The Valley Catholic
in the church
May 27, 2014
13
Priesthood is not a business, monarchy,
orphanage, pope tells students
By Carol Glatz
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis
told seminarians not to become “orphan
priests,” who are motherless without
Mary; “businessman priests,” who are
after money; or “prince priests,” who
are aloof from the people.
He also warned them not to give
“boring homilies,” saying their reflections should be brief, powerful and
address the problems and concerns
people are really going through.
In a private audience in the Vatican’s Paul VI hall with thousands of
seminarians and priests from around
the world who are studying in Rome,
the pope spent 70 minutes answering
the questions of eight pre-selected
participants.
In his off-the-cuff replies, the pope
peppered his serious and detailed
advice with humorous anecdotes and
sarcasm, such as when he warned the
men to never forget they have a mother
in Mary.
‘Community life isn’t
paradise; at any rate,
it’s purgatory.’
“But if you don’t want Our Lady as a
mother, you will have her as a motherin-law and that’s not good,” he said to
laughter and applause.
The comment was part of a lengthy
response to a Mexican student’s question about remaining faithful to one’s
priestly vocation. The only way to calm
the waters and be able to reflect intelligently on what’s going on is to turn
to Mary for help, he said, and to “seek
refuge under the mantle of the Holy
Mother of God.”
“To forget a mother is a terrible
thing,” he said, and when a priest
forgets Mary or does not have a good
relationship with her, “something is
missing. He is an orphan priest.”
The pope later warned against
becoming a “businessman priest”
or a “prince priest.” Parishioners are
usually very forgiving of a priest’s
missteps, except when they are sins of
greed and vanity -- the “two hazards”
that St. Augustine warned about that
come with the priestly office.
The people of God “don’t forgive
you if you are a pastor who is attached
to money, if you’re vain and don’t treat
people nicely because the conceited
don’t treat people nicely.”
“There is only one path to leadership: service. There is no other way,”
the pope said. A priest can be a great
communicator and have other wonderful talents, “but if you aren’t a servant,
your leadership will collapse.” Service
is always being available to others,
responding to their needs, and helping
them “grow and walk” with Jesus.
One of the reasons why there are
so many “boring homilies” is because
priests aren’t “close” to their people,
he said. The measure for seeing how
‘It’s not true that gossip is
“a female thing; men, too...’
close a priest is to his parishioners is
his homily, he added.
Pope Francis lamented long homilies. Homilies should not be “about
abstract things,” he said. While it
expresses “the truth of faith,” a homily shouldn’t be a classroom lesson, a
conference or an academic reflection,
but something that borders on the sacramental, and is “brief and powerful.”
The pope urged seminarians to not
let their academic studies take over
their spiritual growth, apostolic work
and community life. “Academic purism
is not healthy,” he said, and it carries
the risk of “slipping into ideologies,”
which harms the priest and people’s
conception of the Church.
In response to the challenges of living in a Religious community, diocese
or seminary, the pope said “gossip is
the plague” and will destroy a community. He said, it’s not true that gossip
is “a female thing; men, too,” can get
wrapped up in backstabbing, jealousy,
envy and power struggles.
“Community life isn’t paradise;
at any rate, it’s purgatory,” he said to
applause.
When asked about balancing all of
the demands of being a priest or bishop,
the pope said the secret is prayer and
always making room for the sacraments and Eucharistic adoration.
The ideal day is to go to bed tired
“so you won’t have to take any (sleeping) pills,” he joked. He underlined the
difference between the “good tired” of
a productive day versus the exhaustion
of being run ragged.
He told his audience that he could
see his papal assistant “giving me a
look right now,” suggesting that the
pope does not exactly follow his own
advice in that regard. “It’s true. I’m a
sinner,” guilty of overwork and being
disorganized, he laughed.
Pope Francis uses incense to bless new priests before their ordination Mass in St. Peter’