Greetings in Christ! As I type this, I am processing the fact that Proposal 3 passed. My heart is broken. Clearly, we’ve decided that humans will decide when a life begins; not science, not reason. However discouraged or happy you are about this, let’s all remember that our hope is Jesus, not laws and rules. We can still love, we can still sacrifice, we can still proclaim to everyone who asks how deeply we revere life.
Last week Fr. Le and I were supposed to talk about vocations, but honestly, I somehow missed all that and I’m so sorry. I’ve really been struggling more than usual to keep up with all the needs and demands along with being sick. Fr. Le and I talked with the Leadership Team and we all agreed that we will use this weekend to talk about priesthood.
I’m in my 25th year of being a priest and I’m slowly learning how to live this vocation more strategically. Priesthood is changing in a radical way and as a historian I can tell you it’s the most drastic change that I am aware of in Church History. You are truly living in historic times in that regard.
The specific Church I grew up in had two priests taking care of us 400 families. Now, you have two priests taking care of two parishes with a total of over 2600 families, as well as a school. There are more Catholics than ever in our country and an incredibly small number of priests serving them.
I think that as tough as this time might be, it is a good opportunity for us priests to allow ourselves to focus on being priests and let go of the power-oriented approach.
Fr. Le and I work hard to focus on the things that only we can do: anoint the sick, give last rites, baptize, hear confessions, pray weddings and funerals, offer the holy Mass…this is what priests do. If we do nothing but these things, that is more than a full-time job each week. Alas, we also have to deal with budgeting, religious ed, a school, personnel, annulments, finance councils, Church laws and rules, insurance, our own families and a myriad of other things.
For a lot of our history, priests led parish lives that were much smaller, much simpler and with fewer demands. In the words of one of the older priests in our diocese: “When I was a younger man, we had twice as many priests doing 1/8th of what is required now.”
So, what do we priests do? God seems to be teaching me slowly but surely, that the key is for me to focus on what I am made to do, what I can do and to spread the rest out among qualified people. For me this has involved creating a leadership team and working with them. This team walks with me through almost every decision, we pray together, talk through issues, hold each other accountable and strive to speak with one voice so that everything flows from a fidelity to our mission as a parish. We’ve worked hard to create a team that can fill the gaps priests used to do (for good and ill): counseling, budgeting, practical concerns and all the other things, not just for the practical limitations, but because too much power in the hands of anyone is corrosive to the soul.
The fruits of this are hard for some of you; change is always tough. I know that the folks saying “No” on my behalf get talked about and yelled at. It breaks my heart. But all of this is to move us from an understanding of the Pastor as CEO and/or Supreme Dictator into an understanding of the Pastor as a minister of the sacraments, a teacher and servant.
In the end each activity at our parish happens in a context of an amazingly complicated reality: it’s never as easy as it looks. Our mission is to worship God, care for the poor and vulnerable and to bring people to Christ. That’s it. Between my two parishes, we have over ten hours of confessions a week, we celebrate Mass 14 times, plus any weddings and funerals. We are daily running to the hospitals to be with people as they die and to pray with those who are sick. I absolutely love it and thank Jesus every day that this is what he made me for.
So many of you have made it so easy. You’ve allowed me to be a priest and to share power so that I can be an effective priest. I am so grateful. It is my deep conviction that this vision of Priesthood that is emerging is more closely aligned with the life of Jesus and is good for all involved. Some priests have the time and skills to be counselors, some do not. Some have the time and skill to teach, others do not. One thing every priest can and must do is focus on the Sacraments and Personal Holiness. So, that’s it. I can’t believe Jesus lets me do this and I can’t believe how ridiculously blessed I feel to serve you. You are all a light in my life and I can’t wait to see what fruit our upcoming years together bring.
Priesthood is so much more life giving, challenging and wonderful than I ever could have dreamed and a big part of that is because of you.
With all my heart, thank you.
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