PATTAYA, Thailand (UCAN) -- At ordination, every priest begins a grace-filled process of "configuration" by which he becomes like Christ, says Archbishop Fernando Capalla of Davao, Philippines.
"This is the essential and primary aspect of the definition of the priesthood," 72-year-old Archbishop Capalla asserted on Aug. 30 in a paper he presented to nearly 70 bishops during the seminar on "Caring for Priests - Especially For Those with Difficulties."
In his paper, he cites media reports about priests whose configuration is thwarted by activities that reflect unhealthy moral and spiritual values.
He then presents "six central elements of priestly ministry and life that are contained in official Church documents but which are viewed as being counter-witnessed by these reports from media and by my own observations."
The seminar, organized by the Office of Clergy of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences, took place Aug. 27-Sept. 1 at Redemptorist Center in Pattaya, 150 kilometers southeast of Bangkok.
The full text of Archbishop Capalla's paper follows:
Given the possible misunderstanding, I have decided to approach the topic in the following manner: Firstly, I will present a brief and cursory report on the behavior of some priests and clerics as mentioned by ASIA FOCUS[1], whose correspondents are in touch with almost all dioceses in Asia. Included in this report are my own personal observations as a bishop for the past 32 years. A couple of reports from the CNN network will be mentioned also. Hopefully this presentation of media reports, which admittedly are short and sketchy, will help clarify the authentic teaching of the Church on the issues at hand.
Secondly, I will present six central elements of priestly ministry and life that are contained in official Church documents but which are viewed as being counter-witnessed by these reports from media and by my own observations.
Here I would like to clarify that the media reports are presented as simply raising questions, which is an invitation to further study, reflection, and discernment on what the Church expects from her ordained ministers.
Thirdly, I will suggest some recommendations from both Church documents and my own personal observations that may help in planning an adequate on-going program for our priests.
I. The Media and Other Reports in Brief
1. One issue of ASIA FOCUS[2] reported that a priest in India accepted to be appointed as judge of a civil court. I know of several Filipino priests who have studied law after ordination to become full-time lawyers for the poor and the oppressed. This recalls previous examples of priests who embraced other professions like sociologist, therapist, agriculturist thus giving birth to the term hyphenated priest or priest with a hyphen (-) after their name.
2. There were priests in my former diocese who engaged in the so-called "creative liturgy." They and some lay people would start the Mass and stopped after the homily. Then they would give a seminar or fact finding mission the whole day. In the evening they would assemble again to continue the offertory of the Mass. One priest in my present diocese used to allow his BEC leaders to start the Mass. He would come in only at the offertory. Of course he had to stop this so-called "pro-people liturgy."
3. ASIA FOCUS[3] also reported that a Filipino bishop filed an impeachment complaint in Congress against the incumbent president while a CNN report showed TV footage of an African archbishop publicly announcing he would lead a protest march against the president of Sudan. And another CNN footage showed a documentary entitled "Sins of the Father" who had been accused of child molestation.
4. In 1998 an issue of ASIA FOCUS carried a report of a Pakistani bishop who shot himself to death in a courthouse as a protest against a court decision. A recent issue of the same paper also carried a brief report on a Vietnamese priest who went on hunger strike in protest against the State's security officer[4].
5. At one meeting of the FABC Offices in Bangkok I called the attention of the staff members that it seems a great number of priests and some of the newly ordained bishops are not aware of the Church's clear mandate on ecumenical and interreligious dialogue as authentic forms of evangelization. In many seminaries and houses of formation there are admittedly beautiful and adequately kept copies of such documents but there seems to be no serious attempts to implement them especially in regard to the need of integrating them in the curriculum of theology.
6. The sense of the universal church as expressed in sensus ecclesiae was part of the discussion during the Special Synod on Asia in May 1998. But abiding by the directives coming from the dicasteries of the Roman Curia was felt by a few as a difficulty and a limitation of the capacity and creativity of some particular churches. A healthy balance was proposed which has been satisfactorily observed in many areas. Refusal to observe this balance through respectful dialogue has been viewed as the remote cause of defections, schisms, and the trends towards unhealthy traditionalist movements.
II. Central Elements of Priestly Life and Ministry[5]
Since the media reports and my own observations are viewed as raising questions whether or not the seeming counter-witnessing behavior reinforce one's duty to be a better priest or bishop, there is a need to review and restate the Church's official teaching on this matter of priestly life and ministry.
1. The first central element of priestly life and ministry being counter-witnessed by the situation of hyphenated priests is Priestly Identity[6] which is clearly defined in the official documents of the Church[7]. The counter-witnessing is primarily caused by the reversal of the sequence of the constitutive elements contained in the definition of the ministerial priesthood. The definition contains the nature and the purpose of the priesthood. In other words the being of a priest should precede his doing/having. But this sequence has been reversed.
Clearly, therefore, the Church teaches that through the sacrament of Holy Orders the ordained minister receives the character or spiritual seal mediated by grace that configures him to Christ and empowers him to exercise the potestas sacra or sacred power to offer sacrifice and to forgive sins[8]. The important word often overlooked by many teachers of theology is "configures", which means the process by which the ordained person is gradually shaped, so to say, by grace into the "figure" of Christ, thus making alter Christus or another Christ. This is the essential and primary aspect of the definition of the priesthood. The other essential but secondary aspect or purpose is the exercise of the power to offer sacrifice and to forgive sins - in persona Christi Capitis or in the person of Christ the Head(8). So to be able to act in the name of Christ and of the Church the priest has first to be configured to Christ.
Now the problem arises when the acting/doing as ministry or service for the sake of the people and community is over-emphasized or over-stressed. In many cases this over-emphasis comes from the erroneous understanding of the Latin expression "sacramenta propter homines", meaning the "sacraments are for the people" or "for the sake of the people". So when the needs of the people are urgent and immediate, the urge to respond adequately to the "call of the people" becomes stronger and irresistible. Now the process of configuration, which is what priestly spirituality is all about, is retarded or slowed down, and eventually is viewed as a psychological introspection or an ego-trip which cannot understand the problem of the people and of the world[9]. As a result priests while remaining in the ministry decide after ordination to embrace other secular professions or accept roles and functions in government, public service, business, thereby slowing down or finally giving up spiritual duties. This functional way of looking at the priestly ministry is often the strong reason for demanding a married clergy. The Holy Father Benedict XVI rejects this equally strongly in papal exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis, 24.
2. This brings us to the next central element which is Unity of Life[10] which is counter-witnessed in many ways. Unity of Life in the priestly ministry means that there is an intimate, unbroken and dynamic link between the priest's spiritual life and his ministerial activity[11]. In other words, there is no gap and no interruption in the process of being configured to Christ. It is a daily and life-time activity and undertaking. It therefore excludes embracing other professions that hinder the process because the priest is the "full-time bearer of an ontological consecration"[12]. Here it is advisable to recall the words of St. John Bosco: "The priest is a priest at the altar; he is a priest in the confessional; he is a priest in the school; he is a priest in the street; indeed, he is a priest everywhere"[13].
With this reminder the Church wants to tell us that the ministry of priests and bishops by definition is not in the sidelines of life and society but is at its "very center since it has the capacity to enlighten, reconcile and renew all things"[14]. To be effective as priests in the center of life demands that he becomes holy in the act of ministering.
3. The logical consequence of this is the next central element which is The Specific Journey to Holiness[15]. This means that the priest's ministerial activities or pastoral services constitute a journey towards holiness. This is "holiness in ministry through ministry[16]". Since he has the capacity as alter Christus to "enlighten, reconcile and renew all things" and all peoples, the priest is consequently the point of unity in society (fulcrum unitatis). Entering politics and managing public offices and playing other social roles that are primarily the responsibility of matured laity, as reported in the ASIA FOCUS, the priest not only dissipates his grace as pastor but also creates factions and animosities, divides the people, and invites unnecessary criticism of the priesthood and the Church. To those clerics, be they priests or bishops, who have and are, engaged in politics either as candidates or appointees to public office, two canonical provisions are hereby presented for reflection:
Canon 285 § 3 prohibits clerics from holding public office
Canon 287 § 2 prohibits priests from actively engaging in politics [17]
This being a controversial issue it is advisable to present authoritative comments. On the matters referred to by Canons 285 and 287, here is what Canon Law experts have to say:
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"The norm is more explicit when referring to another type of activity, since it expressly forbids the following activities to be undertaken; 1) those which entails sharing in the exercise of civil power in its full sense and therefore includes legislative, executive, and judicial power [to be a member of parliament, minister, judge, or to hold any other office endowed with civil authority]"... "On the other hand, as a general rule it is forbidden for clerics to take an active part in political parties...The prohibition excluding the clergy form taking part in political and trade union activities is the general rule. This prohibition could be waived in exceptional case, that is, when the competent authority (and not the cleric himself) judges that the defense of freedom and the rights of the Church, together with the promotion of the common good, are at stake"[18]. |
On the same topic the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI, addressing the 5th General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean on 13 May 2007 in Aparecida, Brazil, recently said:
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"The political task is not the immediate competence of the Church. Respect for healthy secularity, including the pluralism of political opinions, is essential in the authentic Christian Tradition. If the Church were to start transforming herself into a directly political subject, she would do less, not more, for the poor and for justice because she would lose her independence and her moral authority. Identifying herself with a single political path and with debatable partisan positions, the Church is an advocate of justice and the poor, precisely because she does not identify with politicians or with partisan interests. Only by remaining independent can she teach the great criteria and inalienable values, guide consciences and offer a life choice that goes beyond the political sphere. To form consciences, to be advocate of justice and truth, to educate in individual and political virtues: that is the fundamental vocation of the Church in this area. And lay Catholics must be aware of their responsibilities in public life. They must be present in the formation of the necessary consensus and in opposition to injustice. |
4. The journey to holiness in the ministry, which should not be interrupted or detoured, is not only aided by intense, personal, and sustained prayer life but also by a humble Fidelity to Ecclesiastical Discipline[19], the next central element in this presentation. Fidelity is an essential aspect of priestly spirituality. Now ecclesiastical discipline is carried out or observed by a humble acceptance and implementation of laws, decrees, canonical provisions, norms, and statutes which are indispensable in any organized society or community. They regulate the life of the Church and her members both ordained and non-ordained. This ecclesiastical discipline is counter-witnessed in many ways by the abuses, distortions, misinterpretations, arbitrariness, supposedly creative adaptations masking for inculturation which create disorder, disharmony, divisions, and unpeace in the Church. The examples of these are countless (Instruction, Redemptoris Sacramentum (25 March 2004).
To those clerics, be they priests or bishops, who sincerely but questionably used violence to themselves for a cause like committing suicide or going on hunger strike or carrying a gun for self defense, here is a relevant reflection from a well known theologian, Xavier L?on-Dufour:
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"Why, then, should we offer no resistance to the wicked man? Not because of some tactic of non-violence, but in a spirit of love and of sacrifice, the only way of obtaining reconciliation between the violent man and his victim [cf. Gen. 33:45; 1 Sam 26] [20]. |
And no less than Pope John Paul II has this unforgettable statement often repeated by peacemakers: "There is no peace without justice, no justice without forgiveness" (Message on the World Day of Peace, 01 Jan 2003) and who in a very humble way asked pardon from non-Christians and non-Catholics for the unchristian behavior of church people in the past.
Once again we have to repeat that configuration helps the priests to become a man of order and harmony like Jesus who because of a perfect order in his humanity is called the Prince of Peace. For, peace comes from order. The same is said of the Blessed Virgin because she was conceived without sin or moral disorder. That is why we call her Queen of Peace. So order must guide and regulate the relationship of the priest with God, with others, with society, and with himself. As such he has the right to be called a man of peace or a peacemaker closely following in the footsteps of the Prince and Queen of Peace.
5. As a man of peace the priest or bishop is in the best position to promote communion through dialogue thereby witnessing to the fifth and next element of priestly ministry - The Priest in Ecclesial Communion[21]. The papal exhortation Ecclesia in Asia specifies certain areas of Church life where the priest has to carry out his ministry of communion through dialogue[22]. These areas are the parish, the basic ecclesial communities and the lay movements where the priest performs a unifying role. He helps his bishop to make the diocese the "communion of communities[23]". Moreover, according to the papal document, communion outside the Church is called a "mission of dialogue" which is an essential part of the new evangelization[24]. This takes the form of the ministries of ecumenical and interreligious dialogue[25].
Counter-witnessing these clear mandates are priests who either are not aware of them or simply ignore them, or worse, ridicule those involved in dialogue with Christian and non-Christian groups. When an archbishop asked his priests to get involved in Christian-Muslim collaboration, the priests of a Southern archdiocese in the Philippines replied "Archbishop, why not kill all the Muslims?" In a neighboring archdiocese one priest advocated the carrying of guns by priests as a self-defense measure against the Abu Sayaf terrorists. And an issue of ASIA FOCUS (16 June 2006, p.2) reported that a priest in India was strongly criticized by the lay people for insisting to carry a gun.
6. Finally the sixth element is the Sense of the Universal in the Particular[26]. This is counter-witnessed by some priests who wrongly think the Universal Church is the sum total of all the particular churches around the world. They seem to say that the central government of the Church must allow more freedom to the churches in the periphery "to do their own thing", so to say. The Church's position has always been contained in the famous dictum: "In necessariis, unitas; in dubiis, libertas; in omnibus, caritas."
The truth of the matter is - and this is what "unitas, in necessariis" means - that the "Universal Church is a reality which is "ontologically and temporarily prior to every particular Church"[27]. In colloquial language, the central government or the Holy See "calls the shot", because this is the nature of the hierarchical Church. It is not by nature a democracy as some would insist.
The sense of the universality of the Church must always be felt and expressed in a pervasive way in the particular churches through a "profound, genuine and vital bond of communion with the See of Peter which is the guarantee and necessary condition of this Catholicity"[28]. Such vital link is expressed in the "acceptance, diffusion, and conscientious application of papal documents, and of documents published by the dicasteries of the Roman Curia"[29]. I used to begin the Mass of the Holy Chrism on Holy Thursday, where all the priests, almost all religious and a large number of the lay faithful are present, saying that by Episcopal ordination I become a member of the college of bishops first before being given the assignment as archbishop of Davao. I use the same analogy for the priests telling them during the homily that they are primarily ordained and incardinated to the diocese or congregation before they are given special assignments.
III. Recommendations
1. The presence of the bishop in the seminary is crucially important and necessary. This presence and his sharing with the faculty and candidates to the priesthood regarding the over-all pastoral life of the Church contribute in a fundamental way to the formation of the "sensus ecclesiae" as an essential spiritual and pastoral value in the exercise of priestly ministry[30].
2. The diocesan or congregational plan for the on-going formation of priests has in someway to be based on the seminary curriculum so that a certain continuity is provided towards an easy and meaningful implementation by former alumni of the seminaries or house of formation [31].
3. The six central elements discussed in this presentation need to be thoroughly understood by seminary formators and seminarians or formandi. Insufficient or defective understanding of these elements, especially of priestly identity, is often noticeable in the petitions for ordination. In these handwritten letters to the bishop or superior service to the people or the call of the poor and the oppressed is given more importance than the call of Christ and the need to be configured to His likeness. I had to return some of these petitions many times.
4. The most opportune time to remind the Clergy, Religious, and Laity of the "sensus ecclesiae" or sense of the universal is during important and big gatherings/functions in the diocese, especially ordinations and Holy Thursday Mass of the Chrism, where the full complement of the Church is present.
5. Aside from the devotion to the Eucharist and to the Blessed Mother, simple lifestyle inspired by the cross helps the priest to counteract and resist the strong process of secularization through the media and high technology.
6. The Pious Union of the Clergy whose office is based in Rome helps promote spirituality of the diocesan priests[32]. Several priests and bishops desirous of deepening their priestly life join societies of lay people like the Focolare, or the secular institutes like the Institute of Notre Dame de Vie, Opus Dei.
1. ASIA FOCUS is an Asian Church newsletter published by the Union of Catholic Asian
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2. Ibidem. |
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3. Ibid., 7 July 2006, p.1 |
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4. Ibid., 16 March 2007, p.1 |
5. Cfr. Congregation for the Clergy, The Priest and the Third Christian Millenium, Teacher of the
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6. Cfr. Congregation for the Clergy, The Priest, Pastor and Leader of the Parish Community
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7. Cfr. Council of Trent, Session XXIII, Doctrina de Sacramento Ordinis (July 15, 1563); DS
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8. Pastores Dabo Vobis, 13-15: loc.cit., pp.677-681 |
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9. Cfr. Congregation for the Clergy, The Priest, Pastor and Leader of the Parish Community, 10 |
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10. Ibid. |
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11. Ibid. |
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12. Ibid. |
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13. Ibid. |
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14. Ibid. |
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15. Ibid. |
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16. Ibid., 12 |
17. Can. 285 - § 3. Clerics are forbidden to assume public office whenever it means sharing in
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18. Footnotes, Code of Canon Law, Annotated, Edited by E. Caparros, M. Theriault, & J.
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