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PRIESTLY ROLE & IDENTITY
BY THE MOST REV TIMOTHY DOLAN ARCHBISHOP OF MILWAUKEE USA
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In practice, my brothers, this means we cannot “leave” the priesthood or quit being a priest, any more that your father can stop “being” your father. The priesthood is forever.
Now most of us know a priest who has left the active ministry. The Church’s insistence on the perpetual nature of priestly identity, and my dwelling upon it, is in no way a judgement upon those many men who have left priestly life. Two of the most eloquent explanations of the eternal dimension of priestly identity I have ever heard came from two friends of mine who have both been dispensed of their priestly obligations and are now active and prominent laymen in the Church. So do not interpret my words as some chastisement of these good men.
But, no matter how many leave, no matter how many criticize, no matter how many scandals there may be, the priesthood is still forever. It is a complete, lifelong commitment to Christ and his Church.
I hope this is obvious to you, but we can take nothing for granted: if any of you look at the priesthood as less than a lifelong, absolute pledge of one’s whole being to Christ and his Church, as simply a ministry that can be left if one becomes frustrated, or a productive way to spend some years in service to people until one wants to pursue another career, please realize that such is not the mind of the Church!
How else can I say it? The priesthood is forever! How we live the priesthood, where we are assigned, what we do – all these things will certainly change, but our priestly identity will never change. The priesthood is eternal.
If that frightens you or causes you awe, good! A seminary exists to make sure that you can freely, deliberately, joyfully say the “yes” that lasts forever. God forbid anyone would take that lightly!
It is good for me to be up front about one of the great temptations of seminary life, namely to drift into the priesthood. Our decision for priesthood, our conviction that the Lord is calling me to serve him and his Church forever as a priest, must be clear, enthusiastic, deliberate, and free. We do not become priests to please Mom, Grandma, the bishop, the diocese, or anybody else; we become priests because we have prayerfully and rationally discerned God’s call, we have carefully tested that call, and we now freely and joyfully embrace it. To sustain a lifelong commitment to our priestly vocation will be next to impossible if we simply float into it. We do not become priests simply because something better has not come along. If we do, guess what? Something or someone better will come along one day, and then we’re in trouble.
How can it happen that a man will go through the seminary and then, a few years after ordination, leave? That happens, as you well know. Why? Because issues are not faced in the seminary, such as serious doubts, sins, emotional problems, personal difficulties – and they are bound to surface later.
That’s why seminaries have spiritual directors, psychiatrists, formation advisers, clear community expectations, annual evaluations, retreats, supervised pastoral service, etc. – because the call to priesthood is so total, so forever, that one must be confident and clear about it.
Everything we do at the North American College is directed to the priesthood. We begin the year with ordination to the diaconate; the presence and example of devoted priest-faculty members, fifth-year men fresh from ordination, priests on sabbatical; the ministries of lector and acolyte the closing banquet when the vice-rector reads the list of those leaving “to preach the Gospel” – constant focus on the priesthood.
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