Auckland needs priests

Priesthood is about people – helping people to encounter Christ in their lives so that they may come to know him and experience the joy which he brings to their lives. A priest isn’t simply a sacrament dispensing machine – priesthood is about much more than this. While the priest is of course a minister of the sacraments he can only be effective in what he does if he can build a relationship with those he meets so that, with his help they can in turn build their own relationship with Christ.

In order to do this though, a priest needs to know his people – meeting them where they’re at in their faith but not leaving them there. As Pope Francis put it: “For us priests, what happens in the lives of our people is not like a news bulletin: we know our people, we sense what is going on in their hearts.”