Relentless Ministry – In a new series written by Priests, we will explore what most priests describe as “Relentless Ministry” and the challenges of being a priest in Ireland today
As we clergy grow less in number, the word I hear most spoken of from my brother Priests, is the word ‘relentless’. And it’s coming from good men whose only desire is to serve, but physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually, they are now feeling as if they can’t give any more, they are tired, they are exhausted, they are on reserve.
What is the answer from our hierarchy to these good men? – give them more parishes, give them more responsibility as they walk themselves into an early grave. Is it any wonder so many of our brothers are suffering from stress and burnout and mental and physical health related illnesses? And is it any wonder those who are considering priesthood no longer find diocesan priesthood attractive, and instead look to religious orders where the pace of life is a little different?
Can we blame our bishops solely, is it their fault? I don’t think we can lay the blame totally at their feet. We clergy are operating out of a dysfunctional mindset that our seminary formation created, a clerical mindset that certainly served us well in the ‘good old years’, when there was an abundance of priests. But that is in the past now, and if we are to survive until the so-called retirement age of 75, we clergy are going to have to do a reboot on all that we were taught, all that we learned and lived by, because the Church as we once knew it, it is now dead, and sadly so many of us are reluctant to bury it.
Conditions
We are such a blessed nation; we are a deeply spiritual people whose DNA is rooted in faith, not necessarily in religion but faith, and that’s why so many of our people still want their child baptised, still desire a Church wedding, and still want some sort of a Church celebration at the end of life. We cannot shake off our deep spiritual roots as an Irish people. And while I’m not totally comfortable with the ‘travelling relics’ that we had this past year, the people of God certainly turned out, and while it will take greater than I to critique all of that, it certainly gave me great hope that faith/spirituality is certainly not dead.
And yet our clerical mindset can dismiss all of this and refuse to welcome these good people or worse still, place conditions upon them, as if our God was a conditional kind of God. Our people have walked away in their droves from what we have been giving them and from how we have treated them, but they haven’t walked away from God.
We need to be inspired about the direction we must go, and our bishops must begin to invest money and personnel in establishing the bones of this new model of being Church”
The greatest obstacle to change, the greatest barrier that Synodality is going to meet along the way is clergy and clericalism. We still see ourselves as in charge, we are the bosses, we still hold the purse strings, and only Father knows what is right. But if we are a men of faith, men of God, surely we need to step out into the deep waters, or at least to dip our toes in it, and rid ourselves of the fears that we might have, and bring alive the People of God model of Church, where we are all fellow pilgrims working our way towards our home in Heaven.
Some dioceses appear to be making significant strides towards this goal, but I wonder if all of this training is just superficial, without teeth or clout. We cannot treat our people like children, we have to believe in them and see them as equals, as fellow Kingdom builders and bring life back to Christ’s Church once again.
From a practical point of view, clergy are going to need a lot of help if hope is to be restored to our Church today. We need to be inspired about the direction we must go, and our bishops must begin to invest money and personnel in establishing the bones of this new model of being Church, providing the establishment, the training and ongoing support to Parish Councils, Lay led Liturgy teams, Children’s Liturgy Teams, Parish Baptismal Teams, Parish Youth Ministry Teams, Parish Bereavement Teams, Welcoming Teams etc, so that the clergy no longer feel overburdened in the relentless task of ministering to God’s people in the modern day world. However, all the investment in the world will be of no use unless the clergy buy into the changes.
What a difference this change in mindset could bring about, what a difference this model of being Church could make to we clergy and our people, and what a rejuvenation it could give to our Parish communities.
*
Fr John is an Irish priest working in a parish who would rather not be identified at this time for pastoral reasons but the name and details are with the Managing Editor.