WHY WE ARE NOT BETTER PRIESTS?

WHY WE ARE NOT BETTER PRIESTS?

In the recently concluded CBCI meeting the bishops studied a survey that had been conducted as to why so many Catholics leave the church to join Pentecostal groups. The first reason given was a lack of God-experience in the church. Where could Catholics get this God experience if not from their priests? And how can priests give a God-experience if they do not have one? And how can they have this without a deep spiritual union with the Lord in Prayer? This would seem basic to all priestly functions. As the synod on priestly Formation (quoted by the Pope in Pastores Dabo Vobis) puts it “Without spiritual formation pastoral formation would be left without a foundation”.
If priests are not as Holy or praying or spiritual as they could and should be, one may ask -WHY? Recently I read in an English Catholics paper an article about Franciscans in England. They were losing a large number of members. They had a meeting to discover why. The meeting, as often happens nowadays, was led by a psychologist. But with his help they didn’t find the answer. Later in the evening a young priests remarked that in the seven years of training for the priesthood he hadn’t received a single talk on “prayer”. All the others present has the same experience. The author of the article later travelled to many religious houses and consulted many priests from different traditions and found that the experience of the young friar was commonplace.

What is the situation in India? Authorities in minor seminaries are often told : “you had better give your students a good spiritual foundation; they will not get anything of this in the major seminary”.

Recently I met a priest-professor from one of our most prestigious major seminaries. He is a scholarly holy man, a retreat preacher. He was sad that during the World cup cricket tournament seminarians would watch television at the expense of their studies. He didn’t mention the cost of this watching to their spiritual life and activities. One wonders if the stress is on the intellectual or spiritual growth! Seminarians are expected to develop their own spiritual life, we are told. In this day and age is this likely to happen when there is no pressure or encouragement from above, and many temptations and invitations from the opposite directions?
What is the answer? Ideally all the professors in the seminaries should be Gurus as in the old Gurukul – saints in fact. That does not seem to be practical or possible at present. But surely in each seminary there must be a professor who is not only qualified but also, even more necessary, a deeply spiritual man. The priest I mentioned above one such. He gibes courses on spirituality to nuns outside the seminary. Could not he and similar priests in each seminary give a course on spirituality right through the seminary, so that every year, every week each seminarian will have at least one talk on spirituality?
This course should be well prepared and delivered to make it interesting and attractive. It should include assignments for the students. It should include assignments for the students. It should not be an optional extra. Marks and ranks should be given as for the other subjects. Such a course would include an introduction to prayer, real prayer, stressing the necessity of such. It would show the different kinds of prayer including Indian methods of prayer and the Eastern Christian tradition- the Philokalia, with the Jesus prayer. It would, of course, lead to practical prayer sessions, including charismatic prayer. In the course would be studied the lives of saints, beginning with Jesus- as praying persons. Without in any way trying to compare or contrast, non-Catholic and even non Christian saints could be studied. Included also would be our Indian saints could be studied. Included also would be our Indian saints- Gonsalo Gracia, Blessed Chavara Kuriakos and sister Alphonsa (First woman saint from India) and especially Blessed Joseph Vaz, the ideal model for any missionary.
Stress would be laid on horizontal as well as vertical prayer. Indeed one cannot be devoted to our Lord without beginning to see with his gentle eyes, to love with His compassionate, unconditional, non judgemental love, to serve with his completely selfless service.

This suggestion seems to be practical and possible though it might encounter some opposition and apathy in the beginning.
If it is adopted what will happen as a result? I do not expect miracles but surely then each seminarian would have the opportunity, the possibility and the encouragement to develop his own spiritual life. In most cases they do not have that now. This would get rid of that terrible lacuna in the formation of priests- a lack of spiritual training. Surely we would not have then the sad situation of so many “prayerless” priests. Surely there would not be so many dropouts.
My appeal is not just to the bishops who control the seminaries or the professors who run them, but also, and more important today, to the students or seminarians. I understand that in same seminaries they have some say in the organisation of courses. Surely each student as he enters the seminary wants to be a good priest. Can a priest be good, if he is not a holy praying man of God? And this is precisely what India and the church in Indian need today. There are plenty of scholarly priests, plenty of social workers and counsellors. There are few, far too few holy, praying priests. But how can one get and retain the habit of prayer if it is not developed priests. But how can one get and retain the habit of prayer if it is not developed in the seminary?
This is surely a matter worth thinking about. Please think about it.

(From The Examiner, May 4, 1996 by RH Lesser, The Examiner is the weekly news letter published from Mumbai Arch Diocese.)