Priests must live holy lives to be effective ministers, Vatican says
May 1, 2012 at 9:59 am
Congregation gives priests a guideline for examining their consciences
VATICAN CITY — Ten years after a historic papal response to clerical sex abuse, the Vatican urged priests to strive for greater holiness in their own lives so that they might effectively minister to others and reverse the tide of atheism.
In its annual letter to priests for 2012, the Vatican's Congregation for Clergy focused on Blessed John Paul II's 2002 Holy Thursday letter to clergy, in which the late pope responded to the growing revelations and scandal of sexual abuse of minors by priests.
