphasis to be given to priest formation. Unfortunately there are priests who see the priesthood as a "career." "The priesthood is not a career, not a profession. Priesthood is a vocation," remarked the Archbishop. "It is not the call of the priest, nor the call of the family, but the call of God, through the Church."
"The most important thing to prepare a priest is the formation he receives. The young man's mind must be purified, even before he gets ordained. But there is no seminary in the world which can do this," concluded Mons. Rosales. " It must be the man himself." (S.E.)