DIRECTORY FOR THE MINISTERYAND THE LIFE OF PRIESTS - 2013

PRESENTATION

The phenomenon of “secularisation” – the tendency to live life in a horizontal projection, setting aside or neutralising the dimension of transcendence while nonetheless accepting religious discourse – has for several decades been involving all baptized persons without exception to such a degree as to engage those, whose task it is by divine mandate to guide the Church, to take resolute positions. One of the most relevant effects of this is the departure from religious practice, with a refusal – at times conscious, and at other times induced by habitual forms of conduct insidiously imposed by a culture determined to dechristianise civil society – of the depositum fidei as authentically taught by the Catholic Magisterium, as well as the authority and role of the sacred ministers called by Christ to Himself (Mk 3:13-19) to cooperate in his plan of salvation and to lead men to the obedience of the faith (Sir 48:10; Heb 4:1- 11; Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 144 ff.). Hence the special commitment deployed by Benedict XVI from the outset of his pontificate, at times with a revaluation of Catholic doctrine as the organic ordering of the wisdom authentically revealed by God, and which in Christ has its fulfilment, doctrine whose true value is within the grasp of the intelligence of all men (CCC, n. 27 ff.). If it is true that the Church exists, lives and is perpetuated in time through the mission of evangelisation (cf. Vatican Council II, Decree Ad Gentes), it is nonetheless clear that the most deleterious effect on it caused by rampant secularisation is the crisis of the priestly ministry. On one hand this becomes evident in the appreciable decline in vocations and, on the other hand, in the spread of a true and concrete loss of the supernatural sense of the priestly mission; these forms of non authenticity, which in their most extreme degenerate expressions have often brought to the surface situations of grave suffering. For this reason the reflection on the future of the priesthood coincides with the future of evangelisation, and hence that of the Church itself.

In 1992, Blessed John Paul II, in the post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation Pastores dabo vobis, had already brought abundant light to shine on what we are saying, and was then the driving force behind serious consideration being given to this issue through a series of statements and initiatives. Undoubtedly to be recalled in a particular way among the latter is the Year for Priests, 2009-2010, celebrated in such a meaningful way in connection with the 150th anniversary of the death of St. John Mary Vianney, the patron saint of parish priests and priests caring for souls. These were the fundamental reasons why, after a lengthy series of consultations, we undertook to prepare the first edition of the Directory for the Ministry and Life of Priests in 1994, an instrument suited to shedding light and to be a guide in the commitment to spiritual renewal of the sacred ministers, increasingly disoriented apostles, immersed in a difficult and constantly changing world. The fruitful experience of the Year for Priests (whose echo still resounds), the promotion of a “new evangelisation”, the further and most precious indications provided by the Magisterium of Benedict XVI, and, unfortunately, the sorrowful wounds that have tormented the Church due to the conduct of some of its ministers, have exhorted us to consider a new edition of the Directory that could be more consonant with the times we are living, while nonetheless maintaining substantially unchanged the layout of the original document, as well as, naturally, the perennial teaching of the theology and spirituality of the Catholic priesthood. From the Directory’s brief introduction its intentions are already clear: “It seemed opportune to recall those fundamental doctrinal elements that are at the centre of the identity, the spirituality and the ongoing formation of priests so they may help deepen the meaning of being a priest and heighten his exclusive relationship with Jesus Christ, Head and Shepherd: this will necessarily be to the benefit of everything a priest is and does… This Directory is a document for the edification and sanctification of priests in a world both secularlized and indifferent in so many ways”. It would be worth the effort to consider some of those traditional themes that have been gradually overshadowed or at times openly rejected in favour of a functional vision of the priest as a “professional of sacredness”, or the “political” conception that confers dignity and value on him only if he is active in social affairs. All this has often overwhelmed the most characteristic dimension, which could be defined as the “sacramental” dimension of the priest, that is to say the minister, who, while bestowing the treasures of divine grace, is the representation of Christ in his own right and, while ever remaining with the limits of a humanity wounded by sin, is a mysterious presence in the world. First and foremost is the priest’s relationship with the Triune God. The revelation of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit is linked to the manifestation of God as Love which creates and saves. Now, if redemption is a sort of creation and an extension thereof (in fact it is called “new”), then the priest, the minister of redemption and in light of his being a source of new life, thereby becomes an instrument of the new creation. This already suffices to project the greatness of the ordained minister, independently from his capacities and his talents, his limits and his miseries. This is what led St. Francis of Assisi to write in his Testament: “I am determined to reverence, love and honour these and all the others as my superiors. I refuse to consider their sins, because I can see the Son of God in themand they are my superiors. I do this because in this world I cannot see the most high Son of God with my own eyes except for his most holy Body and Blood which they receive and they alone administer to others”. That is the Body and Blood which regenerate humanity. Another important point ordinarily underscored all too little, but stemming forth from which are all practical implications, is the ontological dimension of prayer, where the Liturgy of the Hours occupies a special position. Often stressed on the liturgical level is how it is a sort of prolongation of the Eucharistic sacrifice (Ps 49: “Those honour me who offer praise in sacrifice”), and, on the juridical level, how it is an irrevocable duty. However, in the theological view of the ordained priesthood as ontological participation in the “headship” of Christ, the prayer of the sacred minister, no matter what his moral condition may be, is to all effects and purposes the prayer of Christ, with the same dignity and the same efficacy. Moreover with the authority the Pastors have received from the Son of God to “commit” Heaven regarding questions resolved on earth for the good of the sanctification of believers (Mt 18:18), it fully complies with the Lord’s command to pray always, at all times and without ever losing heart (Lk 18:1; 21:36). It is good to insist on this point. “We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if one honours God and does his will, God will listen to him” (Jn 9:31). Now, who more than Christ in person honours the Father and perfectly fulfils his will? Therefore, if the priest acts in Persona Christi in everything he does in his participation in redemption – with the due differences; in teaching, in sanctification, in guiding the faithful to salvation – nothing in his nature as a sinner can obfuscate the power of his prayer. This obviously must not induce us to minimise the importance of the minister’s upright moral conduct (just like that of any baptized person), whose measure must be the holiness of God (Lev 20:8; 1Pet 1:15-16); rather it serves to highlight how salvation comes from God, how he needs priests to perpetuate it in time, and how unnecessary are complicated ascetic practices or particular forms of spiritual expression, so all men may be able to benefit from the beneficial effects of Christ’s sacrifice also through the prayer of pastors chosen for them. Stressed yet again is the importance of the priest’s formation, which must be integral and without privileging one aspect to the detriment of another. In any case, the essence of Christian formation cannot be understood as a sort of “training” that touches on human spiritual faculties (intelligence and will) in what we could call their external manifestation. Formation is the transformation of the selfsame being of man, and each ontological change can only be brought about by God himself through the Holy Spirit, whose task, as we say in the Creed, is “to give life”. “To form” means to give shape to something, or in our case to Someone: “We know that by turning everything to their good God cooperates with all those who love him, and all those that he has called to his purpose. They are the ones he choose specially long ago and intended to become true images of his Son” (Rm 8:28-29). Since the priest is, as we said above, a sort of “co-creator”, his formation requires an exceptional act of abandonment to the workings of the Holy Spirit, avoiding, albeit in the enhancement of his personal talents, the danger of activism, or belief that the efficacy of his pastoral work depends on his own skills. When considered in depth, this is a point that may certainly inspire confidence in those who, in this extensively secularised world deaf to the appeals of the faith, could quite easily slip into discouragement, and from that into pastoral mediocrity and tepidity, and ultimately into questioning that mission they had so enthusiastically embraced at the outset. Good knowledge of the human sciences (in particular of philosophy and bioethics) in order to deal head on with the challenges of laicism; the valorisation and use of the means of mass communication enhancing the efficacy of the announcement of the Word; Eucharistic spirituality as a specificity of priestly spirituality (the Eucharist is the sacrament of Christ who becomes an unconditioned and total gift of love to the Father and his brothers), and on this depends the sense of celibacy (which is opposed buy certain voices as it is badly understood); the relationship with the ecclesiastic hierarchy and priestly fraternity; love for Mary, the Mother of priests, whose role in the economy of salvation is in the forefront as an element neither decorative nor optional, but essential. These and other themes are taken up in this Directory, in a clear and complete paradigm helpful in purifying equivocal or distorted ideas about the identity and function of the minister of God in the Church and in the world. The Directory can therefore be, above all, of assistance to each priest in feeling proud to be a special member of that marvellous plan of God, which is the salvation of humankind.

MAURO Card. PIACENZA Prefect

CELSO MORGA IRUZUBIETA

Titular Archbishop of Alba marittima Secretary