Pope will not write this sort-of traditional Holy Thursday letter to priests this year.

Father Ciro Benedettini, assistant director of the Vatican press office, said April 6 that no papal letter would be released this year. He did not say why the pope had decided to discontinue the practice.

In 1979, a few months after his election, Pope John Paul II began writing the Holy Thursday letter as a sign of his special concern for the priesthood and the burdens of pastoral ministry.