The Holy Father has recently (19 June) inaugurated a “Year for Priests” in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the death of John Mary Vianney, the patron saint of parish priests worldwide. This year is meant to deepen the commitment of all priests to interior renewal for the sake of a more forceful and incisive witness to the Gospel in today’s world.
Speaking during last Wednesday’s general audience, Pope Benedict XVI said that the aim of the Year for Priests is to support each priest’s struggle towards spiritual perfection, “upon which the effectiveness of his ministry particularly depends”, and to help priests, and with them the entire People of God, to rediscover and revive an awareness of the extraordinary and indispensable gift of Grace which the ordained ministry represents, for the person who receives it, for the entire Church, and for the world which would be lost without the real presence of Christ.
“Although the historical and social conditions in which the ‘Cure of Ars’ worked have changed, it is right to ask how priests can imitate him by identifying themselves with their ministry in modern globalised societies. In a world in which the common view of life leaves ever less space for the sacred, in place of which ‘functionality’ becomes the only decisive category, the Catholic concept of priesthood could risk losing its due regard, sometimes even in the ecclesial conscience,” said the Holy Father.
Benedict XVI identified two conceptions of the priesthood: On the one hand, a social-functional conception which identifies the essence of priesthood with the concept of ‘service’. On the other hand there is a sacramental-ontological conception which sees priestly ministry as determined by a gift called Sacrament, granted by the Lord through the mediation of the Church.
The Holy Father also addressed a letter to all the priests of the world. The letter is primarily a reflection on the teaching and example of St John Mary Vianney, who before being sent to take care of the small parish of Ars, then a village of 230 persons, was warned by his bishop that there he would find religious practice in a sorry state: “There is little love of God in that parish; you will be the one to put it there”.
The Pope tells priests that the teaching and example of St John Mary Vianney can serve as a significant point of reference “for us all”. The Cure of Ars was quite humble, yet as a priest he was conscious of being an immense gift to his people. He knew that, “a good shepherd, a pastor after God’s heart, is the greatest treasure which the good Lord can grant to a parish, and one of the most precious gifts of divine mercy”. He spoke of the priesthood as if incapable of fathoming the grandeur of the gift and task entrusted to a human creature.
“In his time the Cure of Ars was able to transform the hearts and the lives of so many people”, writes the Pope, “because he enabled them to experience the Lord’s merciful love. Our own time urgently needs a similar proclamation and witness to the truth of Love. Thanks to the Word and the Sacraments of Jesus, John Mary Vianney built up his flock, although he often trembled from a conviction of his personal inadequacy, and desired more than once to withdraw from the responsibilities of the parish ministry out of a sense of his unworthiness. Nonetheless, with exemplary obedience he never abandoned his post, consumed as he was by apostolic zeal for the salvation of souls.”
The Cure of Ars sought to remain completely faithful to his own vocation and mission through the practice of an austere asceticism: “The great misfortune for us parish priests – he lamented – is that our souls grow tepid”; meaning by this that a pastor can grow dangerously inured to the state of sin or of indifference in which so many of his flock are living. He himself kept a tight rein on his body, with vigils and fasts, lest it rebel against his priestly soul. Nor did he avoid self-mortification for the good of the souls in his care and as a help to expiating the many sins he heard in confession. To a priestly confrere he explained: “I will tell you my recipe: I give sinners a small penance and the rest I do in their place”.
The Pope’s letter to priests states that, aside from the actual penances which the Cure of Ars practised, “the core of his teaching remains valid for each of us: souls have been won at the price of Jesus’ own blood, and a priest cannot devote himself to their salvation if he refuses to share personally in the “precious cost” of redemption.”
In today’s world, as in the troubled times of the Cure of Ars, the lives and activity of priests need to be distinguished by a forceful witness to the Gospel, said the Holy Father. “Lest we experience existential emptiness and the effectiveness of our ministry be compromised, we need to ask ourselves ever anew: ‘Are we truly pervaded by the Word of God? Is that Word truly the nourishment we live by, even more than bread and the things of this world? Do we really know that Word? Do we love it? Are we deeply engaged with this Word to the point that it really leaves a mark on our lives and shapes our thinking?’. Just as Jesus called the Twelve to be with Him, and only later sent them forth to preach, so too in our days priests are called to assimilate that ‘new style of life’ which was inaugurated by the Lord Jesus and taken up by the Apostles.
Benedict XVI is hoping that the Year for Priests may lead all the clergy to identify themselves completely with Christ who died and rose again, so that, imitating St John the Baptist, they may be ready ‘to diminish’ that He may grow; and that, following the example of the Cure of Ars, they may be constantly and profoundly aware of their mission, which is both sign and presence of the infinite mercy of God”.
Charles Buttigieg is the former Curia press relations officer