Priests: In The Footsteps of Christ
Secularisation of the world and life presents the greatest obstacle to priestly ministry writes IBONIO D’SOUZA
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The Catholic Church has been observing the year 2009-10, (beginning on June 19 2009), as “Year of Priest”. It has been declared thus by Pope Benedict XVI for our Church to focus on the priesthood and to encourage priests’ yearning for “spiritual perfection”, the keystone for effectiveness in their ministry.
Reflecting on the dedication, questions like: Who is a Catholic priest? What is his role and mission? What is the state of priesthood today?, instantly arise. Priesthood in the Roman Catholic has a long history of 2000 years. It all began with Jesus. When Jesus was on earth, He instituted the Seven Sacraments. One of them was Holy Orders, the priesthood. The primary purpose of the priesthood is to minister to the people, and administer the Sacraments to them. The Catholic tradition has maintained the purpose and form of the priesthood much as Jesus intended.
Role and Mission of priests: The Second Vatican Council, in early 1960s, beautifully described the role of priest by noting three functions: “Preach the Gospel and Shepherd the faithful and……Celebrate Divine Worship”. We have been most familiar with “Celebrating Divine Worship”, meaning, the Mass. But the Second Vatican Council gave renewed priority to the ministry of the Word, which makes for a Gospel-based priesthood, and to pastoral care of the faithful, which makes for a service-based ministry. All Catholics are called to understand and meditate on God’s Word day and night, as the Psalms say, but the priest is specially to be immersed in the Gospel. From this immersion he breaks open the Word and guides the faithful through the Gospels, helping bring God’s Word alive for them. “Shepherding Souls” is also a service, in terms of caring for the spiritual needs of the faithful – not only through sacraments, but also by counselling them, helping them through difficult times, and helping them to pray. Thirdly, the “Celebrator of Divine Worship” leads the community in prayer, especially while presiding at the Eucharist. All these priestly roles grow not just from Vatican II, but fundamentally from the example of Jesus. These are models of service.
However, none of this means that the priest has any monopoly on holiness or in imitating Christ! The Church speaks of a common call as “priest, prophet and king” that we all receive at our Baptism. The ordained priest is the public representative of the Church and has specific functions within the ministry of all believers. But each of the priestly roles can, in a sense, also be seen as the roles of the laity, who are also called to preach the Gospel, to care for one another, and gather, under the presiding of ordained priests, to participate in the Eucharist.
Challenges to the priesthood: Surveys in some Catholic countries report that Catholics disconnected from Mass attendance and other parish life, believe the Catholic Church is out of touch with the world today and is not relevant to their own lives.
There is so much crime, violence and vice in the world and our children get entangled in them as they are not given the proper guidance in the home and schools. Parents and teachers are too busy trying to cope with the demands of society. The Church and the clergy are burdened with their own problems and in the process, children are totally neglected.
Managing the family is an arduous task these days. There are the marital problems to handle with the spouse and the in-laws. The Church is against divorce, but this is increasing by the day. Where does the Church stand with its anti-divorce preaching, when its followers are not in a position to follow that?
Then there are the rebellious youngsters under the influence of a very materialistic and immoral culture. To them even their parents are becoming irrelevant because of the out-dated moral values. Where does the Church stand in their lives?
The decline in ordained priestly vocations has been a deep concern in recent decades. How the Church is addressing this vital issue for the future?
Being a part of a contemporary and secular society, the parish is a challenge to every priest. The priest must be aware of the danger of succumbing to the influence of the community. It may happen that instead of the priest leading the people in his parish, the people may lead him. The stoics teach that one can achieve happiness if one flows with the river- by identifying one’s will with the “world will”. But the Church does not follow the will of the world. God’s will must be always above Man’s will. A priest must be like the salt, said Christ. “You are like the salt for all mankind. But if salt loses its saltiness, there is no way to make it salty again” (Matt 5:13).
Our changing society: The secularisation of the world and life presents the greatest obstacle to the priest’s ministry for people’s salvation. Today’s society offers mankind its secularist teachings under various names promising people fortunes – humanism, materialism, new world order – contrary to the God-man Christ who is referred to as “The Way, The Truth, and The Life” (John 14:6). Today’s man mainly leads his life toward food and drink, entertainment, to consume goods, to stay in the race after life’s success. In all this activity, man sets himself as the final value. Today’s man spends all his time balancing his “Horizontals”, without any ascent of the spirit up the steps and ladders of a higher life vertically toward God.
Inspired Response: What then is the role of the priest and how can he as a good shepherd protect his flock from harm and negative influences of community and society? In the first place, the priest should not be afraid of the place and society in which he lives. He shouldn’t say “I have a bad flock, so what can I do to change something? St. Paul, the apostle, recommended how a priest can be successful in his parish when he said ”………I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some” (I Cor. 9:22). The same apostle gave advice to his most dear student and co-worker, Timothy, saying: “Preach the Word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all long suffering and teaching….”(II Tim. 4:2.). Just as the shepherd opens the gate for the flock to enter, the priest needs to work on the heart of man, so it will open and allow Christ to enter. The Gospels teach us that a good flock is a flock that has a good shepherd who isn’t a mercenary. The fruits of one’s work are not realised overnight. What is necessary is a lot of patience and work, sometimes many years, so that a great harvest is realised in the parish. The shining example of the tireless and phenomenal work of St. John Vianney, the patron of priests, can be a beacon-light and inspiration today as ever.
The Holy Father has wisely asked us to help our priests to grow in holiness. And let’s face it: the sex scandals of recent years, through the misdeeds of a small percentage of priests overall, have demoralised many of the dedicated, good men who make up the vast majority of the Catholic priesthood. Anything that helps them strengthen a sense of their spiritual call is welcome. After all, we are all in this together! Our priests need all the help our people can provide including, and perhaps specially prayers.
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Back to the Future
By Bernardo Elvino de Sousa
The 2009 Corruption Perception Index of Transparency International TI ranks India in the 84th position out of 180 countries. The good news: India is not the most corrupt nation in the world – that distinction goes to Somalia – but merely a country where corruption is rampant. The least corrupt country is New Zealand followed by Denmark, Singapore, Sweden, and Switzerland. This is not surprising: in New Zealand, sheep outnumber humans by twelve to one and animals are not known to indulge in bribery, opportunities for corruption are therefore rare. New Zealand is smaller than Maharashtra; in fact, all the top scorers are small countries, a direct relationship between small size and very low corruption emerges. With an area of 3702 sq km, tiny Goa can thus be expected to be one of the cleanest states anywhere.
No overall national ranking of India’s 28 states and seven union territories exists. Perhaps, the different ‘bachao’ organisations could channel their efforts into producing one using TI criteria, because with quantification, gaps could be determined and improvement targets set. After all, an old quality management dictum states: what gets measured gets done.
Scouring Goa’s press yields interesting results. A study involving below poverty level families vis-à-vis their access to public services found an ‘alarming’ level of corruption in Goa. Another article that was published in the Times of India in March 2010 entitled “Balancing Goan Society’s Growth” states, “Corruption has become a way of life” and that it is practically impossible to eradicate it “because the guardians of the law themselves indulge in corrupt activities”.
Clearly, Goa has a problem. As young managers, we were admonished: “Think out of the box, there are no problems, only opportunities”. What opportunities does this situation offer? So start with, Goa could inundate itself with sheep. This would need to happen urgently, because sheep need green pastures that are rapidly disappearing. Corruption is one of 68 crimes eligible for capital punishment in China, indeed applied assiduously. Baba Ramdev’s suggestion would, however, decimate Goa’s population; who would wish for the violent demise of a family member, friend, neighbour, school buddy, or one’s own MLA for whom one has voted in the past and will continue to vote in the future? Thinking out of the box, an elegant way forward could be not to emulate sheep and strive to eliminate corruption but quite to the contrary do everything to promote it. The move would unleash unrestricted creativity and innovation, new entrepreneurial methods of enrichment through corruption, a new form of government we could call ‘corruptocracy’ i.e. a democracy with a government of the corrupt, by the corrupt and for the corrupt. Gone would be the days of just getting a percentage on every project, more Machiavellian ways would be devised by global entrepreneurs, black money would turn white overnight. Many learned researchers from Goa’s own IIT (Indian Institute of Techno-corruptocracy) would develop new approaches as part of their PhD programmes. Goa would serve as a global role model, it would compete with Somalia. A rationale to fight corruption would cease to exist.
Van Linschoten, who lived in India for six years from 1581 as secretary to the Archbishop, vividly describes the corrupt practices in 16th century Portuguese Goa, including viceroys, captains of the fort, other officers, exploitation of slaves, obtaining favours from influential persons by ‘greasing their hands’ and so on. A viceroy spent the first of his three-year tenure to furnish his home, the second to amass a great deal of ‘treasure’ and the third to prepare himself for departure so that “he be not overtaken or surprised by the new viceroy”. Sounds familiar? With regard to corruption, Goa has returned to the middle ages, avidly aping the despised colonial masters. To paraphrase a popular movie of the eighties, for Goa, it is back to the future.
