Mission and Vision

The Catholic Church teaches that the priesthood has its foundation in the call of Jesus and the response to the call. The radical and absolute quality of this call has deeply marked the ideal of the ministerial priesthood. It implies a total commitment of life (Lk 9: 62) with all the risks and sufferings attached to it. All priests share in the unique and eternal priesthood and mission of Jesus Christ, who was consecrated and sent in to the world by the Father so that all may have life in abundance (Jn 10:10). Pastores Dobo Vobis says that without priests the Church would not be able to live that fundamental obedience which is at the very heart of her existence and her mission in history, an obedience in response to the command of Christ: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations" (Mt. 28:19) and "Do this in remembrance of me" (Lk. 22:19; cf. 1 Cor. 11.24). When Jesus lived on this earth he manifested in himself the definitive role of the priest establishing a ministerial priesthood with which the apostles were the first to be invested. Today God always calls his priests from specific human and ecclesial contexts, which inevitably influence them and to these same contexts the priests are sent for the service of the word of God. The commission for clergy has the role of facilitating the formation and ministry of priests as shepherds after model of Jesus the Shepherd; "I will give you shepherds after my own heart" (Jer. 3:15). To accomplish this promise this commission aims at empowering and enriching the priests so that they may resemble Christ in the modern society in various aspects. The vision of the commission is that all the priests may become alter christus where ever they are sent out to.