SANCTIFYING OFFICE
In 2006 — when Cardinal Piacenza was president of both the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Heritage of the Church and the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology — Fides News Agency published two of his lectures, titled “Planning and Building God’s House” and “The Stones, Sounds and Colours of the House of God.” In them Piacenza explained the history and reasoning behind the layout, interior, and symbolism of church buildings.
He emphasized that “the building of a church is an ecclesial event since it symbolizes the Christian community as it celebrates the divine mysteries.” “Each single element [architecture, decoration, painting, sculpture, windows, furniture, sacred objects, vestments, lighting, and sound] becomes an integrant part of the one ‘installation’ which has the altar as its focal point.” The cardinal added that the “altar is the heart of the whole church plan, since on it the holy sacrifice is celebrated. It is the altar on which Christ offers Himself as sacrificed victim and as high priest. It is the table to which Christ invites His disciples for the holy supper in its aspect of memory and memorial; it is the tomb which recalls the death and resurrection of Christ.”
For Piacenza, the “ecclesiology of Vatican II describes the Church as an assembly born from listening to the Word of God and built up by the Holy Spirit who confirms believers in Christ through the sacraments, an assembly which allows communion, is nourished in prayer and presents itself to the world as a sign of the salvation brought by Christ.” He said that church-building must be shaped by these principles. “Since the liturgy is an action of the whole people of God, the arrangement of space should foster participation, so people may come and go, see and hear.” The interior design of a church should be conducive to the active participation of the faithful. “In this perspective also images present in church, on the walls or on furniture are not only of decorative value, they have a liturgical function. Therefore we can speak of mystagogic images for the presbyterium, which synthetically present the mystery of Christ (incarnation, passion, resurrection and second coming); didactical images for the hall of biblical subject and lastly devotional images (the Stations of the Cross, images of Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints).”
Christocentric Approach
Cardinal Piacenza has consistently preached in his ministry the importance of keeping Christ at the center of life: “May you set your eyes and your heart on God. May this highest and fullest act of your mission establish the order and the hierarchy of your whole life. Daily prayer, especially before the Blessed Sacrament, will help you rise higher day by day, purifying your eyes and your heart, so that you may see the world with the eyes of God and to love the brothers with His very heart.” In a 2009 homily, Piacenza called on all who nourish themselves on the Bread of the Eucharist to be concerned for the needs of others, to notice the suffering of others, and to offer themselves as a gift for others. “Love of neighbor must never be simply proclaimed. It must be practiced.”
In a message to the rectors of Catholic shrines throughout the world, Piacenza observed that, in a climate of widespread secularism, shrines continue to be privileged places in which the loving and saving presence of God can be experienced. A shrine is a place away from daily distractions, a place where one can recollect oneself, gather one’s thoughts, and reacquire the spiritual health to reembark upon the journey of faith with greater ardor. “It is there, too, that he can find space to seek, find and love Christ in his ordinary life, in the midst of the world.” At the same time, Piacenza urged that shrines be more than this. He would point pilgrims to Jesus. “The Eucharistic celebration constitutes the heart of the sacramental life of the Shrine. In it the Lord gives himself to us. Pilgrims who come to the Shrines ought to be made aware that, if they trustingly welcome the Eucharistic Christ in their most intimate being, He offers them the possibility of a real transformation of their entire existence.”
Sacrament of Reconciliation
In 2011 — when he was still the prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy — Piacenza explained that our celebration of the Eucharist is not the only time when we celebrate the joy of the Resurrection. We embody the joy of the Resurrection in our celebration of the sacrament of Reconciliation as well. He called for a growth in knowledge about the spiritual fruits that flow from the remission of sins, because the sacrament of Penance brings about a true spiritual resurrection, a restoration of the dignity of the life of the children of God. As the current major penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary, Piacenza has continuously called for a rediscovery of the sacrament of Penance, reiterating that “Confession and Holy Communion always have an extraordinary value capable of renewing man.” In a 2018 interview with the National Catholic Register in which he discussed his new book The Feast of Forgiveness with Pope Francis: An Aid for Confession and Indulgences, Cardinal Piacenza said forgiveness “is the most evident demonstration of the omnipotence and love of the Father, which Jesus revealed in his whole earthly life.” Of all the sacraments, he said, Reconciliation is the one that “effectively highlights the merciful gaze of God.” He praised Pope Francis for placing Confession at the center of his pontificate and said the book aimed to help readers see Confession “as a liberating and rich meeting of humanity” and to leave the confessional “with happiness in the heart, with the radiant face of hope, even if sometimes it is wet by the tears of conversion and the joy that derives from it.”
In a letter published ahead of the Solemnity of All Saints in 2023, Cardinal Piacenza stressed that peacemaking begins in individual hearts by reconciling with God through the sacrament of confession.
Also in a letter for Lent 2021, the Italian cardinal emphasized the importance of penance, especially during the pandemic. He highlighted that Christian penance involves recognizing the victory over sin and death through Christ’s resurrection, and urged Christians to embrace penance as a way to respond to God’s love and to participate in the new life offered by Christ.
Devotion to Our Lady
Piacenza has manifested a fervent and authentic devotion to the Blessed Virgin. In 2012, the Committee for the Preparation of the Year of Faith, of which Piacenza was a member, drew up a note inviting the faithful to turn with particular devotion to Mary, model of the Church, who “shines forth to the whole community of the elect as the model of virtues.” The committee encouraged all initiatives that help the faithful to recognize the special role of Mary in the mystery of salvation, love her, and follow her as a model of faith and virtue. In 2013, Piacenza penned a remarkable letter to “All the Mothers of Priests and Seminarians” of the world. He encouraged these women, who gave their sons to the Church, to exercise a “spiritual motherhood,” like that of Mary, for all the faithful to whom their sons would minister.
When the jubilee Year of Mercy (2015-2016) began on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, Piacenza explained in an interview why dedication to Mary matters and also what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception can still teach us today. “Every word and every choice of Christ, who is God made man, is for us simply an inexorable necessity. If He divinely chose not to do without Mary of Nazareth to become man and save us, we cannot, nor do we certainly want to, pretend to do without her. Moreover, in Mary the whole Christian Revelation finds, we can say, its ‘foundation,’ its ‘method’ and its continuous ‘protection.’”
In 2022, when Pope Francis consecrated Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Piacenza said the spiritual act was a radical call to personal, ecclesial, and social conversion. Peace, the penitentiary major said, “is intimately linked to mercy. Inner peace, the peace of the heart, the peace of the conscience of each person depends on divine mercy, on the awareness that one’s own contradictions and sins can find a solution only in the embrace of the Father’s love.”
“There is no peace without justice and there is no peace without mercy,” he said. “Therefore, the link between peace and mercy is deeply rooted in the very will of God, which must increasingly become the will of men: learning mercy towards one another, following the example of a merciful Father, is the necessary prerequisite for peace among nations as well.”
Reverence for the Eucharist
Cardinal Piacenza values reverence for the Eucharist, which underlines the “mystery of the permanence of the Real Presence” and “creates the conditions for its Adoration,” but his precise views on the liturgy are less well known. He does, however, very much adhere to the teachings of the Second Vatican Council and the Ordinary Form of the Mass. He is not known to have celebrated Mass in the Extraordinary Form but respects it, along with Benedict XVI’s norms liberalizing it; would not oppose it; and views the Vetus Ordo as in continuity with the Church’s Magisterium and previous councils.
GOVERNING OFFICE
Mauro Piacenza worked as a priest in the Diocese of Genoa for over twenty years. He was a member of the Roman Curia from 1990 and during this time has mainly served the Congregation for the Clergy (as staff member, undersecretary, secretary, and prefect). In addition, he has been a member of numerous other congregations, committees, and pontifical councils and has served as president of the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Heritage of the Church and the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology. Piacenza was the major penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary until April 2024 and continues to serve as the president of the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need.
Congregation for the Clergy
Piacenza’s signal contribution as a pastor has been his attention to the reform of the clergy. In a 2011 interview with Catholic News Agency, Piacenza discussed his role as prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, a position whose primary responsibility is promoting the proper formation of diocesan priests and deacons.
In response to a question about the sexual abuse crisis within the Church, he noted that “the horrible sins of a few do not delegitimize the good actions of many, nor do they change the nature of the Church.” He spoke of Benedict XVI’s emphasis on reforming the clergy: “Obedience, chastity in celibacy, total dedication to the ministry without limits of time or days,” which, he stressed, “are not seen as constrictions if one is truly in love, but rather as the demands of the love that one cannot help but give.” The cardinal noted he has been calling for “reform of the clergy” since his time as a seminarian and a young priest. Thus, his aims and those of Benedict XVI are aligned. They have sought “a clergy that is truly and humbly proud of its identity and completely absorbed with the gift of grace it has received, and that consequently sees a clear distinction between the ‘Kingdom of God’ and the world.”
Mercy is a recurring theme in many of Piacenza’s writings, and pertains to his service as the major penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary. He has also emphasized the need for frequent Confession and the possibility of obtaining indulgences not only for oneself but also for deceased loved ones. He calls the sacrament of Confession the “unique ecology of the soul,” in which man’s true good is fostered.
During the coronavirus outbreak of 2020, the cardinal issued two decrees, the first granting special indulgences to the faithful during the pandemic and the second granting bishops the faculty of allowing priests to offer general absolution in cases of “grave necessity.”
Pastoral Administrator
Cardinal Piacenza has held an impressive number of Church governing positions, from being a parish priest to serving as an ecclesiastical judge, from teaching at schools and universities to running influential and prestigious bodies of the Roman Curia. He has served for nine years as president of the Church charity Aid to the Church in Need. As secretary at the Congregation for the Clergy under prefect Cardinal Cláudio Hummes during the pontificate of Benedict XVI, he wielded considerable influence. As head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, he has been responsible for the first tribunal of the Church, considered in spiritual terms more important since it deals primarily with the afterlife.
Toward the end of his tenure as prefect at the Congregation for the Clergy, he devised a “Directory for the Ministry and the Life of Priests” — a well-received manual for clergy.
On Sexual Abuse
In a rare interview given in 2011, Cardinal Piacenza said he rejected using the sexual abuse crisis as an opportunity to change the priestly celibacy rule in the Latin Rite. Such a change, he said, would be an “unprecedented break” and added that “suggested cures would make the disease even worse” and “turn the Gospel on its head.” He questions the argument that loneliness is the problem. “Why? Is Christ a ghost? Is the Church dead or alive? Were the holy priests of centuries past abnormal men? Is holiness a utopia, a matter for a predestined few, or a universal vocation, as the Second Vatican Council reminded us?” He said he wishes for a Catholic reform of the priesthood, not a worldly one (see more on Cardinal Piacenza’s views on celibacy in the final section of this profile).
TEACHING OFFICE
Given the focal points of his presidential postings in the Curia, it is scarcely surprising that a good part of Piacenza’s teachings revolves around history, symbolism, and art. 1Namely, president of the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Heritage of the Church and president of the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology. One might expect from a person with this pedigree many long-winded, theoretical studies on such topics. But Piacenza surprises his readers with concise writings (some of which are discussed earlier in the section of this essay addressing the cardinal’s sanctifying office), applying history, symbolism, and art to the Faith.
In discussing the liturgy, Piacenza explains that the norms of the liturgical books (the rubrics) all have an underlying theological meaning.
Any “style of celebrating that introduces arbitrary liturgical innovations [in addition to] generating confusion and division amongst the faithful, harms the venerable Tradition and the very authority of the Church, as it does also ecclesial unity.”
Given that he has been a member of the Congregation for the Clergy for most of his time in Rome, Piacenza’s teachings primarily concern matters of the priesthood. 2See “Helping Priests Live Their Vocation,” below.
Views on Vocations Crisis
In a 2011 interview with Zenit, the cardinal answered a question regarding the possible growth in the number of priestly vocations were celibacy to be abolished. Piacenza turned to the problem of secularization:
“The crisis from which, in reality, we are slowly emerging, is linked, fundamentally, to the crisis of faith in the West. It is in making faith grow that we must be engaged. This is the point. In the same spheres the sanctification of the feast is in crisis, confession is in crisis, marriage is in crisis. Secularization and the consequent loss of the sense of the sacred, of faith and its practice have brought about and continue to bring about a diminution in the number of candidates to the priesthood. Along with these distinctively theological and ecclesial causes, there are also some of a sociological character . . . [the] evident decline in births, with the consequent diminution in the number of young men and, thus, also of priestly vocations. This too is a factor that cannot be ignored. Everything is connected. Sometimes the premises are laid down and then one does not want to accept the consequences, but these are inevitable.”
Pro-Life Positions
Abortion and contraception are directly linked to the decline in number of births, Piacenza believes. As major penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary, he was asked in a 2015 interview with Catholic News Agency about special absolution for the sin of abortion. Piacenza explained that in cases where the mother is the victim of severe pressure by other people, she may be the only one who does not fall under the excommunication penalty, precisely because she is “forced.” Piacenza underlined, however, that in every case, from the first moment of a baby’s unborn existence, this innocent and defenseless human being must be recognized to have the same basic rights as every person, among which is the inviolable right to life.
When asked about politicians who propose and approve abortion laws and how they ought to be held accountable, Piacenza said such politicians “do not fall under the penalty of excommunication as they do not directly and materially commit the crime,” but they “certainly have very serious moral responsibility, they sin and, therefore, are in need of confession.”
Piacenza calls priests to be faithful to the authoritative teachings of the Magisterium on marriage: “Priests . . . should carry out this special ministry by adhering with fidelity to the authentic teaching of the Church. . . . In the matrimonial area too let them respect what the ecclesial Magisterium teaches authoritatively.” Piacenza endorsed English bishop Patrick O’Donoghue’s document Fit for Mission? Church, which focuses on the strength of the Church’s doctrine on the inseparability of sexual love and procreation and calls for both clergy and parents to study and teach the theology of the body.3Bishop emeritus of Lancaster, United Kingdom.
During the 2015 Synod of Bishops, Piacenza spoke of the need to affirm that the Church has a positive view of sexuality, as it is an expression of the “symphonic tension between eros and agape.” In a 2015 interview, when asked for examples of “new sins,” Piacenza explicitly referred to “the practices of abortion and contraception,” along with “the many evils linked to artificial fertilization such as the ‘rent uterus’ and the destruction of embryos.” Piacenza underlined that through these practices of abortion, contraception, and artificial fertilization, “the alleged dominion of man on the mystery of life, one’s own and others’, is manifested along with the consequent commodification of the human person, who sees himself denied his own irreducible dignity.”
Social Justice
Piacenza has often emphasized the existence and universal binding quality of nonnegotiable moral norms, such as those against abortion. But he has not explicitly addressed the challenge that Pope John Paul II laid down in Veritatis Splendor concerning the essential connection between those norms and social justice. Piacenza has stressed, though, how social structures “are simply impossible to convert if you do not start from the conversion of the heart.”
“To have fair social structures, it is necessary to live in a culture that recognizes justice and, above all, recognizes the Just, the Lord of time and history,” he continued. “And for there to be a culture, which recognizes Christ as Lord, an Advent culture that waits for Him who is known as the Beloved, it is necessary that everyone is open to an ever-renewed conversion.” Cardinal Piacenza believes the condition for changing the structures of society “cannot be determined by the imposition of an external power, not even by the democratically legitimized power of the States, but it is always the free and conscious response of each person to the call to conversion that the Lord leads us.”
Loss of the Sense of Sin
During the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, Piacenza spoke of how a sense of sin is being lost in today’s society. “Fundamentally [sin] is putting oneself in the place of God. If I refer to God, with reason I can understand and share a very broad vision with others. If I replace God with myself, I have no reason to talk. We fall into an exasperated subjectivism, and we open the door to all dictatorships.” Without the law of God and reason, one cannot see how one’s personal sin damages the other and damages society.
Sin causes genuine damage. But the mercy poured out in the sacrament of Reconciliation brings healing. Piacenza explained that “in Christianity, mercy and truth are co-inherent, inseparable, so much so as to be not properly distinguishable.” Mercy and truth, he said, “are united without confusion, and are distinct without separation. A mercy without truth is not Christian, and at the same time truth without mercy is not Christian.”
In response to pressure for changes in the Church’s discipline regarding the distribution of Communion, Piacenza refuted the notion that Catholic moral teachings must be ignored in order for the Church to dispense “mercy.”
Approach to Islam, Interreligious Dialogue
Piacenza has not publicly identified himself with the view that Islam’s conception of the relationship between reason and faith is incompatible with Christian civilization. He has spoken of the need for mercy in the dialogue between Catholicism and Islam. “For the Christian, the act of faith is an act that must be absolutely free. No one can force a person to believe in a certain way and no one can force him to disbelieve as he thinks he believes. You can bring so many arguments of reason to confront, to speak, but then you must keep in mind that the act of faith is a free act.”
Furthermore, Piacenza emphasized that it “is always necessary to bear in mind that the starting point is not essentially interreligious dialogue, but intercultural dialogue. Inter-religious dialogue, in the strict sense, is only possible between revealed religions such as Judaism and Christianity. With Islam, a great and fruitful cultural dialogue can be deepened, since many human values can be shared.” In such dialogue, however, we should avoid any temptation to colonization. Only openness to transcendence and to the values of the Spirit will encourage this attempt at authentic dialogue and can lead to a fruitful encounter with Islamic traditions, he said.
In a 2016 interview with ACI Stampa, the cardinal said:
“The Spirit can also act outside the boundaries of the Catholic Church and, therefore, it can guide consciences to an ever-greater recognition of the truth and, in it, of the dignity of the human person. The power of prayer is absolutely and urgently to be rediscovered. In every Diocese, in every parish, in every community, association, movement and aggregation, in every Christian family, it is necessary to start praying for peace. It is essential for Christians to discover how Eucharistic Adoration, meditated and prayed reading of the Holy Scriptures, the prayer of the Holy Rosary, entrustment to Mary, who is the compassionate Mother of all peoples, are all indispensable elements for maturing in themselves the awareness of the drama of the moment and to humbly implore the supernatural help in order to be able to live this grave moment in the most Christian way possible.”
Piacenza also underlined the necessity of “rediscover[ing] the strength and clarity of one’s own [cultural and religious] identity,” denoting this as an indispensable element for every hypothesis of integration. “To integrate, it is essential to have an identity in which to integrate, know and recognize the roots of culture, in which the other is called to integrate, and overcome any sense of guilt and any inferiority complex determined by bad, or partial or preconceived reading of history. A Europe that hates itself has no future and will not be able to integrate any[one],” he said.
Migration Position
Though a member of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, Piacenza has not spoken much on migration and refugees, other than noting his concern (together with the other Italian bishops) regarding the migratory phenomenon, which affects many families fleeing from war and poverty, and increasingly involves other families and the Church. In a 2016 interview, Piacenza called governments to act with caution in deciding which migrants to accept:
“Only a rediscovery of one’s own cultural and religious identity will allow an adequate response, capable, on the one hand, of not renouncing one’s identity and, on the other, not letting oneself be annihilated. Legitimate defense, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, is always lawful when immediate and proportionate and it is a duty, when the weakest is to be affected. In this sense, states and governments cannot fail in their duty to defend citizens, even in a secular manner, even beyond what the Christian type of sectarian inspiration could indicate.”
Persecuted Christians and Religious Freedom
Piacenza’s more pressing “call to action” relates to speaking out against anti-Christian persecution. “In many countries of the world, even not very far from us, a real persecution is underway but, one could say, ‘in white gloves,’ almost a ‘systematic purge’ of all that is Christian; persecution that, where it has not yet assumed the tone of physical violence, is no less aggressive from an ideological point of view, in that systematic attempt, which is made in cultural and legislative venues,” he told Aid to the Church in Need.
He has also said that the “real challenge” in the coming decades “will be anthropological; it will be the one between those who want to build a world without God, in which man becomes an object, and [those] who recognize God as the Author of the cosmos and of history.”4Niccolò Mochi-Poltri, “Immigration: The Short Circuit for Catholics between the Words of Ravasi on Reception, the Rules and the Boundaries,” Sovrano Militare Ordine Del Tempio, 22 March, 2017
We have times, before us, in which it will be increasingly necessary to defend religious freedom, including freedom of thought which is the mother of every other freedom! In this regard, there are disturbing signs throughout the West of a stubborn desire to reduce the space of freedom of men. . . . We must always educate our young people about freedom . . . the freedom we see in St. Luigi . . . the one that springs from belonging to Christ, from the awareness that every man is born free because he is wanted, created and loved by God.
As president of the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need, Piacenza has underlined that hands-on support for refugees as part of the missionary task of the Church goes hand in hand with the topic of “new evangelization.”
True versus False Mercy
“Mercy isn’t blind tolerance, it isn’t justification of sin and, above all, it isn’t a right.” Piacenza thereby teaches us that although, because of God’s infinite mercy, it is possible for all of mankind eventually to be with God in heaven, we should not be presumptuous. Piacenza warns of manifestations that “have a spiritualistic and even satanic origin and, therefore, by feeding them and not correcting them, youth can unwittingly become stokers of the ‘smoke of Satan’, which already intoxicates the world too much. We must all be very careful not to breathe the toxic fumes; sometimes that happens inadvertently.”
Responding to Secularism
Piacenza has noted the differences between the secularized and relativist West and other parts of the world where the sense of the sacred is still strong and has spoken out about the fact that even the priestly ministry experiences certain temptations. As an example, Piacenza named the temptation to activism, experienced by no few priests, who, might appear to be heroic in their total dedication, yet they frequently actually endanger their vocation and the effectiveness of their apostolate, if they are not stable in that vital relationship with Christ which is nourished with silence, prayer, Lectio Divina and above all daily celebration of Mass, Eucharistic adoration and the Holy Rosary. The Holy Father himself, has reminded priests that “no one proclaims himself in the first person, but within and through his own humanity every priest must be well aware that he is bringing to the world Another, God himself. God is the only treasure which ultimately people desire to find in a priest.”
Our secular world requires a new evangelization, Piacenza argues, which, in turn, requires “new” priests. “Not Priests in the superficial sense, like every passing fashion, but in the sense of a heart profoundly renewed by every Holy Mass, renewed by the love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Priest and Good Shepherd.” Piacenza urges priests to draw strength from silence — to move “from the anxious need ‘to do’ to the desire to ‘remain’ with Jesus participating ever more consciously with His being. Every pastoral action must always be an echo and expansion of what the Priest is!” He further underlined the importance of living out and announcing “the same doctrine, the same tradition, the same history of holy men and therefore the same Church.”
Relationship to Pope Francis
Cardinal Piacenza is the epitome of discretion and someone who almost never gives interviews. His public views on Pope Francis and this pontificate, including such controversies as Francis’ Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia and the dubia are therefore largely unknown.
HELPING PRIESTS LIVE THEIR VOCATION
Having served the Congregation for the Clergy for a total of nearly twenty years, Piacenza is well known for his writings on the vocation to the priesthood and all that such a vocation entails. 5First as a staff member for ten years, followed by undersecretary for three years and later secretary for three years, concluded by prefect for three years. His major works include the books Il Sigillo, Cristo fonte dell’identità del prete (The seal: Christ the font of the priest’s identity; Siena: Cantagalli, 2010), translated into Spanish and French; and Il Vescovo animatore della comunione (The bishop, animator of communion; Rome: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2016).
“The most important virtue for a priest is pastoral charity,” Piacenza has often said. This consists in “being completely true to oneself not [as] a [bureaucrat], not an employee of the church” but in making “Jesus Christ present among the people to embody the person of Christ in the world.”
Year of the Priesthood
During Piacenza’s time as secretary of the Congregation for the Clergy, Pope Benedict XVI instituted the Year of the Priesthood in 2009. The goal of the year was to focus on the importance and the indispensability of the priestly ministry in the Church for the salvation of the world. Piacenza gave numerous conferences during this time, encouraging his brother priests and working to build up vocations.
He kept a supernatural view of the priesthood, arguing that the Church does not want priests who are “showmen.” This is because the Church does not invent its doctrine [on the priesthood] but has received it from the Lord Jesus. The priest plays a decisive and irreplaceable role in the liturgy. He is not just an organizer of prayers and celebrations, as he is sometimes thought to be! In the liturgy, the priest stands for Christ Himself. In his offering to God, he repeats Christ’s words and gestures with effectiveness. The thing which the priest really needs in the celebration of the liturgy is prayer. If we all think of ourselves as being in the presence of the Lord, the liturgy will look quite different to us, along with our faith.
In a 2011 letter to priests, Piacenza (then prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy) reiterated this point by saying:
“The [priestly] identity, welcomed and received sacramentally in our wounded humanity, demands the progressive confirmation of our hearts, our minds, our behaviors to everything that we are in the image of Christ the Good Shepherd that has been sacramentally imprinted in us. We must enter into the Mysteries that we celebrate, especially in the most Holy Eucharist, and to allow ourselves to be formed by them. It is in the Eucharist that the Priest rediscovers his true identity! It is in the celebration of the Divine Mysteries that one can catch sight of “how” to be a shepherd and “what” is necessary to truly serve each other. We must convert ourselves to the daily participation of the Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross Christ made possible and efficacious our Salvation with His perfect vicarious substitution. In the same way, every Priest, alter Christus, is called, as were the great saints, to live firsthand the mystery of their substitution for the service of all, especially in the faithful celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.”
Piacenza reiterated that adhering to the authentic teaching of the Church calls for knowledge.
Priests, in dispensing divine mercy, should conscientiously carry out this special ministry by adhering with fidelity to the authentic teaching of the Church. Let them be well formed in doctrine and let them not neglect to bring themselves up to date every so often concerning those questions that pertain especially to the sphere of morals and bioethics (cf. CCC, n . 1466). In the matrimonial area too let them respect what the ecclesial Magisterium teaches authoritatively. Let them avoid setting out private doctrines in the sacramental seat — personal opinions and arbitrary estimations that do not conform to that which the Church believes and teaches.
In this regard, Piacenza has called — both for priests and religious as well as laypeople — for a renewed knowledge and spreading of the teachings contained in Holy Scripture.
In a 2008 interview with Fides, the Holy See’s news agency for missions, Piacenza noted that “In a secularized context, where everything appears to conspire ‘to be silent about Christ’, or to set him in the pantheon of vague imaginary, ironicized and relativized ‘values’, men who become priests bear witness with conviction and joy, with the eloquence of their life of total dedication, to the Truth and to Beauty and above all to the Presence of the Mystery in the world.”
Views on Priestly Celibacy
In the same interview, Piacenza emphasized that being a priest is indivisibly connected with celibacy. “The Church selects for Holy Orders, those who have received from God the charisma of celibacy, since virginity, understood as total giving of self, is the greatest testimony a Christian can ever render to the Lord in this earthly life. Only martyrdom is greater than virginity! For this reason, much greater and far loftier than mere disciplinary or pastoral opportuneness — which is simply the logical consequence of greater premises — the very effectiveness of priestly witness is inseparably connected with holy celibacy.”
In a 2009 homily, Piacenza added that a person called by [Our Lord Jesus Christ] cannot fail to give an answer which involves the whole of his being: soul, body, mind, heart, present and future. Everything is forever. A person who has recognized in Christ, the center, the reason and the meaning of his life cannot fail to love Him with the greatest love of which the human heart is capable. Celibacy does not mean renouncing love. It means generous and magnanimous readiness to heed every beat of the heart and offer them to the family of the Church, to dispose of as she wishes, exclusively for the service of the brothers and sisters.
In a 2011 address, Piacenza once more stressed the Church’s firm will to maintain the law that demands perpetual and freely chosen celibacy for present and future candidates for priestly ordination in the Latin Rite. He added that celibacy should be presented and explained “in the fullness of its biblical, theological and spiritual richness, as a precious gift given by God to his Church and as a sign of the kingdom which is not of this world — a sign of God’s love for this world and of the undivided love of the priest for God and for God’s people.”
Piacenza further emphasized that celibacy is a question of evangelical radicalism and that poverty, chastity, and obedience are not reserved exclusively for religious, but are, rather, virtues to be lived with intense missionary ardor. He warned against lowering the level of formation — lightening the load of priestly formation and expectations — as a response to the declining number of priests. “The number decreases when the temperature of the faith is lowered, since vocations are a divine ‘affair’ and not a human one, and they follow the Divine logic, which is foolishness from a human point of view. Faith is called for!”
Women’s Ordination, Homosexuality
With respect to who can be admitted to the sacrament of Holy Orders, Piacenza is known to support the “Instruction Concerning the Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations with Regard to Persons with Homosexual Tendencies in View of Their Admission to the Seminary and to Holy Orders,” published by the Congregation for Catholic Education, which states that (while profoundly respecting the persons in question) those who practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies, or support the so-called gay culture cannot be admitted to the seminary or to Holy Orders. Regarding female ordinations, Piacenza has said “apostolic tradition” on the matter has been “unequivocally clear” and “has always recognized that the Church has not received the power from Christ to confer ordination on women.” He has also clearly stated that for all the offices and tasks that are not connected with Holy Orders, “the feminine genius could make a specific contribution.”
He has emphasized that “the Church is not a political government in which it is right to demand adequate representation. The Church is something quite different; the Church is the Body of Christ and, in her, each one is a part according to what Christ established. Moreover, in the Church it is not a question of masculine and feminine roles but rather of roles that by divine will do or do not entail ordination. Whatever a layman can do, so can a laywoman. What is important is having the specific and proper formation, then being a man or a woman does not matter.”
He continued:
“Priestly ordination is reserved to men, and this is not discrimination against women, but rather a consequence of the unsurpassed historicity of the act of the Incarnation and of the Pauline theology on the mystical body, in which each one has his own role and is sanctified and produces fruit consistent with his own place. If this is seen in terms of power, then we are totally off base, because in the Church only the Blessed Virgin Mary is “suppliant omnipotence” like none other, and thus she is more powerful in that sense than St. Peter. But Peter and the Virgin Mary have distinct roles that are both essential. I have heard this in not a few circles of the Anglican Communion as well.”
- 1Namely, president of the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Heritage of the Church and president of the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology.
- 2See “Helping Priests Live Their Vocation,” below.
- 3Bishop emeritus of Lancaster, United Kingdom.
- 4Niccolò Mochi-Poltri, “Immigration: The Short Circuit for Catholics between the Words of Ravasi on Reception, the Rules and the Boundaries,” Sovrano Militare Ordine Del Tempio, 22 March, 2017
- 5First as a staff member for ten years, followed by undersecretary for three years and later secretary for three years, concluded by prefect for three years.
