Father Giulio Cirignano, a native of Florence and a longtime Scripture scholar at the Theological Faculty of Central Italy, penned an article which appeared in the weekend edition of L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, under the headline of “The Conversion Asked by Pope Francis: Habit is not Fidelity.”
Father Cirignano claims that the “main obstacle” to implementing Pope Francis’s vision is “closure, if not hostility” from “a good part of the clergy, at levels both high and low.”
By the terms “high and low,” one assumes Father Cirigano is referring to Clergy ranging from Cardinals to ordinary Parish Priests.
“The Clergy is holding the people back, who should instead be accompanied (that word again!) in this extraordinary moment,” the article states.
“Most of the faithful have understood, despite everything, the favorable moment, the Kairos, which the Lord is giving to his community,” Father Cirignano said. “For the most part, they’re celebrating.”
Father Cirignano offered several factors to explain what he sees as “closure” and “hostility” from the Clergy towards Pope Francis.
The “modest cultural level on the part of Clergy, both at high and low levels,” he said, saying that both theological and Biblical preparation is often “scarce.”
An antiquated image of the Priesthood, which, according to Cirignano, sees the Priest as “the boss and patron of the community,” who, because of his celibate condition, is compensated with “totally individual responsibility,” a sort of “solitary protagonist.”
An old theology, associated with the Counter-Reformation, “lacking the resources of the Word, without a soul, that transformed the impassioned and mysterious adventure of believing into religion,” arguing that “the God of religion … is, for the most part, a projection of man, while “faith” is not in the first place “Man reaching for God, but the opposite.”
“When the Priest is too marked by a religious mentality, and too little by a limpid faith, then everything becomes more complicated,” Cirignano wrote. “He risks remaining the victim of many things invented by man about God and his will.” “God”, according to Cirignano, “doesn’t tolerate being enclosed in rigid schemes typical of the human mind.God is love, and that’s all, love as gift of itself.”
This article does not appear in a vacuum.
And the fact that it appears in the Vatican’s official news organ, L’Osservatore Romano, is no surprise either.
For, we note that Pope Francis himself has frequently taken the Clergy to task during the course of his papacy.
Why this penchant, so prevalent in this Pontificate, to cannibalize the Clergy in its zeal to advance what must be admitted is a theology of pastoral care and a morality of tolerance toward moral failing the likes of which the Church has never before witnessed?
It’s an old ploy: don’t blame the message, blame the messenger! If the message doesn't play, it's because the messenger has not done his job well.
The one virtue, both expressly encouraged and subliminally communicated, throughout the course of seminary formation has been and remains: obedientiam et reverentiam (obedience and respect) to one’s superiors in office.
While Priests may exhibit a host of talents, the one trait that will single them out for advancement or recognition is unquestioning loyalty to their Bishops and, through them, to the Church’s teachings and authority of governance reflected in the Papacy.
At every level of advancement toward Sacred Orders, Priests must take a loyalty oath, swearing before Almighty God and the Church itself that they will faithfully accept and proclaim its teachings and execute its moral disciplines, all the while rejecting the influences and errors prevalent in the modern world.
The overwhelming majority of Clergy take that oath most seriously and spend the rest of their lives giving life to its expectations, sometimes at great personal sacrifice and cost.
For the Priest, this loyalty to the Bishop and the hierarchical structure of the Church, to its teachings and praxis is the essence of Clerical virtue.
Now comes a Pontificate eager to suggest that such virtue is, in reality, a vice.
Now comes a Pontificate which labels the theology in which the Clergy were formed as “scarce and modest”, ill-suited for the demands of pastoral service the modern world demands.
Now comes a Pontificate which evaluates the model of Priesthood in which the Clergy have been formed as “antiquated and inept”.
Now comes a Pontificate which scolds the Clergy for having a “rigidity” of religiosity marked by a “limpid faith”.
Now comes a Pontificate which castigates the Clergy for the very loyalty which was demanded and expected of the them, all the while expecting that same acceptance and loyalty to the unprecedented teachings and practices which it so eagerly espouses.
Father Cirignano is certainly free to express his disdain for Clergy who are out in the field, working day and night tirelessly serving those entrusted to their care.
Father is certainly free to criticize the Clergy for not having attained his credentials and recognition in academic circles where an actual and practical experience of shepherding souls is little appreciated or respected.
Father Cirignano is certainly free to reveal his own narrow-mindedness and biases.
But, in providing Father Cirignano with the forum of the official newspaper of the Vatican to disseminate these warped images of the Clergy, the Holy See has contributed significantly in demeaning Priestly life and service, and the dedication of so many who have served the Church well, if not heroically, especially at a time when the Priesthood has been plagued by terrible scandals and ridiculed by the secular world in general.
This Pontificate needs to understand that, if it wishes to convert the world, it must first convert its Priests. That takes time and requires charity, not condemnation.
The Pope demands that the laity be treated with compassion, understanding, respect and an accompaniment of acceptance (whatever that means!).
So be it.
By why is he and those around him so ready to deny to Priests what they expect Priests to provide to others?
I suggest that the Holy Father, Father Cirignano and L’Osservatore Romano’s editors should offer an apology to the Clergy for this article and for other unjust and unwarranted remarks.
I suggest a word of commendation and gratitude to the Clergy is much in order by this Pope and his proxies in the Holy See.
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