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Fall Convocation of Priests - October 28, 2003
Note: The following is the text of a talk delivered on the occasion of the Fall Convocation of Priests, Archdiocese of Cincinnati, on Oct. 28, 2003. Fr. Silva expresses his gratitude to Fr. Jim Duell, chair of the Planning Committee, for the welcome invitation and generous hospitality.
My Brothers,
I have been asked to talk with you about three things: how priests are coping with the scandal in our midst, how priests can and do remain faithful and committed to ministry and finally, in light of all this, how priests can be proactive in promoting vocations to the priesthood in the present situation.
Beginning in July and continuing through the month of most of October, I traveled extensively in the United States, in Australia, Ireland and England. In Australia, I met with the executive director of the Australian Conference of Priests, with their president and member of the executive committee. In Ireland, I participated in the International Assembly of Priest-Leadership from eighteen different countries. Some of those represented were India, Nigeria, Kenya, England, Ireland, Canada, Switzerland, France, Austria, South Africa, and many others. Here in the United States, I have given retreats, days of recollection and convocation talks in five different dioceses since the first of July.
It has been enlightening, inspiring, challenging and heartening.
Let me begin with heartening!
I think a first thing to note is that most priests are dedicated, faith filled and committed to God, to Christ and to His Church. Every one of those with whom I have met tells me that they love the Church and the priesthood. They all exhibit a certain quality that is recognizable: they are men whose lives are meaningful because they are personally given over to the service of other people. I know it sounds cliché; but you hear it in their speech, you see it in their interaction with one another, and you witness it in the kind of ministry that is reported. It is culturally modified, but it is real. It is universal.
Second, the men from Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, India, and other less developed countries are not so focused on issues such as child sexual abuse by clergy. Rather, you hear them speak of advocating in the courts for the workers, struggling to find water for their village, worried about the effects of internal political conflict, all while trying to teach their people the way of Jesus, the teaching of the Church and appropriate worship in a Catholic Church. They are aware of the difficulties the developed world is experiencing, but they do not enter their agenda. The mission of justice and the evangelization of their people is uppermost for them. This does not mean that they are without tremendous problems with people or clergy or that clergy sexual abuse does not exist there. It simply means that it does not hold a prominent place in their consciousness.
These priests have rekindled in us the flame of enthusiasm for mission, for service, and for the life of the Church in those with whom they interact.
How Priests Are Coping With the Scandal In Our Midst
Let me turn now to challenge.
Those of us who live in the developed world, the United States, Canada, Ireland, England and Wales, Switzerland, France….are caught in the issue of child sexual abuse by priests and in other dilemmas that have their roots in an abusive sexual behavior.
It is scandalous, it has caused a crisis in credibility for the priesthood in general and for priests in particular. As you yourselves have experienced, there is intense shame, embarrassment, anger and resentment, and even fear. One hesitates to identify himself as priest lest he be perceived as criminal, someone to be scorned. Add to this the feelings priests have in response to leadership that has been unable to get a reasonable handle on all of this over the last twenty years, and there is a morale problem for presbyterates that is almost overwhelming.
Oh, there are those who would protest this. But, I think there are many who are putting on a brave front- a lot of denial and some real refusals to accept the personal struggles going on in the inner life of most priests and bishops today. It accounts for the lackluster mood that sometimes permeates clergy gatherings.
Some would point to a lack of faith among the clergy as a cause. They would add a laxity in moral life and failure to be faithful to the authentic teaching of the magisterium. Others blame the culture, wealth, individualism, relativism. Some even blame the Second Vatican Council. Many blame the way the church exercises authority and an awful lot of people blame mandated celibacy.
Most of us are coping. But, it is definitely a challenge to live through this situation in which we find ourselves.
How priests remain faithful and committed to ministry
It has been inspiring to be with priests who are not only coping with the situation, but thriving in ministry as they do so. In the midst of challenge, most priests are living vital lives, providing strong spiritual leadership and offering compassionate and extensive pastoral care.
There are certain virtues, qualities and characteristics that these priest exhibit. First, they exhibit a certain maturity: i.e. they are able to live with ambiguity. Second, they are flexible: i.e. they are able to adapt to differing situations as they arise. Third, they are relational: i.e. their fundamental relationship with the person of Jesus opens them to relationships with others in such a way that it becomes mutually life-giving. Fourth, they are peaceful: i.e. they possess what Ronald Goleman calls “emotional intelligence”, self-knowledge and self-possession. Lastly, they are without rancour: i.e. they are able to resolve anger and disappointment, and to live without blame.
Consequently, these priests are, as Pope John Paul II says in Pastores Dabo Vobis: “… able to know the depths of the human heart, to perceive difficulties and problems, to make meeting and dialogue easy, to create trust and cooperation, to express serene and objective judgments.” (Pastores Dabo Vobis V.1.43.1)
Most priests whom I encounter are of such mettle.
These priests are the kind of pastoral leaders who, while not academicians, have the intellectual skill to be able to analyze the political, social and economic world of their people in light of the gospel and of the social teaching of the Church. Catechetically astute, they are able to recognize areas in need of evangelization. Liturgically smart, they understand the theological realities as they are played out in the liturgical life of the community. Organizationally wise, they are able to be creative in structuring the pastoral and structural life of the faith community. Finally, they can live with change and even become agents of change.
Above all, these priests are men who are in touch with God, who are most comfortable with their humanity but who understand themselves as priests in the One Priest; who, as they live and walk among their people, take all that is human about their brothers and sisters to the altar of the Cross and the table of resurrection.
In a difficult day, these priests are doing more than coping. They are thriving.
Recently I gave a three day retreat to young priests ordained from one to eight years. I told them this: If you want to get through the scandals and remain faithful and committed I suggest the following: First, give God good time every day – let God permeate the movement of your life from moment to moment. Second. work at leveling off your moods so that you can be kind in your relationships with people. Don’t be afraid of interacting closely with people as long as you are constantly aware that you are a priest. Third, eat right. Get enough sleep. Fourth, get angry at the right things. Fifth, always have someone who can “take your temperature” and give you feedback about yourself. Sixth, remember that sexual feelings never go away – so get used to them and learn how to live with them. Lastly, and above all, believe that what you do is priceless – even though at times, it may not seem that way.
So then, how can we be proactive in promoting vocations to the priesthood?
The first thing is to believe that the priesthood is absolutely necessary for human life in this world. It is because of the necessity of priesthood for the sake of the world’s hope that men are priests.
When I say priesthood is necessary, what I mean is that priesthood brings the world to a realization that there is something beyond itself, something immeasurable, unable to be bound by time and space, something that beckons and calls always to “more” of life. It is what gives the world hope. Priests are symbols of hope, urging people to understand their desire as a search for Life. (The philosopher-theologian Raimundo Pannikar says that desire can only be fulfilled by Desire Itself.) Priests are bridge people between the “now” and the “beyond”.
The priesthood of Jesus is precisely about life-giving. It is about taking all of the human condition, experiencing its limitations, owning its sin, dying its death and by virtue of the Resurrection filling it with Life that lives beyond the grave. The priesthood of Jesus not only brings hope of consolation of heart and the drying of our tears, but it consoles and overcomes our despair even now.
The ordained priest, ordered into that reality whereby Christ consoles, gives hope and overcomes death, is the way that human beings encounter the mystery of Life Unlimited, Life that lives through situations of despair and death, suffering and illness, tedium and boredom, violence and shattered dreams. The Stations of the Cross provide us the paradigm for the human journey in this world. The Cross takes up our deaths. But it is the altar of Resurrection that leads us through union with Christ’s paschal mystery into the transformation of the Risen Life, a wholeness of Life in the Fullness of God. The ordained priest lives this out in his own life and through his ministry draws those whom he encounters into the depths and the heart of Life beyond the grave, even now.
I’ve got to believe that is what I am doing as a priest. It is a vision that goes beyond the human. But it is a vision that is totally engaged in the human. As an ordained priest, every thought I have, every action I perform, every word I utter participates in the priestly dynamic of communicating Life, of drawing the other into Life. That is why the ordained priesthood is “radically communitarian” or as Pope John Paul says: “Of special importance is the capacity to relate to others. This is truly fundamental for a person who is called to be responsible for a community and to be a man of ‘communion.’” (Pastores Dabo Vobis V.1.43.3)
Only now can we even consider the institutional (ordered community) aspects of the vocational dynamic. We begin by talking of the creation within the community of a culture of vocation. (Here, I am going to borrow from the European Continental Congress on Vocations.)
It all begins with baptism into a priestly people. Vocation, the call of Christ, is for all. It involves the task of promotion, accompaniment and discernment. It is the task of all the baptized. It does not focus on the recruitment of the “vocation scapegoat” (In Verbo Tuo, European Continental Congress on Vocations, 1997) or the solitary vocation. Rather, a culture of vocation is supported by the development of structures and processes within the faith community that support people in discerning God’s will in their lives.
In this context, ordained priests are urged to rediscover their own original motivations, to see with new eyes a vision of ordained priestly life, and to share this motivation and vision with their people. Then, in the midst of the faith community – with catechists and chaplains, guidance counselors and teachers, parents and families – effective systematic discernment can take place. Ordained priesthood is an integrated option in discerning the vocational call from God.
What would I say specifically to a priest who seeks to be pro-active in promoting vocations?
- Be holy, but not weird.
- Be proud of who your are and what you are doing. Do not be afraid to invite others to enter in and to share the priestly ministry.
- Be a pastoral leader: be someone who is unafraid of the contemporary world , who invites others to live life more fully rather than being the one who acts in judgement, in condemnation or in exclusionary ways.
- Be about faith, not control or power over others.
- Be a priest who is fully alive, not cynical; balanced in work, in heath and in prayer.
- In the end, be a priest that is human – who understands the workings of the human heart.
I think this is the way to be pro-active on behalf of priestly vocations, simply by living the life with courage and conviction.
There are many obstacles confronting us. You know what they are. But, in spite of the scandals of child sexual abuse and in spite of some troublesome personnel management by the authorities, the Priesthood of Jesus Christ is the only life-giving force in our world that is real, effective and that breaks through the boundary of death.
It overcomes our sin. It enhances our lives with hope. It conquers our death.
Priesthood is a life without price – a great gift ---and it is worth our every effort.
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