No organization in the world can sustain their effectiveness and attain their goals unless timely needed changes are adopted challenging the heresies infiltrated. Catholic Church in Kerala is no exception. The sudden untimely demise of priests is a harbinger not of ‘spring’.
By Raju G. Mendez
Explicably! about The Catholic Priests, Charles Dickens had prophesied in ‘A Tale of Two Cities’. A Juxtaposed picture!
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,
it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness,
it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair”
Grateful for my presence, a moment of recollection of several days we had once shared with each other of years gone by, Rev. Fr. Jose Prakash a sacerdote himself, seemed utterly drained out yet, not in a mood to have to explain to me everything then. A recollection of the green leaf he used to be, has wilted with ‘bad weather’ in the Catholic Church.
Clad in the priestly vestments, Fr. Jose Prakash (55)Fr. Benny Ennakkappalli (58) and Fr. Jagatheesh Immanuel(61) are only some among the seers in themselves of what was ‘outside of the physical world’, who gathered all their spiritual strength and concentrated with their last bit of energy, on the clergical responsibilities dealing with the devotees who thronged to them religiously in the name of Jesus Christ.
In a few months later including Rev. Fr. Jose Prakash, many other priests bought their way into heaven by good works, but ahead of their time, which is a tragedy indeed!
Peering more closely at the scenes, sad to say, the grim situation of the Church walls of hexagonal repository of ‘Pontifical Secrets ‘ are dropping down.
So, it is high time the Catholic Church went through a paradigm shift in training the young aspirants who are spiritually, mentally, and physically trained to become the guiding spirits of the society in the field of education, health, and the overall upliftment of the downtrodden in myriad ways and safeguarding its analogical ‘sheeps’ (priests) with all their dignity and nobility on an individual level.
Spiritually, Jesus Christ Himself being the first ‘Protagonist’ of theirs and Bishops, Senior priests, and Spiritual Fathers, who kept pace with Jesus Christ around all the time and would do exactly what He had told them to do in the empirical sphere, are revered secondarily as their sources of energy in the empirical level.
The Bible (most read book in the world) says, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45)
Fr. Jose Prakash particularly, served as a priest in the heritages Roman Catholic Diocese of Quilon known as the Kollam Diocese, the first Catholic diocese in India, established by Pope John XXII on August 9, 1329. It was re-erected on September 1, 1886. The diocese covers 1,950 square kilometers and has a population of 4,879,553.
“Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” (Mark9. 30-37)That is decidedly not the way things work in the world. People do not get ahead by making sure they are last in line. People do not rise to the top of the heap by making sure they have served everyone else first. This is not a pronouncement about human wisdom, it’s a pronouncement about the up-side down Kingdom of God.
All of them used to be extremely pleasant, presence of perpetually radiating spiritual energy, ever ready to do anything good for society by combining all their powers, selflessly ready to lose their own selves strictly devoted to the crucifixion of the Lord they represented.Such kind of priests they were till they succumbed to death due to sudden heart failure in their prime time of the fifties; normally an early demise for healthy, vibrant human beings. They used to be, friendly, compassionate, sharing, and caring. Enlightenment is a state of relaxed awareness, an inner state transcending identities of faith, nationality, or gender and beyond outer behavior. They all must have been enlightened!
But the pain, the feeling of losing them forever is so intense, so unbearable, that the reality of death, a dreamless darkness, one has to yield oneself over to it unwillingly though. Nevertheless, the terrain truth of still intensely being close to them spiritually never seems to lessen. Their’s were no so-called suicides materialistic of the bodies but were failures spiritual of hearts, meek and mild of the sheep.
It doesn’t take much imagination to recognize trouble brewing…!
St. Paul instructed his son in the priesthood, “Let no one despise your youth” (1 Tm 4:12); and so, it is discouraging to read that they see themselves not being respected, loved and, well taken care of, among themselves. A portent to the evil of destruction!
The most perilous of all, the lack of fraternity among the priests, which eats the camaraderie, a feeling of closeness and friendship among themselves who should share experiences or work together for a common goal, is the bane for all troubles. Among themselves some are not alert to feel the love, pains, struggles, passions, and worries of their fellow priests, not aware of the troubles around them to love, hear the painful sounds, listening to the dangerous calls. Rather they hypnotize themselves by listening to the thoughts in their own head, in a kind of trance, not aware of anything around them.
Ironically, there are young priests, still alive, blessed with the kind of grace and power never having fear for their own life but living for the fear of the upliftment of the downtrodden.
However, the priests, nearly one in five recently ordained are unhappy according to statements of CARA(Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate). The tragedy is that some dioceses regret nearly half of their young priests leave active ministry within a decade of their ordination.
There is a musty smell inside that the priests believe their seminary prepared them well merely for the most “priestly” aspects of their ministry like liturgy, preaching, and hearing confessions.
What makes the seminarians work on the wrong gardens, is its proclivity to stifle creativity or leadership unlike West Point as a model (not in terms of its discipline, which has eroded over the years, anyway) but in its raising up a generation of leaders. The result is the emergence of weak, ineffectual, effete, insecure young priests, unable to lead and afraid of their own shadow.1
A training, not allowing the fresh air to circulate, fails to store their minds widely with a large variety of facts, thoughts, stories and illustrations, and general information devoid of a realistic portrait of what their lives as priests would be inadequate in administrative and leadership skills; of not learning how to work with lay staff members and to minister to the laity well; and of not adequate time and mentoring in parishes and pastoral settings during their time in the seminary.2
Numerous priests expressed their resentments, that their seminary experience does not prepare them for the “real world” of diocesan and rectory living. They are least well prepared for are all related to administration, human resources, and leadership as well as preparing couples for marriage; ministering in multi-cultural or multi-linguistic settings; handling stress or managing their time; and having the kind of practical knowledge that would have really helped them with the realities of parish life.3
In a nutshell, being altruistic in nature, it is never supposed to be Clericalism, the practice of maintaining or increasing the power of a religious hierarchy, or the application of church-based leadership in political, sociocultural, or other contexts to appreciate (and even expect) respect from those they serve.
As they are not being given a realistic portrait of what their lives as priests would be like; inadequate training in administrative and leadership skills; not learn how to work with lay staff members and to minister to the laity well; and, receive inadequate time and mentoring in parishes and pastoral settings during their time in the seminary, four in five out of them, being satisfied with their life as a priest (59% “very satisfied” and 22% “somewhat satisfied”). One in five are unsatisfied (6% “somewhat dissatisfied” and 13% “very dissatisfied”) from the research by the NEWSPOLITIK.COM
Yet another reason is the poor relationship they maintain with the pastors under whom they serve.
‘A Tiger for Malgudy’ by RK Narayan says, the tiger being allotted the privilege of an end-cage,cub-hood carefree like humans, the tiger started thinking of himself as the ‘King of the Forest’ but finally through hardships in the Circus company, got itself enlightened a monk. Creatures other than human beings can be a choice of a subject for fiction- writers to convince human beings of their agonies to attain enlightenment.
A pastor is a shepherd who leads as he doesn’t have to follow. At the same time, he can’t be a dictator, as he should consult the experts and learn to make a final say or take an ultimate decision in everything.
Presbyterate. The presbyterate is another term used to refer to the sacerdotal collegiality of priests with their bishop, commonly used in the Anglican Communion. Spelling that out a bit, we learn that the sheep do not feel supported or welcomed by the pastors who are supposed to mentor them. They are neither endorsed by their bishops and diocesan leaders nor by their fellow priests who are assigned to do it for the common purpose of meeting their noble goals. Moreover, the practice of giving unfair preferential treatment to one person or group at the expense of another would vehemently deny the rights of the most deserving by showing favoritism towards one in particular.
Furthermore, tensions between younger and older priests lead to yet another disaster. This is not simply a matter of taste – like one priest preferring a “fiddleback” chasuble and the other a Gothic chasuble. The external differences most frequently signal major theological differences. The laity, exposed to the ministries of Father Junior and Father Senior, will often comment that it is like beholding two different churches or religions: in the ars celebrandi, preaching style and content, confessional and counseling praxis.
Although this is painful for Father Junior at the moment, he should be consoled by the actuarial data: Once Father Senior goes off to pasture, he has no priestly descendants. The present sorrow, however, is exacerbated by the “Francis effect.” Several priests in the study identified Pope Francis as a problem for them. This is a regrettable refrain among all too many young priests and seminarians.
MUTATIS MUTANDIS (Latin)
The presumption is that every cadet is going to be a general someday. That would argue for every seminarian being trained to become an Episcopose-Greek-for Bishop– but that is not what happens. In truth, instead of creating shepherd leaders, the average seminary training produces sheep followers.
“Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” (Mark9. 30-37)That is decidedly not the way things work in the world. People do not get ahead by making sure they are last in line. People do not rise to the top of the heap by making sure they have served everyone else first. This is not a pronouncement about human wisdom, it’s a pronouncement about the up-side down Kingdom of God.
Woefully, another burden on their head due to weak training is, performing administrative and human resource duties- again a battlefield of lack of leadership skills that challenge them. Now the question is how far they have equipped themselves in a variety of specific areas.
In addition, many reports reveal that they do not feel their dioceses or religious institutes, are thoughtful about assigning them to initial assignments that will provide them with the mentoring and support they need during the initial years after being ordained as priests.
Yet another area of difficulty is the “generation gap” between the junior and senior clergy. Many are torn apart between feeling burned out from their workload and their frustrations with their senior priests and Bishops. Slowly but surely, frustration sets in and compensation mechanisms surface, most often in passive-aggressive behaviors translating into simply going along to get along.
Truth be told, given the formation path of most seminaries today, one should doubt if a single Father of the Church would have ever been ordained a priest, let alone consecrated a bishop, insecure young priest, unable to lead and afraid of his own shadow.
LONELINESS!
For those ever having considered leaving the priesthood, loneliness is a primary factor, followed by frustration with their diocese, religious institute, bishop, or superior and the disappointment they feel in regard to their current ministries.
The life of a loner. A formula for disaster! If a young man enters the seminary right out of high school, he will have eight, ten, or twelve years of communal living: prayers, meals, and recreation – with contemporaries. However, upon ordination, he is condemned to live the life of a loner, for the most part.
After ordination, sad to say, it is a rare rectory where there are no meals or prayers in common. Furthermore, the newly ordained is inserted into a living situation with a pastor who may be decades older than he. While that need not be an insurmountable obstacle, it often is such because the older cleric frequently espouses theological positions foreign to the young man, who is generally exponentially more traditional than his elder – which makes for major conflicts which, in turn, usually results in the transfer of the junior. If the Church deems it necessary to maintain the seminary system, necessarily the rectory system should be changed.
Pope Francis said “I wish you to be shepherds with ‘the smell of the sheep'”, repeating once again the analogy he used in his homily at the Chrism Mass on March 28, 2013, a fortnight after his election.
In fact, most rectories are little more than clerical hotels. Many priests (living in a rectory with five priests in residence) joke among themselves that the only time they see another priest is when one of them assists him with the distribution of Holy Communion.
Worse than the hotel scenario is a priest living alone. The Book of Genesis clearly teaches us that “it is not good for man to live alone” (2:18). That doesn’t mean one must be married (there are many married folks who live solitary existences); it does mean that the human person, by his very nature, is a social being.
All too many priests are paradoxically quite content to live alone, which opens the door to the development of all kinds of personality disorders: alcoholism, sexual issues, gambling, and narcissism. No bishop should ever permit a priest to live alone; it is a formula for disaster. Undoubtedly, someone will raise the problem of small rural parishes requiring only a single priest. Yes, but clerical residences should be established for multiple pastors, giving the men the benefit of community life and allowing them to “fan out” to their respective parishes for pastoral service. We should hasten to add that these need to be “intentional” communities; that is, men coming together to live who share a common vision of Church and priesthood; otherwise, it will be no better than the current rectory system, where men are usually plopped into the same dwelling on the (erroneous) assumption that all men who wear Roman collars are the same.4
On the financial compensation front, most indicated they were not experiencing any serious difficulties. Not surprisingly, religious order priests were very satisfied with their situation – and why not, when all of one’s needs are taken care of? However, as diocesan priests get older and closer to retirement, the financial reality begins to hit them harder. When a bishop retires, he is provided with diocesan housing, a pension, a car, a housekeeper/secretary, and a diocesan credit card; when a priest retires, he has a pension and social security, period.
Admittedly, men don’t embark on the priesthood with a view to becoming millionaires, but Our Lord did say that “the laborer deserves his wages” (Lk 10:7).
When asked, a bishop a number of days ago why his priests were among the worst paid in the nation, he replied: “Keep them poor; keep control.” A shocking response, if not brutally honest, Which leads to an underlying problem, alluded to several times in the anecdotes.5 All too many priests do not trust their bishops and diocesan officials. They do not believe that the people in charge have their best interests at heart; they see assignments made solely on the basis of pragmatic concerns – filling a slot, with no attention given to the priest himself. Not a few report that even the pastors to whom they are assigned have nothing to do with them and don’t even like them. One priest complained that, after a mere 18 months’ ordination, he was given charge of three parishes! Who in his right mind would ever place a newly ordained in such peril?
Of course, the clergy shortage has created another difficulty, namely, that young priests are being assigned pastorates way too early and without proper mentoring. In the “bad old days,” it was quite common (particularly in larger dioceses) that a priest wouldn’t become a pastor for at least 25 years (probably a bit too long), but now it is quite common for a priest of three to five years to be thrust into a leadership position for which he is manifestly unprepared and unqualified.
Do these young clerics promote priestly vocations? Bad morale can’t be fertile soil for encouraging others to join the ranks. Yet, historically, young priests were the most likely to serve as the first-line recruiters to attract other young men.
However, the drawbacks pointed to do not exist in every priest or even in a majority of priests, but they are real enough that a substantial percentage of junior clergy regret their decision to enter the priesthood – and that certainly has a ripple effect on those who have no such regrets. Further, there are surely good seminaries (and all of them are certainly better than any my generation knew), however, even though they are preparing men for a priesthood they will rarely live once they leave those hallowed halls.
The biggest takeaway from these observations is that the Church needs to make a fundamental decision – sooner rather than later – to change the priestly preparation structure or change the priesthood on the ground.
Let us incline to ‘You Are A Priest Forever’, a song by Brian Flynn
“You are a priest forever
In the line of Melchizedek
Consecrated to the service of the Lord
To sit at his right-hand
You are a priest forever
In the line of Melchizedek
In persona Christi ad majorem Dei gloriam
Totus tuus, amen
Beneath the mantle of your mother
Who intercedes on your behalf
In the arms of your father
Who holds you in the palm of his hand
You are a priest forever
In the line of Melchizedek
Consecrated to the service of the Lord
To sit at his right-hand
You are a priest forever
In the line of Melchizedek
In persona Christi ad majorem Dei gloriam
Totus tuus, amen
Lord, pour out upon this servant
Your Holy Spirit from above
The grace and power of your priesthood
And your unfailing love
May the anointing of the Lord be upon your brow today
May the oil of gladness flow from Heaven above
And may the olive branch of peace be raised in your right hand
That you might show the saving power of his love
You are a priest forever
In the line of Melchizedek
Consecrated to the service of the Lord
To sit at his right-hand
You are a priest forever
In the line of Melchizedek
In persona Christi ad majorem Dei gloriam
Totus tuus! “
( About the Author: Raju G. Mendez is a language and life skills trainer, writer, and Journalist based in Thiruvananthapuram.)
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (CENTER FOR APPLIED RESEARCH IN THE APOSTOLATE – CARA )
