Snapd
ragon
THE P RTAL
March 2014
Page 5
The ‘cure of souls’
Iconsider myself
to be very fortunate in the priests who served the Anglican
parish where I grew up. One in particular, who sadly died last month, in his own quiet way
taught me the Catholic faith and is in no small part responsible for me being where I am now.
What I’ve realised since his death
is that much of what he taught me
came not through his words – I
can’t remember a single sermon he
ever preached, in fact – but through
his pastoral ministry, the way he
went about his business of being a
parish priest. His understanding of
his parochial ministry as the ‘cure
of souls’ seems rather quaint and
outmoded nowadays when we talk more of ‘viable
congregations’ and ‘mass centres’ than we do souls.
pastoral visit not unexpected
But to Father the care and nourishment and spiritual
health of the individual person was the bread and butter
of his ministry. There were times when he should have
been more attentive to his own needs and health, as
well as to the gifts that the laity might contribute to the
pastoral care of the parish, but Father simply wanted to
know his people and to make himself available to them.
of the diminishing number of priests.
Positively, there is also a much better and healthier
use of the pastoral gifts of the people alongside those
of the priest. But when, as a priest, you are so busy that
you meet yourself coming back, yet haven’t the time
to meet with your people for a chat or for spiritual
direction, something is surely wrong.
When a priest is unable to be the pastor he ought, and
presumably would like, to be to his people, the Church
has a problem. When our parish churches become,
as one neighbouring priest put it recently, little more
than ‘sacrament factories’, there has to be a concern.
people deserve shepherds
Of course, it is in the administration of the
sacraments, especially standing at the altar celebrating
the Eucharist, that the priest is most effectively Christ
the Good Shepherd curing the souls of his people –
the Eucharist is the heart of his life and ministry and
the