Thanks to Lella and her invaluable
for leading me to this:
The theologian Pope draws
inspiration from a country curate
by Lucio Brunelli
Translated from
June 19, 2009
To be a priest these days has become a difficult occupation. There was a time, for a long time in the West, when to become a priest was a form of social emancipation.
Today the common thinking - which is no longer Christian - looks at the priest with commiseration, if not outright pity
[or ridicule!].
Priests are almost considered as condemned by a despotic authority to be deprived of human love - the love of a woman and of one's own children.
In bar chitchat, or in talk shows which amount to the same thing, whenever priests are discussed, there is always a wise guy who will predictably say that the only antidote to the sexual offenses by priests is to 'liberate' them from the chains of celibacy.
It is almost as if one can no longer conceive that a normal person today, even by the grace of God, could possible make such a radical choice. Much less, that anyone could feel himself realized - or even potentiated - in his emotional aspects.
The Pope is well aware that the times are difficult.
Yesterday he wrote an 8-page letter to the more than 400,000 priests of the Catholic Church. It is a manifesto for the Year of Priests which he declared to begin today, June 19, in conjunction with teh 150th death anniversary year of the Holy Curate of Ars. St. Jean-Marie Vianney.
The online editions of the major newspapers said in their headlines that this was a new 'admonition' from the Pope, as though Benedict XVI had taken pen in hand expressly and only to take priests to a scrubbing, denounce the shame brought by the sex scandals among priests, and to call to order those who are demanding abrogation of the requirement of priestly celibacy.
Only a combination of prejudice and ignorance would reduce the Pope's letter to these issues.
Obviously, Papa Ratzinger is well aware of the real situation of the clergy around the world. He has always called the 'filth that is in the Church itself' by name. And he knows there is a growing effort by organized groups, such as those in Austria, to pressure the Church into doing away with priestly celibacy.
But the Pope makes clear in his letter that the crisis in the Catholic clergy should not end only with "a frank and complete acknowledgment of the weaknesses of her ministers, but also a joyful and renewed realization of the greatness of God’s gift, embodied in the splendid example of generous pastors, religious afire with love for God and for souls, and insightful, patient spiritual guides".
It is a letter to be meditated upon, before even beginning to analyze it - enriched as it is with beautiful quotations from the Curate of Ars, St. Jean-Marie Vianney, who served as parish priest in a small French village of less than 300 souls in the first half of the 19th century.
And it is this which is most striking at first glance: This theologian Pope, an intellectual, looks to a humble country priest for inspiration. A priest whose studies were a disaster, who was rejected by seminaries, who found it difficult to learn Latin, and who became tongue-tied every time he had to speak in public.
And yet, he was a figure, the Cure of Ars, who amazed and attracted crowds from all over France.
All this without performing any miracles, merely by spending most of his time hearing confessions. And the rest in visiting the sick, comforting young people in difficulties, and being available all the time to his parishioners. The very image of the 'good shepherd'.
He spoke often of 'the torrent of divine mercy' that surpasses any human measure, including his own consciousness of his inadequacy for his role. And every useless form of clerical rigor and formalism - and in this he had a very modern attitude.
He took a loving approach - not limiting himself to admonitions - which is what the estranged Catholic today needs.
“It is not the sinner who returns to God to beg his forgiveness, but God himself who runs after the sinner and makes him return to him”, the saint said.
And to priests who are uncertain what manner to adopt in the confessional, he says: “I will tell you my recipe: I give sinners a small penance and the rest I do in their place”.
Mr. Brunelli was off to a very good start, with an astute appreciation of the Pope's letter, but somehow, the article seems unfinished....Among other things, because he does not make the connection that Benedict XVi himself has always been a model priest, even in circumstances far different from those of St. Vianney.
I am trying to look up a testimonial by someone who knew him from his eaarly days as a professor in Bonn, to the effect that unlike other priest-professors, Fr. Ratzinger never stopped being a priest first, never missing the obligation of offering daily morning Mass, for instance.
And now, as Pope, Benedict XVI appears to have 'invented' a new genre of papal Magisterium - a sort of mini-encyclical addressed to specific groups of Catholics instead of to all Catholics at large, first with his letter to all bishops, now this. Very personal, very intimate, and always, very beautiful and richly spiritual.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 19/06/2009 16:57]