Your Grace, Your Excellency, Monsignor, Rev. Fathers and Sisters,
Dear formators, professors, and most especially, Dear seminarians,

At the beginning of this solemn celebration, I bring you a heartfelt greeting and
the Apostolic Blessing of His Holiness Pope Leo XIV. The Holy Father holds
you close in his prayers. He knows your mission – and he accompanies you
spiritually in this new academic year with fatherly love and confidence.
Today, we begin the academic year with 34 seminarians from 4 different
countries. What a sign of hope this is! What a testament to the vitality and
universality of the Church! Each of you is a witness that the voice of Christ still
calls, and that hearts still respond with courage.
You are here, my dear young friends, because Christ has called you. Not
because you are perfect, not because you have it all figured out – but because
He loves you, and He believes in you. And because the Church needs you.
We live in times that are demanding. You know it. I know it. The path to the
priesthood is not easy. The world around us often speaks with noise, with
confusion, with fear. But I say to you today, as your brother and as the Pope said
in Rome last year: Do not be afraid! Be strong. Be unafraid!
The world is waiting for holy priests. The Church is longing for shepherds with
the Heart of Christ – gentle, firm, rooted in truth, burning with compassion. But
to become that priest, you must first become that man. And that formation
begins in the heart.
As Pope Leo XIV reminded us in his Jubilee meditation, the seminary must be a
training ground of the heart. You are not only here to study theology or master
doctrine. You are here to be transformed from within – to allow your heart to be
formed into the likeness of Jesus, the Good Shepherd.
Let me be clear: you cannot lead others unless you first know how to be led by
Christ. You cannot preach the Gospel unless it has pierced your own soul. You
cannot heal the wounds of the world unless you have first allowed Christ to heal
yours.
And yes, this will require courage. It will mean facing your own wounds. It will
mean silence, prayer, humility. It will mean the daily, sometimes hidden, work
of interior life – not glamorous, but absolutely essential.
The world may tell you to perform. Christ invites you to be real. The world
tempts you to hide behind masks. Christ wants your truth. The world demands
success. Christ asks for faithfulness.
So I challenge you today: cultivate your heart. Not just your mind, not just your
voice, but your heart. Let God speak to you in silence. Let Him teach you how

to love – with His love, not the love of the world. Learn to see as He sees. To
listen as He listens. To weep as He weeps. And to rejoice as He rejoices.
In an age of distraction and division, the priest must be a man of unity and
attention. A man who knows how to hold together the pieces of his life, as Our
Lady did – pondering all things in her heart. A man of discernment. A man of
prayer.
My dear seminarians, never forget: your vocation is not an escape from the
world. It is a mission for the world. The priest is not above others – he is at their
service. Christ does not call you to a pedestal. He calls you to the Cross. To love
until it hurts. To give yourself, again and again, as food for others.
“Give them something to eat,” Jesus says in the Gospel. This is not only a call
to preach or to celebrate Mass. It is a call to make your entire life a gift of love.
Your thoughts, your studies, your friendships, your joys and your tears – all
offered to Christ for the good of His people.
Let me tell you something that may surprise you: you are not being prepared to
be priests of today. You are being prepared to be priests of tomorrow. The
Church is forming you not only for what exists now, but for what is to come.
This is why you must grow in courage, in maturity, in vision. This is why you
must be prophets as well as pastors.
You are sent, like the seventy-two in today’s Gospel (cf. Luke 10:1–9), two by
two, into a world that is often uncertain, even hostile – and yet still hungry for
truth, healing, and peace. Jesus says, “The harvest is rich, but the labourers are
few.” He sends you not with swords, but with peace; not with wealth, but with
the power of His Word; not with certainty about outcomes, but with deep trust
in Him who sends you. This Gospel is not only a mission story – it is your story.
Do not settle for mediocrity. Do not coast through your seminary years as
passive recipients. Be active. Be hungry. Be bold. Let the Holy Spirit shape you
in every way – intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, humanly. Allow Him to
anoint your humanity, so that one day, when the Church anoints you with sacred
chrism, she will be anointing a man already formed by grace.
And remember this: the Heart of Christ is not closed. It is wide open. Open for
you, and open for the world. A priest must be the same – with arms wide open.
With a heart that welcomes, forgives, listens, and gives.
In closing, I say this to you with all the strength and love I have:
Do not be afraid to give everything.
Do not be afraid to let Christ take the lead.
Do not be afraid to become saints.
The Church believes in you. The Holy Father blesses you. I walk with you. And
Christ walks before you.
Let us entrust this academic year to the Virgin Mary, Mother of Priests. May she
accompany each of you on your journey of formation. May she teach you how
to say “yes” with courage, and how to carry Christ into the world.
Amen.