 |
|
|
|
 “A service to the Church
and to the Christian people that demands a deep spirituality”: this is
how the Pope, in the speech he addressed to the Italian prelates last
month, during the 59th General Assembly held in the Vatican,
defined the Priestly Year that started on 19th June. “We are
called, together with our priests –words of Benedict XVI- to re-discover
the grace and the task of the Presbyterian ministry. It is a service to
the Church and to the Christian people that demands a deep
spirituality”. ”In answer to the divine vocation, -the exhortation of
the Pope in the Episcopal Meeting- this spirituality must nurture itself
with prayer and with an intense personal union with the Lord, to serve
Him in the brothers through preaching, the sacraments, community life
and help to the poor”.” “In the entire priestly ministry –the Pontiff
added- the importance of commitment to education is relevant to promote
the growth of free and responsible persons, of mature and conscientious
Christians”. Benedict XVI opened this special “Priestly Year”, which
will reach its conclusion on June 19, 2010, on the 150th
anniversary of the death of the curate of Ars, John May Vianney, “a true
example of Pastor in the service to the flock of Christ”.
We
have requested Father Amedeo Cencini, Canossian, an expert psychologist
of religious formation, a lecturer in the Pontifical Salesian University
and author of several books on this topic, to guide us in our
reflection on the mission of the Priests in the Church and in the
present society.
To you, what is the meaning of this priestly year?
“There
is an official meaning that emerges from the words of the Holy Father.
He has conceived and established it “to favour the tension of the
priests towards their spiritual perfection, on which, above all, depends
the efficacy of their ministry”. Therefore, we seem to understand that
Benedict XVI may not be thinking of a spectacular event, but rather of a
year to be lived “above all, as an interior renewal, in the joyful
re-discovery of one’s own identity, of fraternity within the presbytery,
of the sacramental relation with one’s own Bishop” (Hummes). The title
given by the Pope to this year (“Faithfulness of Christ, faithfulness of
the Priest”), speaks to us of a specific attention, a problematic aspect
of the priestly life today, of the fatigue to remain faithful.
Therefore, at the origin of this year we find an ideal meaning that
spurs the priest to re-discover the beauty and the importance of the
priesthood. We find in it also a very realistic consideration
that invites the priest to reflect on his personal experience of life
signed by difficulties, crisis, contradictions, temptations… today, like
yesterday, perhaps today more than yesterday.
The priestly year is an occasion to re-discover the Catholic priesthood.
To you, what is it and what is it not?
“This
is a beautiful question, to which I would not be able to answer
exhaustively. Today, the problem of the priestly identity is not,
perhaps, at theological level, not even at spiritual level; in this
sense the priest is a man of God, the minister of the Eucharist, the
herald of the Word, the shepherd of the sheep to the image of Christ,
namely with his heart and his feelings… We must say also that the figure
of the Parish Priest remains dominant in building the identity of the
diocesan Priest, capable of giving a role and a consistency to the
identity of the single person (covering, at least up to a certain point,
weakness, fatigues and frailties). This, however, would run the risk of
developing an identity strongly anchored in the role invested by the
Priest.
This
ambiguity remains hidden until the role proposes clear tasks, easily
manageable by the subject (that do not require too much fatigue) and,
above all, remunerative in psychological terms (that is he will not find
difficult to find the positive sides in the priestly role, a kind of
success). However, it is destined to emerge, sometimes to explode, (here
is the crisis) when the tasks start to be not enough definite to be
discerned, time by time, according to the freedom and responsibility of
the individual person (namely according to the level of maturity). Above
all, they are not enough remunerative in terms of positive yield for the
“I” (for which one gives up oneself, spends oneself without obtaining
appreciation and esteem from others). Moreover, today it happens that:
many people arrive massively, and the priests find themselves
over-burdened with a progressive amount of work, without being able
materially to follow each task, and without knowing well what to
privilege. This carries with itself the risk that “each one may choose
the area of commitment, breaking up the identity of the priest into
thousand trickles” (Castegnaro).
Therefore, we need to re-think the delicate point of contact between
spiritual-theological identity and pastoral tasks, specifying better the
point of contact that –at the root- is constituted by the personality of
the individual man, from his degree of interior consistency”.
The priests “are important not only for what they do, but also for what
they are”: this is written in the letter by Cardinal Hummes, prefect of
the Sacred Congregation for the clergy. The letter was sent to more than
400 thousand presbyters. What type of image must the priests offer to
the faithful in their daily service to the mission?
“Who
knows whether this statement of the Cardinal Prefect is also a way of
answering the difficulty, which we have just denounced, or of showing
the priority in this service, (the “to be” or the “to do”). It is
certain that, if we speak of image, we unavoidably feel pushed to that
point of contact between theoretical clarity (theological), related to
the ministry, and the identification of concrete ways or forms through
which we can render the ministry fecund, that is, the personality and
maturity of the single priest, of whom the social image is a sign.
I am
trying to mention some signs of the Presbyterian maturity, which are
particularly meaningful today. They are: the testimony of a good life
lived as a vocation, without reserves and without calculations; a life
filled with the calm joy of him who feels called by God daily. The
attachment of the priest to “his” people, the people entrusted to him
and to whom he hands over himself with a devotion, which he does not
measure with a professional rhythm, but which attaches itself to the
affection that keeps on filling his celibate heart. The minister does
not exercise his service at personal title, but as an expression of the
vitality and maternity of the Church; a ministry in which the Priest is
happy to partake. It is an intelligent balance, without ambiguous
unilateralism, between a ritual-liturgical dimension (vertical) and
another more pastoral-relational (vertical) dimension, like two
dimensions of the same identity and spirituality that make the
man-priest to belong totally to God and a sincerely passionate pastor
for his sheep, especially the sick and dispersed ones…”.
To care for the holiness of the clerics, the specificity and integral
aspect of the ministry means –these are still the words of Cardinal
Hummes- to mind the entire work of evangelisation. Yet, never as today,
are the chronicles full of not edifying stories centring on religious.
Does the priestly ministry suffer today a moment of crisis?
“I
suppose that you refer to the very sad events of sexual abuses of some
priests on the minors and adolescents. With this regard, on one side the
Cardinal is right to remind us that the great majority of priests live
faithfully the priestly vocation. On the other side, even if an exiguous
minority, very few priests commit similar crimes, the phenomenon is
disconcerting and shameful: it demands the utmost attention, above all,
at formation level, not only initial but also permanent formation.
The
true problem concerning the crisis, however, is that the events are not
only those relative to sexuality, but others also. I am going to mention
a couple of them. First, there is, today, a specific area or situation
of clerical uneasiness, probably linked to the circuit between
theological and pastoral identity, which we have spoken of above. It is
the so-called burnt-out phenomenon, called also “syndrome of the
deluded good Samaritan”, which seems to attract the interest of a
discreet number of Presbyterians, from the younger to the middle-aged
ones. It manifests itself, in general, through these signs-symptoms:
stress of work, emotive and professional exhaustion, with consequent
de-motivation leading to depersonalisation and disengagement from one’s
work, reducing the emotive investment to its minimum.
They
have brought to evidence the following six causes that provoke the
syndrome among the clergy: lack of a communitarian sense; an
overloading work; the attrite between one’s own values and those of the
organisation; lack of control on one’s work (and its results);
insufficient gratification; lack of equity perceived in the way a person
is treated. The sentinel-attitudes of possible risks of burnout
could be the difficulty of knowing how to define the limits in the area
of help relation, by confusing the personal plan with the professional
one. It could be also the weakness or dependence in the relations with
others; the search for satisfaction exclusively in work; the necessity
to control everything and everybody, refusing delegations and sharing of
responsibilities (Ronzoni).
Another situation of uneasiness, particularly evident today, is that
regarding the solitude of the priest: not solitude as celibate, or
essentially affective, but ecclesial, we could say (as defined by
55% of interviewed priests, in a survey on the clergy (of the Triveneto).
In more concrete terms, this means: lack of relations and support within
the ecclesial world, pastoral isolation, difficulty of the priest to
share adequately his own daily pastoral worries, feeling alone in
decisions taking. “Beyond the very much rooted camaraderie, above all,
among the priests of the same generation, it seems that there is not too
much sharing among the priests, above all among those who work in nearby
parishes. Each priest tends to act more or less like an isolated monad,
without any affective confrontation and common elaboration (Castegnaro),
an old vice, anyhow”.
What is the secret of the indispensability and beauty of the priestly
ministry?
“I
believe that a priest experiences the beauty pf his priesthood as much
as he truly pursues this formation perspective: having the feelings of
the Son in himself. Let us remember, we have said, “the feelings” and
not simply some behaviours or gestures, rites or professional
performances. No, it would be too little and ambiguous. The priest is
called to have a heart like that of Jesus on the cross, that is, the
moment of the utmost proof of his love for man. If the priest does not
succeed in converting his feelings, in evangelising his own emotions,
turning them into those of Christ, he becomes a trader or a fac-totum
or, even worse, a porter or any dependent person. Beauty has deep roots
and a mysterious visibility. To experienced it requires a corresponding
sensitivity, fruit of a radical coherence of life”
We need good priests in order to have good lay people and good Bishops.
Do you admit that this statement answers a truth and that, therefore,
each one must feel involved in the commitment to the service of man?
“Of
course, it is true, also because, in the church of God, either we grow
all together or nobody grows. Having said this, your statement
acknowledges a certain centrality to the role and the figure of the
presbyter. It is obvious that a good part of the formation of the laity
depends on the quality of the education proposal that comes from the
presbyter. Thus, in the last analysis, it depends on the quality of his
life and testimony. I believe that we must read in this perspective the
phenomenon of the numerical contraction of the priest.
This
phenomenon is truly creating serious problems (in 1971 the diocesan
priests in Italy were 42,000; they have calculated that they will be
25.000 in 2023). However, this could also “compel” the pastoral world
and the priest pastor to think, finally, of a new type of pastoral work
and, in particular, of the ministries at its service. They should be as
many –in theory- as there are believers within the parish. In fact, each
man, as believer, has his vocation, thus he is called to give his
contribution to the service of the community. Do vocations to priesthood
decrease? It is not necessarily a drama, if the exiting priests, and
those who will come, turn into vocational animators and educators of
their lay faithful, so that they may assume their responsibilities as
believers and may decide to live with increased awareness and radicalism
their lay vocation of fathers and mothers, of professionals committed in
politics, instruction and economy….
There
are persons who fear that the attention paid to lay vocations implies
less care than that paid to the priestly ones. Well, it is exactly the
opposite. If the priest becomes a true vocational animator of all the
vocations, he creates a vocational culture in the believing mentality,
for which nobody would any longer think of faith independently from a
call, which we must answer, and which makes us responsible, not just
users, of salvation, not only of our salvation, but also of that of the
others. In fact, we create the premises for an authentic vocational
sensitivity, of each and everyone, for one’s vocation and that of the
others, as much as we create a vocational culture. I am convinced that
also the vocations to priesthood will increase”.
What is the image that the Pope proposes for today’s man with the
celebration of this year?
“I
think that it is, above all, a man of deep spirituality and great
pastoral zeal, with an intense love for Christ and the Church and a
strong, passionate cult for the truth. The fact that the Pope has
proposed the curate of Ars as model for this priestly year (and gets
ready to proclaim him as patron of the priests) reveals a lot about the
sensitivity of the Pope-theologian in this respect. What Benedict XVI
has reminded us with his speech, addressed to the members of the
Congregation and the clergy, is quite relevant.
First,
the Pope looks at the Presbyterian ministry in the horizon of the
missionary dimension, of which he highlights the sacramental rooting,
which configures the priest to Christ and his heart: his whole life
stretches out towards this conformation (as the priestly year wants to
remind us). Starting from the mission of the priest, Benedict XVI
examines four characteristics: ecclesial, communional, hierarchical and
doctrinal, reflecting prevalently on the last one. He considers the
doctrine as faithfulness to the ecclesial tradition, as well as the
awareness of a truth that gives the courage of living in the world. It
is “identifiable and recognisable for the judgement of faith, as well as
for personal virtues and the habit, in the areas of culture and charity,
which have always been in the heart of the Church’s mission”. The term
“doctrine” is not to be understood uniquely or prevalently in an
intellectual sense, as scholar, but above all as a re-affirmation of the
centrality of the crucified and risen Lord, whom the priest proclaims
and celebrates as the truth of life, as investing passion, as loving
intelligence.
Perhaps the image of the priest that the Pope reveals, the profile of
the presbyter that Benedict XVI gave a few days ago, is quoted from a
description of Cardinal
Emmanuel Suhard, (1874-1949), "Eternal paradox of the priest. He has the
contraries in himself. He reconciles, at the cost of his life,
faithfulness to God with faithfulness to man. His look is poor and
without strength… He does not have in hands either the political means
or the financial resources, or the strength of weapons, which others use
to conquer the earth. His strength is that of being disarmed and of
being able to do everything in the One who fortifies him”.
How will this Priestly Year be lived and how should it be lived?
“In
general, the priests have rejoiced a lot at the news of this year
dedicated to them, even if they have not expressed it. They have felt
and feel to be at the centre of the Pope’s and the Church’s attention. I
think that they will live it very much intensely on the condition,
however, that the Bishops in their dioceses may know how to insert
harmonically the proposal and the sense of the proposal of the Pope in
the various diocesan initiatives. In short, the priest is always in
front of “an overloading”, not only of work, but also of proposals, of
pastoral initiatives and sometimes of spiritual initiatives. The real
challenge will be that of not creating overlapping or confusions, or a
sense of saturation that produces insensitivity, but of co-ordinating
and joining the whole, giving the truly central message, that there will
be no dichotomy between spiritual life and pastoral activities, if the
heart is formed to vibrate with the very feelings of Christ”.
Which fruit will this priestly year be able to offer the Church?
“I
hope, above all, that it will offer the following fruit: in this time of
worry because of the decreasing number of priests, I would like that a
renewed attention to the quality of the life of the priest will derive
from this year. In particular, I expect a renewed attention towards the
quality of the initial formation that we, somehow, will have to
re-think, and, even more, of the permanent formation, which we must
evens invent.
Within
this attention for the quality of the priestly life, I hope that the
sense of presbytery and of Presbyterian fraternity may increase in the
clergy. I hope that this may be more visible in the style of conducting
the parishes, as well as in the evidence of the most beautiful thing
that the priest can show of himself: the Presbyterian friendships.
Moreover, though I ignore whether it is realistic to expect it, it would
surely be a relevant fruit to define the more concretely pastoral side
of the priest. In fact, we hope that the community may not constantly
pull up the poor priest in a thousand of directions; that it may not
overburden him with such obligations, attentions and tasks, as do not
pertain to him, cause dangerous phenomena, as we have already seen, and
which he could share with other ministerial figures.
Another fruit, which is not too much original but which every one of us
carries in the heart, is an increase of priestly vocations”.
|
