It is true that there is an essential aspect of the priest which does not change. The priest of tomorrow, no less than the priest of today, must resemble Christ. But it is no less important the life and ministry of the priest should be adapted to every age and circumstance of life (Pastores dabo Vobis, 5). The theological paradigm of the Good Shepherd together with our experience of the challenges and the signs of the times, bring us as a group in the Third Course for Formators to underline, especially in Latin America, some traces that seem to us to define the profile of the priest as new evangelizer as this Third Millennium begins.

The priest of the New Millennium should be...

1. A man identified with Jesus Christ the Shepherd in his pastoral charity. In virtue of his ordination, the priest is sacrament, Epiphany and icon of Christ the Good Shepherd. Pastoral charity is a share in the same pastoral charity of Jesus, and places him in an intimate relation of communion and friendship with Jesus. It shows itself in the mercy, tenderness and love for his flock, his willingness to give his life for the flock (Jn 15,13) as the servant of those sisters and brothers whom Jesus confides to his ministry.

2. A man who is mystic and mystagogue. In order to respond to his theological-ontological identity, the priest is called to be a ìman of Godî (1Tim 6,11), a man of prayer and contemplation who lives immersed in the mystery of the Trinity: totally committed and available to the Father's will; radically committed to the follow- ing of Jesus Christ; totally led by the freedom of the Spirit which blows where it wills (Jn 3,8). Because he is a mystic, he becomes in turn a mystagogue, the one who introduces others to the mystery, who facilitates an encounter with God (PdV,47).

3. A man with his heart centered in Jesus Christ, the Servant, exercising the ministry of pastor as a servant (ministerio / minus-stare) of all, like the Master. The priest is a disciple and witness of the Lord who emptied himself (kenosis, Phil 2) and became poor, a servant obedient even to death on the cross. In order to serve with the same sentiments as Jesus he renounces power and privileges, the quest for goods and pleasure, and assumes in a radical way the evangelical counsels of poverty - despoiling, obedience - availability for the mission, and in a fully self-sacrificing love.

4. A disciple and listener to the Word of God, he needs a continuous conversion to become an authentic witness and a faithful apostle of the Gospel. Conscious that he is a servant, and not the owner of the Word, he passionately assumes the new evangelization with a missionary and ecumenical accent.

5. A man of relationship and dialogue, a man of communion and participation as part of the Church (Puebla). He lives and exercises his ministry collegially, co-responsibly, and fraternally with the Bishop, and with his brother priests, deacons and laity. He works as part of a team, values the charisms and coordinates the services and ministries of others from the perspective of the Church as the People of God , both evangelizing and ministerial. Inserted in a conflictive and excluding society, he struggles for justice, reconciliation and peace with all men and women of goodwill.

6. A person immersed, inculturated and contextualized in the midst of his people, valuing the good and authentic elements of individual cultures, sharing the history or life experience of the particular church in which he is incardinated, "in its riches and in its weaknesses, in its difficulties and its hopes, working in it for its growth" (PdV, 74). A man aware and close to the men and women of today, in order to be able to "understand more clearly their needs, respond to their demands, perceive their unvoiced questions and share the hopes and expectations, the joys and burdens which are part of life" (PdV, 72). Committed to the struggles and conflicts of his people, "making his own the human experience of suffering in its many different manifestations" (PdV, 72), and at the same time in an on going critical dialogue with society.

7. A fraternal man, a brother among brothers -- above all with all the members of his presbyterate, with whom he constitutes a true family (PdV, 74) but also with all people, without considering himself superior to any of them, a shepherd for all, without prejudice or favoritism (cf. PdV, 59).

A man with a solid integral formation, mature in his humanity. Since he is called to be a living image of Jesus Christ, Head and Shepherd, he "should seek to reflect in himself, as far as possible, the human perfection which shines forth in the incarnate Son of God and which is reflected with particular liveliness in his attitude toward others as we see narrated in the Gospels" (PdV, 43). Emotionally balanced, steady and tenacious, adaptable - flexible, he lives and approaches conflicts with maturity. For this, he needs to know how to rest and care for himself without giving himself so much to his work and to others that he forgets himself" (PdV, 72).

9. A man of the Kingdom, free in himself and able to free other, attentive to the signs of the times that manifest its presence in history, and full of hope in the power of that Kingdom which guarantees its full realization, who knows how to creatively hasten its coming and quicken its fulfillment in this world.

References: Pastores dabo Vobis (PdV): Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation on the formation of Priests in the Circumstances of the Present Day (Origins Vol 21: No. 45; April 16, 1992).
Translated from the Spanish by Donald F. Hanchon

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