The Year for Priests, which began on the Feast of the Sacred Heart 19 June 2009, is a call to renewal and conversion. Pope Benedict XVI has expressed his hope that the Year for Priests will support the faithfulness and holiness of priests, and deepen their commitment to ‘interior renewal for the sake of a more forceful and incisive witness to the Gospel in today’s world’.

The Year for Priests is an opportunity for the whole Church to seek a holier and renewed priesthood. The shameful acts that have come to light in recent times have caused much scandal and distress. The Year, therefore, offers laity and priests a chance to become truly a ‘chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of God’s own’ that St Peter talks about in his Letter.

This Year for Priests was declared so as to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the death of the Curé of Ars, St John Mary Vianney, patron of parish priests worldwide. He was a humble and sincere priest who carried out his ministry in the spiritual decline following on the French Revolution. He lived a life of service, penance and prayer, transforming his parish and making it a centre of pilgrimage and healing.

It is in this context that the Bishops of Ireland have arranged a visit of the Relics of the Curé of Ars to our country. We welcome these sacred relics and pray that this visit will offer all of us an occasion to renew the priesthood in Ireland.

May the visit of his relics to Cork, Dublin, Knock and Armagh be moments of grace and renewal for priests and people.

✠ Philip Boyce OCDBishop of Raphoe

Chairman of Episcopal Commission for Clergy

WELCOMECORK • Sunday, 25 April 2010

St Francis Church, Liberty Street

Theme: Vocations to the PriesthoodEvery priest, every consecrated person, faithful to his or her

vocation, radiates the joy of serving Christ and draws all Christians to respond to the universal call to holiness.

POPE BENEDICT XVI,MESSAGE FOR WORLD DAY OF PRAYER FOR VOCATIONS (2010)

DUBLIN • Monday, 26 April 2010Church of St John Vianney, Ardlea

Theme: Social Outreach of the Curé of Ars…he regularly visited the sick and families, organised popular missions and patronal feasts, collected and managed funds for charitable and missionary works,

embellished and furnished his parish church, cared for the orphans and teachers of the Providence (an institute he founded); provided for the education of children; founded

confraternities and enlisted lay persons to work at his side. POPE BENEDICT XVI,

LETTER PROCLAIMING THE YEAR FOR PRIESTS, 2009

KNOCK • Tuesday, 27 April 2010Our Lady’s Shrine, Knock

Theme: The Sacrament of ReconciliationIt is not the sinner who returns to God to beg his

forgiveness, but God himself who runs after the sinner and makes him return.

ST JOHN VIANNEY

ARMAGH • Wednesday, 28 April 2010St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh

Theme: The Eucharist and Pastoral LeadershipConsequently, the nature and mission of the ministerial

priesthood cannot be defined except through this multiple and rich interconnection of relationships which arise from the Blessed Trinity and are prolonged in the communion of

the Church, as a sign and instrument of Christ, of communion with God and of the unity of all humanity.

POPE JOHN PAUL II, PASTORES DABO VOBIS, 1992

PROGRAMMEThe visit of the relic of St John Vianney is an occasion to gather and to enter into prayer for three main intentions:

1. An invitation to holiness for all ‘I will show you the way to heaven’ J-M Vianney.

2. Prayer for priests (by the priests themselves and the People of God for priests) ‘The priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus’ J-M Vianney.

3. Prayer for vocations to the priesthood ‘The Curé of Ars remains for all countries, a model without equal for the achievement of his ministry and the holiness of the minister’ John Paul II.

As we pray through the intercession of John Vianney we remember that by baptism we are all a priestly people, all called to holiness of life, whether lay or ordained. Since no priest is ordained in isolation but belongs to a whole network of relationships in the Church, the visit of the relics reminds us to pray especially for those who are ordained to preach the Gospel, lead us in faith, and minister the sacraments so as to make God’s grace visible in the world, that they will be faithful, joyful, and life-giving servants of God’s Kingdom.

• A relic is a physical and personal memorial of a saint. It is a tangible reminder of the life of the saint who, ultimately, points beyond him-herself to God. The saints are honoured as intercessors with God and we can pray to God asking the support and assistance of their prayers. Our belief in the Communion of Saints is an important aspect of our faith. It makes us conscious of our fellowship with holy men and women down through the ages.

• The relic of the Curé of Ars (his heart) is a sign: it is an invitation to prayer and an invitation to follow the saints. The Curé does not draw us to himself but to the Lord. The heart symbolises the whole person, especially that which is deepest in the person, the place where God gives himself and where he pours out his love for us.

• The veneration of relics is not an end in itself just as the saints’ lives do not find their complete end in themselves. They have God as their reference point and it is only from this perspective that we can appreciate their lives.

WHY A VISIT?

WHAT IS A RELIC?

St John Vianney

Visit of the RelicsIreland

25–28 April 2010Year for Priests

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• The Year for Priests was declared by Pope Benedict XVI and began on the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Friday 19 June 2009 – a day traditionally devoted to prayer for the sanctification of the clergy – and will finish on 11 June 2010.

• The Pope inaugurated the Year by presiding at Vespers in St Peter’s Basilica where the relics of the Curé of Ars were brought for the occasion by Bishop Guy Bagnard of Belley-Ars, France.

• The Year for Priests is meant to deepen the commitment of all priests to interior renewal for the sake of a stronger and more incisive witness to the Gospel in today’s world.

• ‘The priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus’, was an expression of St John Vianney.

For further information on the Year for Priests see

www.catholicbishops.ieand

www.annussacerdotalis.org

YEAR FOR PRIESTS

Curé of Ars • John Vianney

Born 8 May 1786 (Dardilly, near Lyons, France), the third of six children, son of Matthieu Vianney and Marie Beluze. The Vianneys were Catholics who helped the poor and gave hospitality to Saint Benedict Joseph Labre who passed through Dardilly on his pilgrimage to Rome. By 1790 the French Revolution forced many loyal priests to hide from the government in order to carry out the sacraments in their parish. The Vianneys continued attending Mass, even though it was illegal. In order to attend Mass, the Vianneys travelled to distant farms where they would pray in secret. John Vianney encountered great difficulty with the academic lessons necessary to be ordained. His preparations for ordination were also interrupted by conscription into the Imperial Army of Napoleon Bonaparte. After much difficulty he was ordained a priest on 12 August 1815. He was appointed parish priest of Ars, a town of 230 people. As the pastor of Ars, John Vianney realised that the Revolution’s aftermath resulted in religious ignorance and poor religious practice, due to many years of the destruction of the Catholic Church in France. John Vianney came to be known internationally and people travelled from distant places to consult him as early as 1827. By 1855, the number of pilgrims had reached twenty thousand a year. During the last ten years of his life, he spent sixteen to eighteen hours a day in the confessional. He also had a great devotion to Saint Philomena. He yearned for the contemplative life of a monk, and four times ran away from Ars, the last time in 1853. On 4 August 1859, John Vianney died at age 73. He became internationally notable for his priestly and pastoral work in his parish (Ars) because of the radical spiritual transformation of the community and its surroundings. Catholics attribute this to his saintly life, mortification, and persevering ministry in the sacrament of confession. On 8 January 1905 Pope Pius X beatified him; in 1925 Pope Pius XI canonised him, and assigned 8 August as his feast day. He was finally made patron saint of parish priests in 1929.

BIOGRAPHY