By Father Emmanuel Goulard, pss
The vocational context is not very encouraging. There are multiple reasons for this: a loss of the sense of commitment, the over-solicitation of young people, a decline in religious practice, the tarnished image of priests following the painful revelations of abuses committed by some ordained ministers, and more.
While the vocation of the diocesan priesthood is struggling, the diocesan clergy remains the “backbone” of the church’s life and mission. Rooted in a specific area and belonging to a presbyterium, diocesan priests are close to all the baptized, who have varied spiritual motivations and live through unique situations (birth, illness, death).
“Faithful at their post,” diocesan priests welcome those who knock on their door over time and in all circumstances, reach out to those who no longer come to church, travel miles to animate parish communities, and invest their energy in organizing events of grace (youth camps, pilgrimages, training, celebrations, etc.).
This beautiful ministry is lived out in faithful and joyful discretion in the heart of a vast missionary field with limited means.
However, the unique mission of the diocesan priest is often devalued.
They are perceived more as “general practitioners,” occupied with various tasks, often material or organizational in nature. As celibates, they are the courageous prophets who proclaim that the jar of flour will not run out, nor will the jug of oil be empty (cf. 1 Kings 17:14)! As collaborators of the bishop, they are tireless pastors and servants of ecclesial communion, truly lived amid the waves.
The diocesan ministry is thus misunderstood. Some faithful even go so far as to assert that the commitment of diocesan ministers to priestly celibacy is less serious and total than that of religious priests!
Nothing could be further from the truth.
It is necessary to recall the difference between the two paths. Before being ordained priest, a religious has already freely committed, after reflection, to follow Christ in a life of poverty, chastity, and obedience by professing the three vows. This commitment is lived within a community or congregation and follows the spiritual intuitions of a founder. Thus, the commitment to celibacy by the religious priest at the time of ordination renews and strengthens his profession of the vow of chastity.
For the diocesan priest, it is at the time of diaconal ordination that he commits to living celibacy to signify the gift of himself to Christ and to manifest the presence of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Thus, even though the form may differ (religious vow or commitment at the time of ordination), the choice to follow Christ in priestly celibacy is equally demanding for both the diocesan priest and the priest belonging to a religious congregation.
I would add that the commitments to priestly celibacy are far more numerous than we might imagine, far more valiant than athletic feats, and far more fruitful over time. Let us not allow occasional counterexamples to make us forget these real and daily fidelities.
Let us strive to better understand the beauty, necessity, and demands of the diocesan priest’s ministry in the complementarity of vocations and states of life. I particularly invite my fellow priests to openly and collectively bear witness to the joy of living the presbyteral ministry in their dioceses of incardination. – La Croix International
Father Emmanuel Goulard, pss, is the rector of the Saint-Sulpice Seminary of Issy-les-Moulineaux, one of the largest seminaries in France.
