Get to know the Lord, be like him, pope tells Peru seminarians

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Marking the 400th anniversary of the archdiocesan seminary in Trujillo, Peru, Pope Leo XIV thanked God for all the men whose ministry was nurtured there.

"My own footprints are also part of that house, where I served as a teacher and director of studies," he told the current students of the Seminary of San Carlos and San Marcelo. From 1989 to 1998, he taught canon law and other subjects at the seminary.

The purpose of the seminary has been the same for 400 years: to help men "be with the Lord, to let him form them, to know and love him in order to become like him," the pope wrote in the letter, which was released by the Vatican Nov. 5.

In the letter, Pope Leo offered advice to the students.

"Prayer and the search for truth are not parallel paths, but a single road leading to the Master," he wrote. "Piety without doctrine becomes fragile sentimentality; doctrine without prayer becomes sterile and cold."

Prayer and study, then, must be cultivated "with balance and passion, knowing that only in this way will you be able to authentically proclaim what you live and live coherently what you proclaim."

And while a seminarian's spiritual and intellectual life are indispensable, he said, as preparations for ordained ministry, "both are directed toward the altar -- the place where priestly identity is built and revealed in fullness."

In the Mass, he said, "the priest learns to offer his life as Christ did on the cross. Nourished by the Eucharist, he discovers the unity between ministry and sacrifice and understands that his vocation is to be a victim along with Christ."

"When the cross is embraced as an inseparable part of life," Pope Leo wrote, "the Eucharist ceases to be seen merely as a rite and becomes the true center of existence."

Seminarians also are preparing for a life of spiritual fatherhood, the pope told them.

"A true father does not live for himself, but for his family; he rejoices when his children grow, suffers when they are lost and waits when they stray," he said. "So too the priest carries the entire people in his heart, intercedes for them, accompanies them in their struggles and sustains them in faith."

Priestly fatherhood, he said, is expressed through acts of "self-giving: celibacy as undivided love for Christ and his church; obedience as trust in God's will; evangelical poverty as availability for all; and mercy and strength that accompany the wounded and support those in pain."