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INTENTION : |
That bishops, priests, and all ministers of the Gospel may bear the courageous witness of fidelity to the crucified and risen Lord.
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Every bishop, every priest, every deacon, when he receives the sacrament of holy orders through the imposition of hands and the prayer of consecration, is established in a ministry instituted to give a precise service to Christ and his Church, in which he is present, crucified and risen. In the Church, which is all of us, the community of the baptised, we receive the sacraments which are precisely this, real signs of Christ who lives in the midst of us, and accompanies us by the action of his Spirit. The sacrament of priestly ordination is another living sign of Christ's presence because, for example, without the priest sacraments like the Eucharist, reconciliation, anointing of the sick, cannot be celebrated, nor, besides that, can priestly ordination itself be celebrated without the bishop. But there is something else that we ought to remember: through the sacrament of ordination the bishop, or the priest, or the deacon becomes 'another Christ' at the service of his brothers and sisters, which means that he is transformed in order to act, not as a simple representative of Christ, and in his name, but that he has the serious responsibility of acting 'in the person of Christ' himself, and of doing what St. Paul says: 'Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death - even death on a cross.' (Phil. 2: 5-8)
In the last few years we have seen how the Church has also experienced, with sorrow, the problem of paedophilia, even within herself. Some of her priests abused minors, boys and girls, pre-adolescent young people, or handicapped people. On the one hand this problem is a monstrous crime and a penal offence which involves damaging or changing the normal development of a child or adolescent, with long-term psychological and social consequences for the person. And on the other hand the problem of paedophile priests is a terrible scandal for the Church because it brings injury to her in something as intimately part of her as the service of her priests; furthermore, it endangers the trust which the faithful should feel in their priests and in the Church herself. Obviously, a minister who commits an act of this kind cannot be 'another Christ' at the service of his brothers and sisters, and in whom they can trust. The scandal of pederasty darkens and soils the image of the ministerial priest. Fortunately, in comparison with the total number of priests in the world, the priests who have committed these abuses against people who trusted them, for various unjustifiable motives, are few in number. The majority are faithful to their vocation and work courageously and with enthusiasm in different places: parishes, schools, hospitals, prisons, distant missions, and so on. In 2010 there were over 410,000 Catholic priests in the world. Against that, the number of priest whom the Catholic Church investigated between 2001 and 2010 and found guilty of sexual abuse against minors amounted to about 300 priests, whose offences were committed over a period of about 50 years; that is 0.3% of the total number of priests in the world. At all events, one single case is enough to offend us all as Church, in addition to the specific offence to the dignity of the person who is victim of an abusing priest.
As Church, we have every reason to pray that not one single incident like those may be repeated, and we pray as the Holy Father asks us to do this month that those who have been ordained as bishops, priests and deacons may be true and authentic servants, always giving courageous witness to their priesthood, in fidelity to Christ. Let us dedicate ourselves to this intention, at home, in the family, in the parish community, that the Church may always receive from the Lord priests formed according to Christ's heart. Perhaps it would help us to pray as grandmothers and grandfathers used to do: 'Lord, give us priests who may be holy, wise and simple.'
Fr. Luis Javier Sarralde, S.J.
Colombian Jesuit, specialist in Canon Law
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