Priests - be evangelisers, pleads archbishop

Addressing the National Conference of Priests of Ireland on Tuesday, the Archbishop of Dublin, Most Rev. Diarmuid Martin called on priests to be first of all evangelizers and witnesses. 

Pointing to the drop in religious practise, which in some parishes was as low as 1%, and yet the extraordinary faith still to be found  in people, the archbishop spoke of a growing individualism, which also affected the way people practised their faith.  Priests must not become like  film producers in  their communities, but examples of  " a community which receives the gift of the Eucharist," he said.   The priest had to be the exemplary listener and person of prayer.

Mission  then was not the task of individual navigators, but took place in communion with the life of all the baptised.

He understood the church in the past had been seen as authoritarian, and this did not apply just to bishops but priests too.  They were even taught to be authoritarian, and to be 'builders and doers', rather than 'saints and scholars'.   The archbishop called on the priests to move from being part of a 'doing' church, to being a 'listening' one.  "The priest who appears to seek power for himself over other people's  lives rather than opening them to the experience of the healing power of Jesus will find very little echo in the hearts of young people in search of faith," he said.

The sex abuse scandals had also been an abuse of power. The archbishop called for transparency in dealing with matters of abuse. "Without transparency suspicion will remain," he said.  The Church had to win back the confidence of the people, but sadly he felt the full dimensions of the clerical abuse scandals might yet have to appear. Good protection measures for  children meant protection for priests too.

Priests were called to be witnesses to the Gospel. "Our witness must always be a witness to the message of Jesus in an integral way.   This also demands not confusing the message with any ideology which would reduce the originality of the Gospel to just another presence within human history, within the contemporary debate.  We must witness in our lives to the originality and the continual newness of the Gospel message," he said.

It was an overawing prospect, but the best witness was the authenticity of the priest's own life.

He was sorry that priests found themselves so often on their own, and recommended that they should if possible be part of a community. "Priests need community not just as human support, but in that deeper search for understanding the word and understanding their ministry.  Mission and ministry are for priests inseparable from identity.  Only rare saints can constantly achieve such integrated identity as they progress in their own lives, with their own crises and challenges, outside some form of particular faith community of priests," he said.
 
As priests were to be witnesses, so too were bishops.  A bishop was not a CEO of a diocese, but  "one who day-in and day-out preaches the Gospel and works shoulder to shoulder with priest and others in the front line of evangelization." 

Priests and bishops had to be friends in ministry. The archbishop spoke of his own frustration at meetings with fellow bishops where all that was discussed was church affairs, or with priests when their gaze was constantly introverted studying problems. " I regard a meeting as having been successful if we all come away renewed in our commitment to evangelization, each of us anxious to fulfill our own special mission," said the archbishop.

He then called on priests to re-discover the passion for their  ministry, and for his own part said he would replace the secrecy surrounding clerical appointments with "honesty and openness on all sides."

He called for a new radicality. "In Saint John’s Gospel, (1: 35) the early disciples ask Jesus “Where do you liveâ€?, which means “Who are youâ€?.  Jesus replies “Come and seeâ€?.  It is only when we answer the call to come, that we can then see who Jesus is.  It is not a question of “Have a look and if you like it you can be my disciple and we can negotiate the termsâ€?. The call to mission is always radical," he told the priests, adding that he had no master plan for the diocese but relied on the cooperation of everyone to find new ways forward together.

He saw as a great obstacle to mission, the mediocrity that can creep into everyone, including priests.  "The first evangelizers have the greatest need to be daily the first to be evangelized through our encounter with Jesus in word and sacrament," said the archbishop.

The culture of best practise for the diocese would emerge from the experience of living the Gospel. Their focus should be on the present and future.  "We should give up on trying to answer the questions of yesterday’s agenda, even if regrettably the answers to yesterday’s agenda were never satisfactorily found.  We are in a new situation.  We must make a new beginning." he affirmed.

He ended " The structures which will evolve will depend above all on our own ability to live the Gospel, which is always the same, in a new way, and to allow that Gospel to lead us on.  They will depend on how we make our communities, which encounter the mystery of God’s gratuitous love revealed to us in Jesus Christ, communities which then stand as witnesses to what the love of Jesus means as a message of hope.  Priests are evangelizers when they also become witnesses to the love of Jesus, which is built up among us in the sacraments and in the Eucharist."

Source: Catholic Communications office