Then there exists a very special service which is that rendered by the ministerial priesthood, a sublime mission that assures the continuity among men of the redeeming work of Christ. The Church needs men who guarantee their own brothers a lifelong service exceedingly high and exalting: that is, being stewards and administrators of God’s mysteries, living instruments of forgiveness and grace, ministers of the Word that saves ■ Jonh Paul II To the young people of Friscotti, Italy, August 9, 1980.