Cardinal Gracias sees Father Hamel as model for clergy

Gracias urged priests to follow Father Hamel's example to be of service “up to the end.”.

Mumbai:  Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai has urged his clergy to imitate Father Jacques Hamel, the French priest killed in July by two men professing loyalty to the Islamic State - if not so much in the way Hamel died, then in how he lived.

Praising Hamel’s pastoral generosity and his “ultimate sacrifice,” Gracias urged priests to follow his example to be of service “up to the end.”

Visibly emotional, Gracias told his priests not to grieve or mourn Hamel’s tragic end, but to imitate this “great pastor.” Citing Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation “Evangelic Gaudium,” he asked priests to have a “missionary impulse capable of transforming everything.”

“Let us all become agents of peace; of joy and of the resurrection,” the prelate said.

Cardinal Gracias was speaking at an annual meeting of clergy in Mumbai held at the archdiocesan seminary, regarded locally as the first of a new ecclesiastical year since it follows announcements of priests’ transfers in June.

Gracias praised Hamel’s pastoral mission and ultimate sacrifice, and called on priests to be agents of peace, fraternity and solidarity.

The cardinal opened the meeting by pausing along with the priests in silence for two minutes for Hamel, and then said his example is destined “to impact the pastoral ministry of all priests today”.

Source: Crux