WHERE THERE IS NO PRIEST, THERE IS NO CHURCH

I just finished reading another lengthy interview, with yet another Cardinal, by yet another reporter from a yet another Catholic journal.  It was yet another heap of gibberish.  

Not one of these interviews ever addresses the real crisis within the Church.

It’s not a crisis of dogma or doctrine or discipline as these interviewers and these Prelates would have us all believe.  It’s not about the economy or the environment as the Holy Father would have us believe.

Just look at the interviews themselves, whether they be with Pope Francis, members of the College of Cardinals,or Bishops.  Just listen to their answers.  

Better still, if you take the time to find the written version of the interview, just look at the volume of the answers they give to questions about the culture, social and economic issues, politics, public policy.  

Pay attention to their spin on the latest program devised to “reinvigorate” their local churches and you will understand my point:  paragraph upon paragraph of answers to questions about mission and message, about dogma and doctrine, about human rights and the economy  --- but a few meager sentences about the lack of Priests available to provide the Scriptures and the Sacraments to God’s People.

It’s so clear!  

The Bishops really think that Priests are peripheral to the essential mission of the Church:  the redemption and sanctification of souls.  Their blindness to this reality is both shocking and shameful.  Such willful ignorance and timidity in addressing what the crisis within the Priesthood borders on the sinful.

I am sure there are many reasons for this.  

One among them I have always suspected is that Bishops simply do not like Priests, especially their own!  

Those who are first in the daily scrimmage between the values of the world and the values of the Gospel -- Pastors and parish Priests -- are the last ones consulted about the need of the local church and what practical solutions could be proffered to respond to them.

Rather, Bishops and the bureaucrats ,with whom they surround themselves, devise strategies and programs which lack the insight of any pastoral experience.  

Pastors are assembled, told the next totally inane and irrelevant program they must initiate in their parishes or assessed a goal in the Bishop’s latest fund drive for who know’s what.  No one is asked to return, perhaps after a reasonable period of reflection, to offer their reactions or suggestions.
No, Pastors are ordered to invest their time and resource.  

And in the greatest instance of hubris I have so often witnessed, the Bishop will exit such meetings proclaiming the he has sought the counsel and received the approval of his Priests for his latest hair-brained idea.  

Sad, but positively true!

Dear Holy Father, dear Bishops, Priests are more important than petty squabbles about Vatican financial reform or personnel shake ups in Offices of the Roman Curia.  

Priests are more important than global warming or the rise or fall of the peso or any other thirld world currency.  

Priests are more important than the language or ritual of the Liturgy.  

Priests are more important than the cost of maintaining bloated chanceries and administrative agencies.  

Priests are more important than the latest trivial and meaningless statement of the Bishops’ Conference.

For where there is no Priest, there is no Church!

Let me repeat that, since many of the Prelates of the Church seem to have forgotten this fundamental truth:  where there is no Priest, there is no Church.

And what is the Holy Father and what are the Bishops doing to seriously address the crisis in Priesthood today?  Absolutely nothing!

Such has been the course of the Church for decades now and still the Pope and the Bishops look the other way for fear of having to do something constructive to assure that God’s People are provided the nourishment of the Sacraments and the truth of the Gospel that only Priests can deliver.

What have the Pope and the Bishops done to assure aging Priests that they will be assisted in their ministries and cared for as they grow older and more infirm? 

What have the Pope and the Bishops done to alleviate the burden of overwork and the placing of more and more demands upon Pastors and Priests? 

Again, the answer is absolutely nothing!

I somehow think that the level of self-induced and willful ignorance on the part of so many in leadership positions within the Church is part of the Divine Will for the Church.  Nothing else explains the depth of incompetence and ineptitude when it comes to the manner in which Bishops treat their Priests.

In so many ways, it appears that the Holy Spirit is actively breaking down the structures and attitudes which for so long have crippled the Church in the fulfillment of the Divine Mandate to “go forth and make disciples of all nations”.

Whether the Church will finally realize the precious gift and resource it possesses in dedicated and committed Priests will be the determining factor as to whether or not the Church will continue to have an effective presence in the world, in the near and the foreseeable future.

Dear God, bless and protect our Priests.  Sustain them in their sacrificial lives of service.  Comfort them in their moments of challenge.  Encourage them when they become disheartened, when they are unappreciated, when they are ridiculed or ignored.  Open the minds and the hearts of the Pope and the Bishops to seek your guidance in providing future Priests to nourish Your People with the Sacraments and the truths of Your Living Word.  Bless those who continue to serve as they grow older and more infirm.  Bless those Priests still with us and those who have gone before us.  Lord, bless Your Church this day and always.