Priestly ordination with Bishop Demetrio Fernández of Córdoba, Spain / Diocese of Córdoba, Spain
Denver Newsroom, Jun 18, 2022 / 10:00 am (CNA).
In his weekly pastoral letter published a few days before ordaining five new priests on June 18, the bishop of Córdoba, Spain, Demetrio Fernández, wrote that the Catholic Church cannot live without her priests, stressing that they are “a vital necessity.”
“The Church can neither live nor survive without priests. It’s a vital necessity. Because she cannot live without the presence of Christ who continually vivifies her through the sacraments, and especially through the Eucharist,” the bishop said.
“Without priests there is no Eucharist or sacramental forgiveness of sins, or accompaniment to so many people who seek that presence of Christ by their side,” the bishop stressed.
Noting that the path to the priesthood isn’t easy, Bishop Fernández said that those who seek to respond to God in this vocation must seek him in prayer.
“In the serenity of prayer, with the counsel of the formators, and with the help of brother seminarians, the horizon becomes clearer until moral certainty is reached: God is calling me to be his priest, Jesus Christ is calling me to be his totally, people need the priest to draw close to God. Here I am, send me, as the prophet said,” the Spanish prelate wrote.
The bishop pointed out that a priest is a blessing for families, parishes, and fellow seminarians and encouraged young men not to be afraid to say yes to the Lord.
“Young men, if the Lord is calling you on this path, don’t be afraid. These young men who are ordained today are made of the same stuff as you are. And if you have any uneasiness about this direction, put yourself in the hands of a priest who will help you discern,” he encouraged.
“I assure you that if you take this step, you’ll be happy, because there is no greater happiness than giving your life to the Lord and making others happy, giving them to the Lord,” he said.
The bishop encouraged people to pray for priestly vocations to God since, furthermore, “there is no greater sadness for a diocese than not having seminarians, candidates for the priesthood” and “there is no greater joy for a diocese than to have seminarians, who are going to be ordained priests for the service of the holy People of God.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
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Mother Elvira, the founder of the Comunità Cenacolo, based her efforts to help young people struggling with addiction around the concept of radical trust in God’s mercy and providence. / Courtesy of the Comunità Cenacolo
National Catholic Register, Aug 5, 2023 / 13:00 pm (CNA).
Mother Elvira Petrozzi, who founded Comunità Cenacolo in 1983 to provide hope and healing to those suffering from addiction, died on Aug. 3 in the formation house and residence of her congregation in Saluzzo, Italy. She was 86.
Her death, following a long illness, came just weeks after thousands of people gathered in Saluzzo, a hilltop town in Italy’s northwest Piedmont region about an hour’s drive south of Turin, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Cenacolo Community’s founding there in an abandoned home on July 16, 1983.
In the decades since, the community has grown to encompass 72 Cenacolo houses in 20 countries, including four in the United States.
Mother Elvira called the Cenacolo a “School of Life” because it took people off the streets and gave them a “rebirth” that was “based on a simple, family-oriented, orderly life” with the foundation of prayer, physical labor, discipline, and fraternal sharing.
“How could I invent a story like this? Everything happened without me even realizing it,” she once remarked.
“I dove into God’s mercy and I rolled up my sleeves to love, love, love … and serve!” she said. “I am the first to surprise myself with what has happened and what is happening in the life of the Cenacolo Community. It’s a work of God, the Holy Spirit, and of Mary.”
Bishop Robert Baker, bishop emeritus of Birmingham, Alabama, first met Mother Elvira in 1991. The two developed a close friendship and together they co-founded four Comunità Cenacolos in the U.S. Southwest, including one near Hanceville, Alabama.
Baker was among Mother Elvira’s many friends, supporters, and community members who were able to visit with her in her final days.
“I had the blessing of being invited to come to be at her bedside,” he told the National Catholic Register, CNA’s partner news outlet. “I was with her and I was able to give her a blessing.”
Humble beginnings
Born Rita Petrozzi, Mother Elvira was born in Sora, Italy, in 1937 and grew up in a poor family, taking the name Elvira upon entering the Sisters of Charity of St. Jeanne Antide Thouret as a teenager.
It wasn’t until 27 years later that she felt inspired to help young addicts and other youth to change their lives. Rooted in her Catholic faith and God’s love for every person, her methods were so effective that they led to others wanting a Comunità Cenacolo established in their region.
Prior to meeting her, Baker founded a drug addiction center called Our Lady of Hope Community in St. Augustine, Florida. Then visiting Rome when he was rector of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine, he learned of Mother Elvira, spoke with her, and at his invitation agreed to establish a Cenacolo community with her entire program at Our Lady of Hope in 1992. The two friends went on to co-found two other houses in the St. Augustine area and a fourth house in Alabama.
Baker celebrated one of the Masses for the thousands of people attending the 40th anniversary celebration in Saluzzo. In his homily, he reflected on the time when he arranged to use an ornamental nursery to raise funds for the Cenacolo program in Florida, but when community members arrived from Italy they explained that Mother Elvira had instructed them to rely instead on divine providence.
“It was the result of her own closeness to the Lord in the Eucharist, which enabled her to see the immensity of God’s love. And if God loves us so immensely, he will provide for us,” he said.
After 30 years, no one has gone hungry in that Florida house or any of the community’s houses. “The point being, she was right,” Baker said.
Mother Elvira, who died on Aug. 3, 2023, at age 86, was beloved for her infectious trust in God’s providence, her devotion to the Eucharist, and her burning desire to share God’s boundless love with those struggling in life. Courtesy of the Comunità Cenacolo
The daily schedule at these houses includes Mass, eucharistic adoration, Marian devotion with three rosaries minimum a day, and devotion to St. Joseph. Every day members pray simply: “St. Joseph, provide for us.”
“The heart of it is, of course, the Eucharist,” Baker explained.
“Part of Elvira’s training is to divest to get rid of the stuff you don’t need,” he said. “So, the divesting, the trust in divine providence, and then … the Eucharist, praying before the Lord. That’s where her greatest strength was — the Eucharist, where she had all these insights. [You] have to have the sense of God’s immense love, which she had from praying before the Eucharist. And then because you know God loves you immensely, he will provide for you.”
When Baker visited Mother Elvira shortly before her death, he noted upon entering the house a mosaic on the floor that spells out the words “Dio Provvede” (God Provides).
‘Consumed with God’s love’
Florida residents Sean and Elaine Corrigan, who met Mother Elvira in 2000, lived in her community for some time and served in its missions in Brazil.
The couple credits her for saving their marriage.
“She had an extraordinary impact on our lives and on our marriage,” Elaine Corrigan told the Register. “Mother Elvira was a person fully in love with her Savior. She knew, she accepted, and she believed completely in his merciful love, and her great desire was to share him with others.
“I wanted to run after her and soak up all that she had,” she continued. “When we met Mother Elvira, we knew we had encountered a woman completely consumed with the love of God. She knew in the core of her being that he could and would heal people. She shared this hope and mercy with everyone she met.”
Albino Aragno, who started with the Cenacolo more than 30 years ago and today is the director of Comunità Cenacolo America, said Mother Elvira taught him many valuable lessons.
“Mother Elvira always encouraged me. She reminded me that life is precious and that life needs to be lived fully … to never be afraid to do God’s will, and always trust in him,” he said.
“Because of this, I can say that in all these years I can see that our community has kept on going even through so many difficulties, because good always prevails!”
Albino’s wife, Joyce, said Mother Elvira had a profound effect on her from the very beginning.
“Mother Elvira said, ‘Lord, let me know your will in the moment you want me to do it.’ This pierced my heart the first time I heard it and moved me to try to live every moment of my life in surrender and abandonment to his will, as Jesus reveals it at that moment,” she explained.
“It’s so radically opposed to control and trusting ‘in my own understanding,’ as the Psalmist says — my own intellect, perception, and analysis. Jesus calls me to live totally in the moment, not depending on myself.”
Pope Francis paid tribute to the Comunità Cenacolo on its 40th anniversary following his July 16 Angelus reflection.
“I send my heartfelt greeting to the Cenacolo Community, which has been a place of hospitality and human promotion for 40 years,” the pope said. “I bless Mother Elvira, the bishop of Saluzzo, and all the fraternity and friends. What you do is good, and it is good that you exist! Thank you!”
Baker said he observed during a recent Mass how “in periods of the Church there are great saints that get us through the eras in which we live.”
He pointed to St. Benedict in the fourth century, the Dominicans and Franciscans in the 13th century during the Albigensian heresy, and St. Ignatius and the Jesuits in the 16th century at the time of the Reformation.
In context of the Bishop’s warning, Daniel prophesies the well known abolition of the daily sacrifice and enshrinement of the abomination of desolation. At present we may hypothesize whether this prophecy has relevance to future changes to the liturgy of the Eucharist, what portent, if any, does the Synod on Synodality have.
Likewise most who read scripture are familiar with 2 Thess 2 and Paul’s reference to the great apostasy and appearance of the lawless one who occupies the sanctuary as if he were God. John in Revelation writes the false prophet is to assist the beast from the sea, and to induce men to adore its image. The first act of the drama concludes with a promise of victory over the beast by the lamb of God. Whatever we may assume regarding these passages we cannot say we should not read them, they were written to be read, and to assess what may be relevant.
“The Church can neither live nor survive without priests. It’s a vital necessity. Because she cannot live without the presence of Christ who continually vivifies her through the sacraments, and especially through the Eucharist” (Bishop Demetrio Fernández). It’s virtually impossible for vocations to cease to exist as it is for the priesthood not to exist unless there were some form of prohibitive measures in place.
Abolition of the Eucharist were it to occur, sans priests reminds us of the great saving gift the Eucharist is. It is the Eucharistic presence in us that draws us away from sin, to pull back when sorely tempted. It’s the daily offer of the body and blood to the Father that stays his hand from retribution. It’s the intrinsic nature of sacrifice and banquet that gives us our daily bread fed to us by the hand of the priest [as it should be]. Surely the Holy Spirit will strengthen us when these prophetic events occur, however the absence of the Eucharist will make the work of the Spirit that much more difficult. Whatever will occur Christ Vincit.
All who follow Christ need to be rebuked. Constructive criticism leads us to confession and betterment. Though much censure has been directed towards the incumbent, he seems unmoved by it.
“Physician heal thyself”. Yes and yet, I will need a trained doctor from time to time. The engineering project in the back of my mind needs a competent professional to bring the matter to fruition.
Our eternal soul needs tending to as well. A good pastor knows of these matters and rightly handles the word of truth!
Is the end of our life here, the beginning of eternal life with Christ, or does it mean eternal separation from Him?
We want to know that Jesus “is the way and the truth and the life” and a good priest helps show us the way.
In context of the Bishop’s warning, Daniel prophesies the well known abolition of the daily sacrifice and enshrinement of the abomination of desolation. At present we may hypothesize whether this prophecy has relevance to future changes to the liturgy of the Eucharist, what portent, if any, does the Synod on Synodality have.
Likewise most who read scripture are familiar with 2 Thess 2 and Paul’s reference to the great apostasy and appearance of the lawless one who occupies the sanctuary as if he were God. John in Revelation writes the false prophet is to assist the beast from the sea, and to induce men to adore its image. The first act of the drama concludes with a promise of victory over the beast by the lamb of God. Whatever we may assume regarding these passages we cannot say we should not read them, they were written to be read, and to assess what may be relevant.
“The Church can neither live nor survive without priests. It’s a vital necessity. Because she cannot live without the presence of Christ who continually vivifies her through the sacraments, and especially through the Eucharist” (Bishop Demetrio Fernández). It’s virtually impossible for vocations to cease to exist as it is for the priesthood not to exist unless there were some form of prohibitive measures in place.
Abolition of the Eucharist were it to occur, sans priests reminds us of the great saving gift the Eucharist is. It is the Eucharistic presence in us that draws us away from sin, to pull back when sorely tempted. It’s the daily offer of the body and blood to the Father that stays his hand from retribution. It’s the intrinsic nature of sacrifice and banquet that gives us our daily bread fed to us by the hand of the priest [as it should be]. Surely the Holy Spirit will strengthen us when these prophetic events occur, however the absence of the Eucharist will make the work of the Spirit that much more difficult. Whatever will occur Christ Vincit.
Continued blessings of discernment, insight and wisdom. Thank you.
Tell it to Pope Francis, who seems to berate and belittle priests at every turn.
All who follow Christ need to be rebuked. Constructive criticism leads us to confession and betterment. Though much censure has been directed towards the incumbent, he seems unmoved by it.
Blessings.
“Physician heal thyself”. Yes and yet, I will need a trained doctor from time to time. The engineering project in the back of my mind needs a competent professional to bring the matter to fruition.
Our eternal soul needs tending to as well. A good pastor knows of these matters and rightly handles the word of truth!
Is the end of our life here, the beginning of eternal life with Christ, or does it mean eternal separation from Him?
We want to know that Jesus “is the way and the truth and the life” and a good priest helps show us the way.