Continuing Lumen
Gentium
Priests are reportedly (with some blaring exceptions) among
the happiest people in the United States in their vocations. In the book, “Why Priests Are Happy,” they
claim an, “extraordinary high rate of priestly happiness and satisfaction.” Perhaps this is because you don’t get into
this life without some heavy reflecting and you only pick it if indeed you are
cut out for it.
Be that as it may, we always seem to be talking about how to
make priest’s lives happier. Every year
that I have been a priest somebody brings up the idea at some meeting or
another that we should start living in communal rectories so that we can have
more brotherhood. (The diocese does in
fact have a policy for this.) The
problem is: Do you get to pick with whom you live? If you got to move in with your best friends
that’s one thing, if you move in with a grouch who doesn’t empty the
dishwasher, take a bath, and eats all of the Value Time Cheese Curls, that’s
another.
So paragraph 29 sets up the ideal for the priesthood. It assumes we are all holy, hard workers, and
best friends. But you have to start
somewhere right? So why not start with
the ideal and then work it out from there?
Now, if the bishop is bishop in his own right, the priest is
his vicar in the various parishes – his representative assisting him with the
sanctifying and teaching of all the people: the ideal being the father/son (and
I assume adult son)
relationship. That connotates mutual
respect & love, and a certain amount of deference (obedience) on the part
of the priest. This is because it is not
about the priest. He just happens to get
to be there. It is firstly about
God. The priest reaches his highest
dignity when celebrating Mass because it is then he stand in personal Christi, in the person of Christ. The same follows with the other
sacraments. It is not the priest, it is
Christ who acts.
In his other ministries, it is not about the priest no
matter how charismatic, righteous, or holy he may be. He is there to make the universal Church
present. He is the “on site” symbol of
the entire Church, the universal (catholic) Church founded by Christ. He is the tangible connection to the whole
body. That is why it is imperative that
he be connected to His bishop (who in turn is connected to the rest of the
Church . . .) If he is not connected to
his bishop in this international brotherhood that is fine. But he is not part of the Catholic Church no
matter how many times he uses the word Catholic, says Mass, and claims to be
doing what Christ calls him. This is
true if he is celebrating the old Latin Mass or is a new contemporary break
away. He has decided to change the rules
and so he is starting something new. He
no longer has the right to use the word “Catholic.” It is to a great, universal brotherhood to
which we are called. “That they may all
be one.”
This rather long paragraph (on which I have skimmed over and
interjected a lot of my own thoughts – my apologies) also makes it possible to
restore the deaconate for areas that make it difficult to have enough priests
to fulfill the mission of the Church. “It
is even possible” says the document to confer this office on married men. However, if single, the same rules of celibacy
apply to them as it does to priests.
This is also true of deacons who are widowers.
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