Pope advises priests to be servants not masters

Image: Vatican Media

Source: Vatican News

In a letter to all priests of the Diocese of Rome yesterday, Pope Francis expressed his gratitude for their precious and often hidden or little recognised service and reassured them that they are never alone in the midst of "joys" and "sufferings".

He also warns against the temptations of "spiritual worldliness" and "clericalism" (from which the laity are not exempt), that risk diverting the ministry into forms of closure, elitism, possessiveness, arrogance.

He invites them to work side by side with lay brothers and sisters, to initiate "synodal forms and paths" and to be "servants" and not "masters," to "wash the feet of our brothers and not crush them under our feet."

Read the full letter in English here: www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/letters/2023/documents/20230805-lettera-sacerdoti.html