Thursday, July 15, 2004
Priests: Professionally Competent or Spiritually Savvy?
Ideally both. But I'm concerned with a few things I read about the disdain for priests who take some care (or pride) in being competent in what they do -- counseling, liturgy, preaching, for example.
A parish priest should be more of a jack-of-all-trades than a specialist. Specialists have their role in the Body. Musicians play. Counsellors listen. Preachers preach. Administrators bug us about budgets and stewardship. Sometimes a priest needs to be able to handle lots of things reasonably well. Not only should he work on things he knows little about, but he should also be able to allow parishioners to take pride in his specialty, and work to improve it. ("Our priest is so good as a confessor." "Father Joe makes religion so understandable when he teaches.")
I've known a few clergy who seem to rest content on their spiritual bearing. I think this is a grave error. Holy people belong in religious communities so they can support and be supported by preachers, teachers, bookkeepers, and the rest. Even there they shouldn't be exempt from contributing to the good of the community. But passive individuals, inspirational as they might be, rarely have the charism to be a pastor, much less a parish priest. You don't have to be a priest to be a holy and spiritual person. (If you did, women would be ordained.) But if you want to be a priest, you should be ready to work hard improving your talents, shoring up weak areas, and paying little mind to those who say that priests belittle their vocation by attending to professional skills.
Every baptized person is called to holiness and deep spirituality. One would hope that such holiness and spirituality is already well-practiced by the time a person enters seminary. Anything less is a gamble with both the resources of the school and diocese, and possibly a waste of time for the candidate. But that doesn't mean a good priest can't accept his own God-given talents, develop them, and utilize them for the Gospel. To do otherwise would be ... sacrilegious.
