June 3, 2010. It has been 12 months since the pope announced the Year for Priests. He made the Cure of Ars the patron of priests. A French priest without great talents but who faithfully completed his mission as a priest: to bring people to Christ.



To close the year, the pope will name him the patron of all priests worldwide.

It will be during the World Meeting of Priests that will take place.

June 9 through 11 and will bring together 9,000 priests from all over the world.

Card. Claudio Hummes
Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy
“The number is also important. Not only that they come, but also that they come in big numbers because visibility is really important.”

The gathering will start in the basilica of St. John Lateran and St. Paul Outside the Walls.

There the archbishop of Cologne, Germany, the Cardinal Joachim Meisner, will direct a meditation on the conversion and mission of the priests.

There will be an hour of Eucharistic adoration and a mass celebrated by the Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, Cardinal Claudio Hummes.

The next day, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, archbishop of Quebec, Canada, will talk about the Cenacle, the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary.

In the evening, everyone will gather at St. Peter’s Square. There the pope will lead a vigil of prayer with all the priests.

On June 11 the pope will officially end the Year for Priests with a mass in St. Peter’s Square.

Together with the closing there will also be other organized events by Catholic movements in different parts of Rome like spiritual retreats or meetings with testimonies.

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