WONDERING GURU
(An unbiased reflection on the weaknesses
of a Catholic Priest)
Pope Benedict XVI
declared 2009 as the “Year for Priests”. With the announcement of the Year for
Priests, the Pope declared St. John M. Vianney as the Universal Patron of
Priests on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the death of the Curé
d’Ars. The year concluded in Rome with an international gathering of priests
with the Holy Father on June 19, 2010. I had the privilege of participating in
the closing ceremony in Rome.
A priest plays a very
crucial role in the life of a Catholic. Off
late there have been attacks on the priests. I thought of reflecting on the
life of a priest. Without passing any judgement, I would like you to journey
with me in discovering the personality of a priest. Libraries all over the world are full of
books glorifying the vocation and mission and also the achievements of
priests. Conversely if not books there
may be equal number of articles in various magazines denouncing and condemning
priests. In every walk of life there is always the positive and the negative
aspect. The dualism of life is here to
stay with us.
Where do we begin our
reflection? Yes! We go to the beginnings
of the priesthood; the primitive Church.
Jesus chose twelve men. These twelve
had three years of experience with the living historical Jesus. These twelve witnessed first-hand, the power
and glory of Jesus. They touched Jesus,
they hugged and kissed Jesus, they walked with Jesus, they talked and listened
to the great Master. Inspite of walking
with the Son of God, their life was not one of commitment and total
dedication. You know the gospels. One who was supposed to be rock and
foundation betrayed him three times another sold him for 30 silver pieces,
while the rest abandoned their master when he really needed them at Calvary.
After all a friend in need is a friend indeed. Why such a behaviour from the
first followers of Christ? The answer is
in human nature. Human nature does not
want to die. There is deep seated need
in all of us to protect ourselves in the face of danger. We don’t mind others dying but we take all
precautions to save ourselves. Human
nature by birth is self-preservative.
This self-centeredness goes back to the book of Genesis. The first man Adam was in the company of God
himself. He talked and walked with
God. He experienced such tremendous love
of God and yet he too was selfish. He
wanted to be like God. We link this
human selfishness to original sin. Man
is saved from original sin through baptism but the effects of original sin are
still pulling him down.
So now the question is if
Adam who saw God face to face, if the twelve who saw Jesus face to face and
experienced His great power and glory found it difficult to be faithful to God
should we think it is easy for today’s priests who have not seen the physical historical
presence of Jesus to be 100% faithful. From
the Apostles let us go to the successors of the first Pope. In the past 2000 years we have had 266
popes. Were all of them 100% faithful?
Should we naively believe that the moment a cardinal becomes a pope all his
worldly and sensual desires suddenly disappear? Off course there have been
abuses in the mighty Vatican which led to the protestant revolution. So, if you think the Catholic Church is
undergoing the worst phase of its existence you are wrong. The Middle Ages were the worst. What has aggravated the situation today?
A priest falling in love
with a woman is understandable, after all love is pure and natural. People may tolerate and forgive. Everyone is human and everyone is hungry for
love. Many Catholics even the strong traditional ones are in favour of priests
being allowed to marry since chastity is human law and not a divine law. I am not advocating or promoting priestly
marriage. Even if I do it will never
happen so soon. We do not know what decisions the Church will take in the future. I am trying to peep into the life of a priest
and how the world looks at him. People
may differ on the issue of priest falling in love with a woman but they are
unanimous in denouncing a paedophile priest or a homosexual priest. No one can tolerate crimes against innocent
children. Homosexual priests may be
tolerated in the various protestant sects. As of now there is no place for
homosexual priests in the Catholic Church.
Financial and sexual
abuses have always been around in the Church. These are the two favourite areas
of attack of the Devil. But off late we
hear too much about these scandals and abuses. How come?
I think there are two principal causes.
The role of the media-Today
the media is so very powerful. It has
become extremely potential not only because of advanced technology but also
because of immoral ways of journalism. Today’s media is hungry for scandals in
order to survive in the business. For
them being number one news channel is more important than respecting the
privacy and dignity of others. More than the main stream media the private use
of social media is become more dangerous.
Priests/nuns/church are condemned online without a second thought. Private social media is now the new
court. Judgement is passed without any
investigation or evidence.
The role of education-Gone
are the days when the lay faithful were poor and illiterate. They looked to priests who were well educated
to guide them and help them. The
illiterate simply swallowed and digested whatever the priest said. Today people
can think for themselves and make their own decisions. Secularism has crept in and religion has
taken a back seat. People do not easily
accept what the Church says. When the
Church said that contraception and abortion are bad people retorted “why are
the priests preaching in our bedroom?” Who listens and who cares? Pope may shout from the pinnacle of St.
Peter’s but all the faithful down below are busy with their mobiles. Since materialism and secularism are ahead in
the race, religion is losing its respect.
The victim is the church and the priest is the soft target. They love reading and circulating weaknesses
of the priests. As the wondering Guru I always wonder if the same people who circulate
weaknesses and scandals of the priests would be quick to circulate the sins and
scandals of their own families or of their cousins on social media?
So, what shall we do
now? Since weakness is a strong part of
our human existence should we allow the abuses to continue? If priests are allowed to marry, will it
solve the problem? To understand this dilemma,
we need to begin with the right understanding of the Church. Church does not signify only clergy (Thanks
to the Vatican Council II the lay faithful have found their place back in the
Church). Church is not just buildings. Church consists of all the three important
elements viz. the clergy, the faithful and also the buildings, although the
first two are the most important. As a Church both the elements march together
on a spiritual journey. The spiritual
journey towards the kingdom of God is same though the roles are different. In this journey we need to help each other,
understand each other and pray for each other.
We are a family and as a family we need to work like a family and
protect each other like a family. Pope
is not the head of this family. It is
Jesus Christ and the Pope is only His representative. So, our role model is Jesus not the Pope or
the Bishop or the Priest. We cannot and
should not seek perfection in them. If
no man is perfect and if all of us are weak it is naive to seek perfection in
the clergy. Abandoning the Church or
losing faith in the Church is not a good sign of a mature Christian. St.
Francis de Sales would call such an act as a ‘spiritual suicide’. Allowing
scandals in the Church, to destroy one’s faith is indeed spiritual
suicide. Do you know who is a mature
Christian? A mature Christian is one who sees things as they are. A mature Christian is one who goes beyond his/er
emotions and feelings. A mature
Christian is one who is slow to judge and quick to understand. If you still have not understood about
‘mature Christian’ let me, explain with an incident.
Once, one of the brothers
of St. Francis of Assisi the founder of Franciscans asked him a question.
"Br. Francis," he said, "What would you do if you knew that the
priest celebrating Mass was a sinner?" Francis, without missing a beat,
said slowly, "When it is time for Holy Communion, I would go to receive
the Sacred Body of my Lord from the priest's anointed hands." What was
Francis getting at? He was simply saying, who are we to judge? Let us leave that work to God. Do you remember the parable of the adulterous
woman? There is a humorous side to this
parable from the point of view of the heavenly father. Jesus saw a crowd
chasing down a woman to stone her and approached them. “What’s going on here,
anyway?” he asked. “This woman was found committing adultery and the law says
we should stone her!” one among the crowd responded. “Wait,” yelled Jesus, “Let
he who is without sin cast the first stone.” Suddenly, a stone was thrown out
from the sky, and knocked the woman down. “Aw, c’mon, Father …” Jesus cried,
“I’m trying to make a point here!” Let
us leave it to God the father to cast the first stone. It is His work. He has clearly told us “Do not judge and you
will not be judged.” This is a truth of the faith.
Jesus said all those without sin cast the
first stone. Did anyone cast the stone?
No. Jesus was without sin. Did he cast the stone? No. He said sin no more. Why the people did not cast the stone on the
adulterous woman? It is obvious that
they were sinners. Do you know, who are
the first today, to cast the stone on the priests/nuns/bishops/Pope? The sinners themselves. There is particular type of breed of ‘stone throwers’. The breed of those who never help the
Church. The only work they do is the
work of criticizing and gossiping. They behave like human CCTV cameras. They
keep an eye on their priests 24x7.
Normally those who are
trying to be holy, do not indulge in criticism
or gossip. They know that life of
holiness is very difficult. Those who
are involved in sin are quick to throw the stones on the priest. I had an encounter with one such type of a
person. He would criticize the parish
priest, the bishop, the Pope and the Church.
He would accuse the priests and bishops for not living true life (true
according to his definition). When I
went to visit his house, I found him leaving alone. His wife and children preferred to live away
from him for they said he was a terrible, abusive father. He wanted to put his parish in order without putting
his house in order.
There are so many priests
who know that they are not perfect. They
know very well that they are weak yet they have a great desire to serve the
Church, to work in the vineyard of the Lord.
They help the poor silently, they comfort the disturbed, reach out to
the needy. But their weakness overshadows all the good they have done and are
doing. Life is always a struggle between
good and evil. Evil many times seems to
have the upper hand as we see in every walk of life.
Yes! there are abuses and scandals in the church but it
is vital to note that some priests and even bishops have been falsely accused
by the people with the aim of laying their hands on Church money. The Case of Cardinal Bernardin is in
point. In 1993 in New York, he came to
know that he was being falsely accused of sex abuse. This devastating news
devastated him. This troubled him so much that just thirteen days before his
death he published a book called “The Gift of Peace” explaining his pain and
suffering for being falsely accused. He
suffered but he forgave his accusers thereby experiencing peace. The book is the fruit of this peace.
In every case of abuse or scandal the
immediate reaction of people is anger and more anger. If the people had free hand, they might even
stone the priest to death. It would be a case of Capital punishment without
trial. Fury of the irrational and
uncontrollable crowd is terrible. But
let us analyse this issue through the eyes of Jesus. In the Old Testament times punishment for the
sin of adultery was death by stoning. In
the parable just mentioned above did Jesus stone the woman? He very gently said, woman you can go, sin no
more. Can the parishioners imitate this
kind gesture of Jesus? Can they say “father
you are forgiven sin no more?” Can the people leave the priest in the hands of
the bishop to help him with counselling and rehabilitation? A priest is a priest forever. So, the Bishop may try different methods to
help the priest overcome his problem. Many a times these methods are seen by
the public as protecting the criminal.
Another issue we need to
reflect upon is the leaders of Biblical times.
If you turn the pages of biblical history, we see God choosing
sinners. Moses was a murderer, Saul was
planning to kill, King David was an adulterer and a cold-blooded murderer? And
yet they are great role models of faith.
In spite of their terrible and unimaginable crimes, God chose them to be
leaders of the people. This act of God tells us two things; first that God has
a plan for us which we are not able to comprehend. God is not discouraged by
the failures of the chosen leaders. God
even uses such leaders to carry out His plan.
Remember the famous phrase “God writes straight on crooked lines”. One
of the reasons why God must be using so called fallen leaders is to tell us
that the whole work of salvation, belongs to God and not to man. There is a risk that man may claim glory to
himself because of his own righteous living.
Finally, I want to say
that if we want good priests, we need good families. Give to the Church good families, moral
families, praying families, loving and generous families and the Church in
return will give you good, praying, faithful and loving priests. Seminary
formation can do very little for the formation of priests. The mother and the father are the first Rector
or Director of a going to be seminarian.
Good seed will produce good harvest. The home is the nursery. Seminary is the transplantation of the seed.
If the sprout in the nursery is healthy and strong it will grow still stronger
in the seminary.
With this reflection in mind let us read once again
opinions about priests. Whoever coined
these expressions have captured the personality of a priest and the problem of
priesthood wonderfully well.
If
he is young, he lacks experience; If he is gray, he is too old;
If
he comes before time; he has no work; If he comes on time; he is negligent
If
he comes late; he is irresponsible;
If
he reads his homily, he has readymade sermons and is dry;
If
he is extemporaneous, he is not clear and prepared.
If
he spends too much time in study, he neglects his people;
If
he visits, he is a gallivanting.
If
he is attentive to the poor, he is playing to the grandstand;
If
to the wealthy, he is trying to be an aristocrat
If
he suggests improvement for the church, he is a dictator;
If
he makes no suggestions, he is a figurehead.
If
he uses too many illustrations, he neglects the Bible;
If
not enough, he is not clear
If
he condemns wrong, he is cranky; If he does not, he is a compromiser.
If
he preaches an hour, he is windy; If less, he is lazy.
If
he preaches the truth, he is offensive; If not, he is a hypocrite.
If
he fails to please everybody, he has no convictions.
If
he preaches tithing, he is a money grabber;
If
he does not, he is failing to develop his people.
If
he receives a large salary, he is a mercenary;
If
he receives a small salary, it proves he is not worth much.
If
he preaches all the time, the people get tired of hearing the man;
If
he invites guest preachers, he is shirking his responsibility. Yes! They say the priest has an easy time
If
he does not change; he is scared; If he changes, he is radical
If
he dresses well, he is trying to be a hero. If he dresses simple, he is shabby.
“A blot upon a layman’s coat is little seen, but a
spot upon an Alb cannot be hidden.”
- Cardinal Newman
