VISIT OF H.E.R.H. MONS. ANDRES GABRIEL FERRADA, SECRETARY OF THE DICASTERY FOR THE CLERGY, TO THE PONTIFICAL INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE MARIA MATER ECCLESIAE.
Last Friday, October 4, feast of St. Francis of Assisi, we were visited by Archbishop Andrés Gabriel Ferrada, Archbishop Secretary of the Dicastery for the Clergy. He came mainly to meet the seminarians and priests who had recently arrived at Mater Ecclesiae.
That evening, in addition to the meeting, Archbishop Andrés presided at Vespers, imparted the Eucharistic blessing and had dinner with the community.
The meeting was held in two parts. Before praying vespers with the community, there was a get-together with the English-speaking priests and seminarians.
Later, after dinner, it was the turn of the Spanish-speaking seminarians.
To both groups, Bishop Ferrada invited them to maintain the integral horizon of formation and to cultivate in a particular way spiritual formation, a central dimension in the stage of configuration.
Citing the apostolic exhortation Christus vivit of Pope Francis, he invited the seminarians and priests to allow themselves to encounter Christ in prayer: “If you allow yourself to be loved and saved by Him; if you enter into friendship with Him and begin to converse with the living Christ about the concrete things of your life, that will be the great experience, that will be the fundamental experience that will sustain your Christian life. That is also the experience that you will be able to communicate to other young people” (n. 129)
In addition to the text he had prepared, Archbishop Andres devoted ample time to answering various questions posed by the participants. The visit of the Archbishop Secretary for the Clergy was a concrete experience of the Pope’s closeness through his collaborators, as well as a concrete witness to the pastoral charity of a Church that goes out to meet the people.
