Raising Leaders for Our Church: Moving Beyond Excuses

There are several things I have a deep passion for doing.  Outside of hiking, all of the rest are related to my life as a priest.  I am sure you all have caught on that I have a passion for evangelization, education, preaching, the formation of our youth, and sacraments.  Over the years, these passions have grown.  I do not see them subsiding any time soon.  In fact, I see them growing.

               There is one passion that I also spend a great deal of time on: the finding, encouraging, and nurturing of priestly vocations.  This is not to the detriment of marriage and religious life (also considered to be vocations by the Church), but is a response to a dire need that continues to grow and become more acute.  The bottom line is that we do not have the number of priests we need to serve the people we must serve.  

Better to Light a Candle than to Curse the Darkness

               There is a need, by many, to find blame.  I am not sure how effective this is.  Heaven knows I have engaged in plenty of it myself.  Some blame the culture while others blame who the Church will and will not ordain.  Some blame the scandals of recent years while others blame the changes of Vatican II or its implementation.  Some blame smaller families with which to draw from while others blame the waning importance of faith at all in our youth.  All might have merit to some extent, but I am not sure how this helps.  Blaming the fall of something on someone hardly fixes the problem.

               Identifying a problem and its causes can only go so far.  We can curse the darkness all we want.  It does not bring light.   It does not solve the problem.  It is a waste of time if left to itself. 

               I am all about fixing the problem.

               How is that done?

What do We Need?

               First, let’s identify what is actually needed.  What is the role of a priest?  If we get a handle on that, perhaps we can identify what to do.

               A Catholic priest, at least as envisioned by the Church, is one who selflessly serves in imitation of Christ is a very specific way.  His life is totally dedicated to the service of the People of God by bringing God in concrete form to them through the Sacraments and his ability to rightly shepherd.  He is to be a leader.  The nature of his calling necessitates a man who will be bold, strong, forthright, and courageous.  He possesses the same marks that make for a good husband and dad.  Like a good husband, he is totally faithful to his spouse.  A priest’s spouse is the Church.  He watches over her, protects, provides, and places himself between whatever would seek to harm his spouse and his spouse.  Like a good dad, he is meticulous about the formation of his children; he watches over them, provides the best he can, and shows his children how much he loves his wife.    That a young man would feel a draw to marriage and family life is not a sign that he is not called to priesthood, in fact, if he had no draw to this ,  that should be of some concern!

               One of the reasons the Church mandates her clergy be celibate is so that each priest may model that marital relationship Christ has with His Church.  His selflessness is to be a model of the selflessness of Jesus Christ.  Married men exhibit that same nobility in how they are faithful and selfless within the context of their relationship with their wife; priests are to show that on a bigger scale.  This isn’t to say it cannot be done by married men, for there are a few married Roman Catholic priests and the Eastern Rites have some married clergy, though bishops must be celibate in those rites.  However, the Roman Church asks for her clergy to show an absolute devotion to the Church and to treat those whom he serves as his family.  This is not some hallmark cliché, but a deep reality so very needed. Just like children need to see their dad love their mom with a selfless love, so parishioners need to see a pastor who loves the Church with that same selfless love.

Lighting Candles

 

               Over the years, I have tried to come up with ways to address this.  Part of this has been how I try to be a pastor.  Part of it is found in the development of leaders.  I spend time in the school, especially with the upper grades to encourage leadership potential.  It is not that I think every one of them is called to priesthood or religious life (most are called to marriage), but to build that necessary foundation needed to execute any vocation in a Godly way.  I founded Camp Maccabee as a way of encouraging the life of selfless leadership and virtue to strengthen the foundation for future husbands, dads, and priests. I encourage our students to service.  The key to strong and courageous leaders will be found in a willingness to be selfless when it comes to God and others and to be obedient to the will of God.

               We need to do this.  Time has run out for us to kick this can any further down the road.  For example, my diocese of Jefferson City has some very hard choices to make in the coming months because we are in trouble when it comes to the number of priests.  Keeping the current trajectory, we will lose 1/3 of the active priests in this diocese (already insufficient to the task) due to aging and retirement.  We currently have 8 seminarians spread throughout 8 years of seminary. As seminary is not preordination to the priesthood (50% of seminarians do not get ordained), we would need a pool of 35 to 40 seminarians each year over the next 8 years just to keep the inadequate status quo.   If we were to keep that level, it would take well over a decade to get ahead. 

               What will we need?  I can tell you this isn’t a matter of getting warm bodies in the seminary.  There is a specific type we are looking for.  We need young men who will aspire to the heroic.  We need strong and courageous young men who will be heroic in their will to serve God’s people.  We aren’t looking for social misfits and young men that can’t get a date.  Because the necessities of the priesthood are what they are, we need young men who will selflessly engage, who can effectively relate the truth  of the Gospel in its fullness, and who are willing to have the constitution of a soldier in their willingness to forego luxury in this lifetime for the sake of the Kingdom of God!  If I were a bishop, these would be the young men I would want. 

Making Candles to be Lit

               I believe that leaders are not born.  I believe they are made.  I believe that any person can be molded to find their strengths, can be taught to rise above their limitations and weaknesses, and can be given the tools necessary to be successful in whatever vocation God calls them.  I recognize that most of these young men and women are called to live this life boldly and selflessly as married people.  This is not a lesser vocation by any means.  However, some these young men are called to priesthood.  Our not supporting this has had and will continue to have dire consequences for many parishes.

               If we want these leaders, we must invest ourselves in it.  Do our parishes and their families invest?  On the parishes' part, they must develop their education and formation to promote the kind of leaders that are needed.  Too often, we  rely on the trite and the fun to draw our youth in but leave them hanging with little substance.  We focus too much on the emotional many times.  Leaders are not created by being perpetually entertained!  We can't come across as lightweights.

              Why?

              Because their coaches do not if they want successful teams.  Their bosses don't if they want successful businesses.  Their teachers don't if they want successful students.  If we are going to convince parents that investing their children's time with us is worthwhile, we have to be solid and produce results!  

             Parents, by the same token, you must demand what is solid, lead what is solid, invest in what is solid, and model for your kids the kind of selfless service that is needed.  You are responsible before God for what you taught just as I am.  You are responsible before God whether your child found His will or was dissuaded from it.  Having the leaders we need, lay and cleric, are as much in your best interest as they are mine.

No More Merely Cursing the darkness

               Laying blame for how we got here serves no useful purpose.  It only serves to wash our hands of responsibility.  Complaining about where we are also serves no useful purpose.  Complaining only serves to keep us in a woeful status quo.  Waiting for pristine conditions to come about before we act also serves no useful purpose; no institution has ever been reformed or improved from the outside.  Waiting for pristine conditions is little more than excusing ourselves from the hard and necessary work at hand.  What is needed is none of these things, but a willingness to change the trajectory by changing our actions to be in focus with the plan of Christ and His Church. 

               The time for excuses is long past.  the time for forthright action and brave selflessness is at hand!