A general view of the auditorium during the congress.

June 11, 2010. Rome, Italy. As the Year for Priests concluded, the Legionaries of Christ hosted priests from all over the world at the Pontifical Regina Apostolorum College in Rome for the international congress “In the Image of the Good Shepherd.” Organized by the Sacerdos Institute this past July 8, the congress gathered priests who were in Rome for the occasion of the International Meeting of Priests, which was organized the Pontifical Congregation for the Clergy.

A series of cardinals delivered the main talks, including Cardinal Antonio Cañizares, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, who spoke on the topic "The Holiness of the Priest." Bishop Rino Fisischella, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, spoke on “The Current Pastoral Challenges in the Life

	One of the speakers, Cardinal Antonio Cañizares, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, with Fr Miguel Segura, LC, the moderator at the congress.

of the Priest,” mainly referring to the fields of culture and the defense and promotion of life.

After the two talks, there was a round table recalling some priestly models of the 20th century. The event concluded with Mass in the Center for Higher Studies chapel, with Cardinal Claudio Hummes, prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, as the main celebrant.

The following story about the congress was published by the Catholic News Service, and has been partially reprinted with permission. To read the complete article, click on the link below.

Legionaries host Year for Priests conference on Good Shepherd figure

Wednesday, June 9, 2010
By John Thavis, Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- As part of the closing events for the Year for Priests, the Legionaries of Christ hosted top Vatican officials for a conference on the priest as the "image of the Good Shepherd."

The event June 8 came as the Legionaries themselves were struggling with revelations that their founder, the late Mexican Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, had fathered children and sexually abused seminarians, the focus of a major Vatican investigation.

While the Vatican has made it clear that Father Maciel´s "most grave and objectively immoral conduct" calls for "a path of profound revision" in the order, Vatican officials have had no reservations about supporting the Legionaries´ academic and spiritual initiatives.

The conference on the priest as Good Shepherd was scheduled before the most recent disclosures about Father Maciel. In opening remarks, Father Gabriel Gonzalez, director of a Legionaries´ spiritual institute for priests in Rome, made a vague reference to the scandal and the wider sex abuse crisis in the church when he said it was paradoxical and perhaps providential that "we have seen the figure of the priest wounded in a particular way in the year dedicated to him."

Read the rest of the article at this link.