Student Notes 2010B

Chapter Seven Ordained Ministry & Priesthood of the Faithful

In virtue of their baptism, all the faithful participate in the priesthood of Christ. I Peter 2:9 explains that the faithful are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation and a people set apart”. The letter goes on to say in 2:12 that Christians are to live among the gentiles so that seeing their good deeds, they will give thanks to God. In NT times, there seems to have been a special stress on offering ones life as a sacrifice for those who have not yet heard of Christ, so that they could see Christian dedication as an invitation to believe.
Vatican II teaches in LG 34 that the baptized faithful share in Christ’s “priestly office of offering spiritual worship for the glory of the father and the salvation of humanity” and that “their prayers and apostolic undertakings, family and married life, daily work, relaxation of mind and body, even the hardships of life if patiently borne… are offered to the Father in all piety along with the body of the Lord. And so, worshiping everywhere by their holy actions, the laity consecrates the world itself to God” (LG 34). Their loving acts of ministry, generosity, justice, and compassion are the visible expression of the living Christ, animating his mystical body.
The CCC asserts that: “While common priesthood of the faithful is exercised by the unfolding of baptismal grace – a life of faith, hope and charity, a life according to the spirit – the ministerial priesthood is at the service of the common priesthood. (1547). The ordained have as their mission to gather, proclaim, explain, heal, nourish, and send the baptised out to engage in the world. Vatican II asserts that the laity are given the special vocation of making the Church present and fruitful in those places and circumstances where it’s only through them that it can become the salt of the earth (LG 33).
We have been so cautioned to remember that the priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial priesthood “differ essentially and not only in degree” (LG 10) that we have tended to lose the missionary focus of the Church and deprive the faithful of any awareness of their priestly identity. The more urgent pastoral problem today is that most Catholics have no idea of the priesthood of all believers and so are not affirmed by it or inspired to action by it. Besides, the statement in LG 10 that the two kinds of priesthood in the Church differ not only in degree but in essence obviously does not mean that the ordained priest undergoes an essential change, thereby ceasing to be a partaker in our common humanity. The distinction is not between two kinds of person but two kinds of priesthood. The Council refuses to attribute a higher grade or degree to the ministerial, as though the common priesthood ranked lower that it on the same scale. Instead it situates the two kinds of priesthood in different categories, like oranges and branches. The ministerial priesthood involves a public representational function rather than a personal giftedness. If anything, the common priesthood is more exalted, for the ministers are ordained for the sake of service toward the whole people of God (Dulles, PO, p.11).
Vobis sum episcopus, vobiscum Christianus – St Augustine.
There are two key texts can help us in our understanding of this relationship, namely, Gen 2:7 and Ezek 37. The images of body, shape and bones represent the ministerial priesthood, while the images of breath and flesh signify the common priesthood. These narratives and images indicate both the interdependence and the difference between ministerial priesthood and the common priesthood of the faithful. As Congar claims there is no Word without Breath and Breath is ineffective without Word. The following table illustrates this even further.


Ordained Faithful
Church Head of Christ Body of Christ
Represent Christological Pneumatological
Provide Form, Definition Life
Mission Express, Formulate Execute
Focus Church World
Charism Apostolic Prophetic
Loyalty Past Future
Attitude Collaboration Respect
Task Leader Witness
Symbol Unity Diversity
Ethos Service Service
Style Institutional Charismatic

In this great field of complementary activity, there exists a more restricted area namely, the sacred ministry of the clergy. In this ministry the lay faithful are called to assist. In the years since Vatican II the faithful through their baptismal calling have successfully undertaken many lay ecclesial ministries, and so are participating in the ordained ministry. When lay people realise their vocation through a ministry for the Church, they are participating in the apostolate of the Church in a very direct and specific manner. This apostolate entails a mission that consists of a call and a mandate with the requisite authority assigned to it. The faithful are not all called or obliged to participate in this apostolate, because their general mission is personal, spiritual and ex spiritu as distinct from being social, juridical and ex officio. This form of apostolate comprises formal and public types of ministries, like preaching, eucharistic minister, minister of the word, teaching, liturgical co-ordinating, leading Sunday celebrations, catechising, theological work, missionary work, founding new ecclesial communities, maintaining ecclesial communities, social and youth ministries, administration of parishes and so on. These ministries and others associated with this apostolate are essential for invigorating the Church’s life and are, undoubtedly, required to ensure the smooth running of the ecclesial community. "When necessity and expediency in the Church require it, the Pastors, according to established norms from universal law, can entrust to the lay faithful certain offices and roles that are connected to their pastoral ministry but do not require the character of Orders" (CL 23). The laity should not assigned duties for reasons of convenience or the ambiguous ‘advancement of the laity’ (EdM 4) or to facilitate the expression of solidarity with the other laity of the parish. The following table presents some of the chief functions of the ordained, the baptised and those collaborating in ecclesial ministry.

Ordained Priesthood Common Priesthood Collaboration in Ministry
Priest Presiding & Administering the Sacraments, Prayer Romans 12:1, Participating in Sacraments, Prayer. LG Eucharistic Ministry, Ministry of Word
Prophet Preaching, Teaching Example, Reading the ‘Signs of Times,’ Presenting way forward. Catechising, theological work, missionary work,
King Pastor, Leader Compassion, Engagement in the World, Work Marriage: Love Spouse, family and community. Be Sacrament of God’s love Administration of parishes, founding new ecclesial communities, social & youth ministries, maintaining ecclesial communities,

As baptised and confirmed members of the Church, lay ministers, by virtue of their personal call, can exercise apostleship ex officio and can participate in the apostolate of the hierarchy but they do not enjoy a right to do so (EdM, Art 4). They have to wait to be mandated or delegated by the hierarchy to discharge their individual missions (CCL 228, 230). "The exercise of such tasks does not make Pastors of the lay faithful, in fact, a person is not a minister simply in performing a task, but through sacramental ordination. Only the Sacrament of Orders gives the ordained minister a particular participation in the office of Christ (EdM 2). The task exercised in virtue of supply takes its legitimacy formally and immediately from the official deputation given by Pastors, as well as from its concrete exercise under the guidance of ecclesiastical authority" (CL 30).
Therefore lay activity remains subordinate to the hierarchy and it does not extend to sharing in hierarchical powers but is effective in the practical order of Church life. ‘It is unlawful for the non-ordained faithful to assume titles such as "pastor", "chaplain", "coordinator", " moderator" or other such similar titles which can confuse their role and that of the Pastor, who is always a Bishop or Priest’ (EdM, Art 1). Every ministry that is exercised publicly in the Christian community needs some kind of recognition from the local Church leader. All apostolic activity which involves participation in the hierarchical apostolate requires a formal mandate, since this apostolate derives from the mandate of Jesus and is a public activity in the Church. This dialectic of autonomy and dependence shows that lay people, though directors in a certain sense, continue to be directed. Lay ministries co-operate and collaborate with the hierarchical ministry in forming the ecclesial community.
This collaborative apostolate of the laity does not become an ‘apostolate of the hierarchy’; the laity are not turned into curates without cassocks. At the present time, however, circumstances are such that it is possible to overcome the danger of "clericalizing" the laity and of "secularizing" the clergy. The generous commitment of the laity in the areas of worship, transmission of the faith and pastoral collaboration, in the face of shortages of priests, has tempted some sacred ministers and laity to go beyond that which is permitted by the Church and by their own sacramental capacities. This results in a theoretical and practical under estimation of the specific mission of the laity to sanctify the structures of society from within. This same crisis of identity has also brought about the "secularization" of some sacred ministers by obscuring their absolutely indispensable specific role in ecclesial communion.
So, Pope John Paul II has warned against the clericalisation of lay elites (CL 23) and was concerned that the talent and enthusiasms of the most gifted lay faithful are drawn into liturgical ministries. This may be to the detriment of their lay witness and committed political action in the world. The hoped-for lay presence in the world has seldom received the theological development, catechesis, or implementation consistent with its importance as a major theme of the Council. It must be remembered that "collaboration with" does not mean "substitution for”. Moreover, the exceptional and provisional nature of such arrangements require the promotion of an awareness of the absolute need for priestly vocations in these parish communities. The seeds of such vocations should be encouraged in them; community and personal prayer for vocations should be promoted and well as prayers for the sanctification of priests. (Note The Priest & the 3rd Mill, C of Cl, Ch 3, No 3)
Chapter Eight CHARACTER & PERSONAL IDENTITY

CHARACTER: Jesus Christ is said to be the 'express image of God's person’, the 'very stamp of his nature' (Heb 1:3). It is derived from the Greek word for an engraving tool or a die stamp. Moral character indicates the consistent conduct of a personal agent whose mind and will are fixed on a supreme good, so that moral action comes to him or her almost as second nature. The priestly character is the personal reality corresponding to the outward matter and form of ordination. Mysterium Ecclesiae of 1973, states that the rite of ordination confers “on priests not only an increase of grace for carrying out ecclesiastical duties in a holy way, but also a permanent designation by Christ, or character, by virtue of which they are equipped for their work and endowed with the necessary power that is derived from the supreme power of Christ”. Priestly character is a gift, indelibly marked on the soul at ordination, and a task to be achieved through continuous personal formation. When a priest’s mind and heart are fixed on being fully a priest, then his conduct will be consistent with priestly living and ministry and eventually this priestly activity will come to him almost as second nature. Then we can say he has a priestly character that is effective in his personal life and is truly indelible.

PERSONAL IDENTITY:
Disciple – Call & Total Response, Cross, Hope
Apostle – Sent.

Disciple – Indentity
Apostle – Maturity, Generativity
Proclaiming Christ – 2 Cor 4.5

In bringing Christ to his people and in leading them to Christ, the priest is generative and becomes the spiritual father of his people.

Chapter Nine Community

A Presence in the Community
1 Symbol Bearer
Through the sacrament of holy orders the person is officially designated to embody the community’s values. Other people may pray, preach, teach, heal, and administer sacraments as well or better than the priest. However, when the priest does these things, he functions as the symbol-bearer for the community, under orders from the community, as the officially recognised, corporately designated person to bear and interpret the community’s shared symbols; he acts in personae ecclesiae. No one can be a priest privately (William Bausch, NLS, pp. 251-252).
2. Living Reminder
A priest must be a living reminder of God’s word to the community. The history and the sociology of communities indicate the need for a specific kind of gesture, one which is more expressive than the written word, one that is more pointed than the day-by-day lives of the community members.
3. Spiritual Personality.
The priest is obliged to complement the objective spiritual authority with a subjective authority deriving from sincerity and holiness of life (The Priest & 3rd Mill, Ch 1, No 2) and to strive for holiness so as to receive the grace to be worthy to represent the person of Christ, Head and Shepherd, and be a living instrument in the work of salvation (The Priest, Pastor & Leader, 10). This is not easy in our world today where our media filled culture tends to promote the unreflective life and gives little space to the inner life. Still, it is important for priests to claim an inner life for themselves through keeping a journal, practicing contemplative prayer, writing poetry, doing retreats, reading and giving time for spiritual nurturing. Otherwise they like most adults in our society will find themselves overwhelmed by the intrusive demands of our consumer and media culture. Many priests benefit from working with a regular spiritual director. Spiritual discretion is a time of accountability, healing, encouragement, enlightening interpretation, and the sacramental ministration of the Holy Spirit’s guidance and love. It cannot be recommended too highly. For many priests, regular support and faith sharing groups complement their reception of individual spiritual direction (Paul Philibert, SGM, p. 38). So, priests are obliged to nourish their inner lives and to seek intimacy with the Lord.
4. Model of Human Authenticity.
Pope John Paul II explains in Pastores Dabo Vobis, 1992 that “human formation is the basis of all priestly formation” (PDV 43). He goes on to say that ‘these qualities are needed for future priests to be balanced people,… capable of bearing the weight of pastoral responsibilities. They need to be educated to love the truth, to be loyal, to respect every person, to have a sense of justice, to be true to their word, to be genuinely compassionate, to be men of integrity and especially to be balanced in judgment and behaviour’ (PDV 43). Priests are to have a mature capacity to relate to others. To be responsible for a community and to be a ‘man of communion’ it is necessary that such a person be affable, sincere, generous, and ready to serve.
And yet, many priests and seminarians have been wounded emotionally or even abused physically in their younger lives. So, there is need for great self-care and for engagement in personal formation and healing to facilitate the capacity to minister to others. In the words of Henri Nouwen, priests are wounded healers; to be healers they need to tend to their own wounds. This care is helped by catering for their needs for affection, friendship and companionship. Friendship is a reality that bestows great riches and makes great demands. The toil of friendship (and deep and lasting friendships are a kind of toil) is essential to a healthy authentic life. This involves constantly respecting their public choice to remain celibate. The powerful emotions that accompany deep friendship sometimes tempt the best of men to violate or compromise their commitment to chastity. Yet the safeguards of prayer, spiritual direction, and trusting openness in peer support groups can protect priests from losing perspective and breaking their vows. Friendship teaches us that celibacy is not about renouncing love, but precisely about imitating the universal love of the one whose disciples we are, Jesus Christ. The full humanity of the priest, which emanates from self-care and responsible growth, gives him the zeal and strength of character to lead, serve, challenge and support his pastoral associates and his people.
B. Active for the Community
1. Preacher and Prophet
“It is the first task of priests as co-workers of the bishops to preach the Gospel of God to all people” (PO 4) Also Pope Paul VI, Pope Benedict XVI and Congregation for Clergy. Evangelizing activities may be shared by others, but the stewardship of this ministry belongs by right to priests in cooperation with their Bishops. As St Paul says, I should be punished if I did not preach (I Cor 9.16), so it is also for priests. In the vision of Church as Herald, the priest is a preacher, an evangelizer, a proclaimer of the Word of God and a herald for the coming of the Kingdom of God. Preaching the Sunday homily, the priest inspires the liturgical gathering to a real participation in transforming their lives and the lives of others. (Note II Tim 4:1-5). Canon 528 asserts that the parish priest has the obligation of ensuring that the word of God is proclaimed in its entirety to those living in the parish and it mentions explicitly that this has to done especially during the homily on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation.
There is a wider prophetic call to which priests must be attentive as well. It is the heritage of Catholic social teaching. Our faith calls us to work for justice; to serve those in need; to pursue peace; and to defend the life, dignity, and rights of all our sisters and brothers. This is the call of Jesus, the challenge of the prophets, and the living tradition of our Church teaching going back to the great encyclical of Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, of May 1891 (A Century of Social Teaching, US Bishops, No 1). So, priests need to be advocates of justice for the poor and underprivileged. This takes courage: it is not easy to stand up to a bishop or a political leader even when there is a need to bring attention to issues of justice that are affecting the lives of ordinary people. He can also offer leadership and encouragement to others who are engaged in initiatives for justice and peace within the parish and larger community. Especially, he can offer a real fraternity of support for prophets in the presbyteral order. Priests who exercise a special prophetic role in the church need special support from their fellow priests. At the very least, the priest can fulfil this role of prophet by disseminating the excellent pastoral statements on social issues and political responsibilities that are regularly published by the local episcopal conference (Philibert, SGM, pp. 42-44).
The role of the priest in proclaiming God’s Word, then, is fulfilled through formal kerygmatic preaching; it may also be achieved through dialogue, or through priestly presence or through prophetic speech and action in the tradition of Isaiah and Jesus, above all it emanates from the perception of the priest as a living reminder of God’s word.
2. Leader.
In the earliest communities, the priest is associated principally with Church leadership. A priest is what the NT calls a presbyter. The NT presbyters were a group responsible for the pastoral care of the churches. The qualities the NT prescribes for the presbyter are very sober. He must be above reproach, temperate, sensible, dignified, hospitable, an able teacher, gentle, not quarrelsome (e.g., I Tim 3:1-7).
• Public Figure
As a leader, the priest belongs to the public forum called the institutional Church. He cannot stand outside it even if he protests against it. He is bound to rise above his personal insights and feelings and represent those of the Church. He belongs to the public forum. Like it or not, he is a churchperson, he does represent an institution. He cannot, as a priest, stand outside his institution; he is an official part of it. Not that the institution is always right, is beyond criticism or censure. Rather, this institution is the setting where faith is born and grows; this institution is the locus and focus of worship; this institution is the community of love. This is what the priest represents.
• Administration
In the perspective of Church as Institution, the priest is involved in ecclesial parochial administration and directs the life of the community. The priest has a concern for the moral and physical order in the Church and a responsibility to ensure an orderly and proper celebration of the mysteries of salvation by the community. A strong and efficient priest can facilitate a large measure of lay participation and co-responsibility on all levels. As administrators, priests have responsibilities for the physical maintenance of the parish plant; monitoring the budget; hiring and supervising; evaluating and directing personnel; and submitting reports, collections, and planning documents to diocesan officials.
• Forms and Organises
The priest, as leader, is called especially to build up the Christian community. His ministry looks not merely to the care of individuals but also, as Vatican II put it, “to the formation of a genuine Christian community” (PO 6). The priest should be a person who has the “gift of discernment”, i.e. of being able to discover the many charisms in the congregation, stimulating them to become active and co-ordinating them for the well-being of the whole community. He should be a person of "dialogue ability", who can sense the Spirit operative in the community rather than constantly acting as if only he had the Spirit. For him, Paul wrote: “Do not stifle the Spirit, but discern everything and then keep what is good” (1 Th 5:19-20). His task is to organise, to stabilise, and to prevent dangerous innovation. “He must hold firm to the sure word he was taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and refute those who contradict it” (Tit 1:9). His task calls for authority that does not dominate or make demands, that is softened by being wonderfully warm and human and has the ability to move hearts and minds.
• Connects
The priest as the leader connects his community with all of humanity. Unity in Christ is not only a personal, but above all, a communal achievement. The People of God is made up of many interlocking and interdependent communities. If one were to visualise the scope of the priest’s responsibility for reconciliation in Christ, the image of concentric, ever-widening circles might serve the purpose. At the centre is Christ. The first circle is that of the particular community, which the priest serves; he is to be the point of unity of the congregation. The priest is specifically empowered and obliged to be a ‘man of communion.’ In regard to the parish pastoral council, its role is to serve the orderly collaboration of the faithful in the development of pastoral activity which is proper to priests. The pastoral council is thus a consultative organ in which the faithful, expressing their baptismal responsibility, can assist the parish priest, who presides at the council, by offering their advice on pastoral matters. (The Priest, Pastor & Leader, Cong for Cl, 26).
The next circle broadens out to the larger Christian grouping which is the diocese. The parish priest is called to be a patient builder of communion between his own parish and the local Church, and the universal Church. By his union with the bishop as head of the presbyterate, the priest witnesses to the communion of his congregation with a cluster of similar congregations, thus overcoming the danger of sectarianism or exclusivism. Indeed, presbyters are the official representatives of the bishop. Lumen Gentium 28 states that there is a sense in which presbyters make the bishop present in each local assembly. Through their loyalty to their bishop, they exercise a ministry of unity in the diocese. Their common relationship to him should establish a bond of unity among priests and their parishes. The Council describes them as an “intimate sacramental brotherhood” (PO 8) and Pastores Dabo Vobis asserts that the ordained ministry has a radical communitarian form and can only be carried out as collective work. (PdV 17) The brotherly bond, flowing from the very nature of the presbyteral order, that exists among them means they have an obligation to care for one another and a responsibility toward those in difficulty, “even discreetly warning them when necessary” (PO 8). The brethren in the presbyterate should always be the special object of the priest's pastoral charity, by helping them materially and spiritually, by affording the opportunity for confession and spiritual direction, by encouraging their service, by helping them in their necessities, by offering fraternal support in their difficulties, old-age or infirmity. This is truly an area for the exercise of priestly virtue.’ (The Priest & the 3rd Mill, C of Cl, Ch 3, No 3.)
The role of priests as the vicar of the bishop implies both courage and humility. They courageously represent the Church’s authority and compassion as the voice of the bishop who is the chief representative of Christ in the local church. “Priests should be attached to their bishop with sincere charity and obedience” (PO 7). This implies humility and deference on the part of the priests in their obedience to the pastoral judgment and ecclesial discipline of the bishop as the leader of the local Church. The spirituality of both bishops and priests will be nurtured by the development of mutual trust and respect. Many priests find their relationship with their bishop challenging because of obedience and the priority given to professional integrity and the protection of children. So, there is need today for creative initiatives and dialogue in the relationships between bishops and priests, if the real fraternal solidarity they share in the one priesthood is to be authentic.
Religious priests, whose ordinary is not the local bishop but their own major superior, form a special category in the diocese. The charism of their founder and the mission of their religious institute constitute a pastoral value that is placed at the service of the local bishop and the diocese. The bishop, then, should carefully consider their charism, mission and potential to serve the spiritual needs of the diocese (Pope John Paul II, Vita Consecrata, 1996, 48-50). Religious priests, for their part, owe the bishop respect, affection, and obedience in the decisions that govern their participation in the ministry of the local church.
The third circle widens to that of the universal Church, for the presbyteral order as a whole is called to assist the episcopal order in the latter’s collegial care for the universal Church. Membership in and dedication to a particular Church does not limit the activity and life of priests to that Church (PDV 32). The priest represents the bishop in his collegial responsibility for the whole Church as well as in his pastoral guidance of the particular Church. ‘Priestly ministers voluntarily undertake to serve all in the Church.’ (The Priest, Pastor and Leader, Cong for Cl, Part 1, No 1.) Finally, the last circle expands to include all humankind, and here the priest, by his concern for peace and justice in the world, points to the hope that some day all people will be brothers and sisters in the Kingdom. He, as a member of a collegial order, shares in the Church's universal ministry and has an obligation to prevent any community from closing in on itself, presenting to it the universal aspect of the Church and the needs of humanity.
• President of Eucharist
Because the priest is the community leader and symbol-bearer, because he embodies the community’s values and stands in the public forum, he is entrusted with the community’s highest form of solidarity and unity. He presides over the Eucharist. He leads in the celebration of the sacraments. It is not his total task, but it is a central preoccupation of priesthood. For here the priest does what St. Paul insisted must be done: “proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Cor 11:26). He has a sacramental ministry that revolves around the bread of life and the cup of the new covenant. Around this liturgy the Church has built an access for man and woman to the life that is Christ, from the water of baptism through the ashes of penance to the healing oil of anointing.
The priest, as community symbol-bearer and living reminder, becomes a magnet to the community to gather. He is the focal sign and rallying point of the community always-in-the-making. He leads in the shaping of the Church. The priest presides over the “Church gathered” as the laity carries the gospel to the “Church scattered.” He preserves the community from forgetting who it is, just as a vital laity preserves it from forever looking backward. He protects the Church from amnesia while the laity saves it from nostalgia. As president at the Eucharist, he effects the Church’s most powerful expression of unity - the unity of the worshipping congregation within itself, with the diocese, with the universal Church, and with all humankind.
In the vision of Church as Sacrament, the priest is a cultic figure mediating between God and the rest of humanity. Since ministry in the Church is to lead people to an authentic encounter with God, the symbolic and mystical dimension of the priesthood should not be neglected; the priest is called to be a mystagogue, a holy person who leads the community to holiness, to intimate spiritual experiences with God, a prayerful person who educates the community in ways of prayer.
3. Servant and Pastor
Finally, the priest is ordained to serve the community as a pastor and humanity as an agent for justice and peace. In the perception of the Church as Community of Disciples, the priest is to act as a pastor and is expected to be close to Christ in order to lead others to Christ. He needs to foster the bonds of love, trust, and familiarity with the fellow disciples under his care. He must resemble the Good Shepherd, who calls his sheep by name and whose voice is recognised as that of a trusted leader. He must make every effort to know the people entrusted to his care. “Jesus himself, the Good Shepherd, calls ‘his sheep one by one’ with a voice well known to them (John 10, 3-4). Viewing the Church as Servant to the World, the priest is called to point out the dangers of dehumanisation and inspire concrete initiatives for the transformation of human society according to the ideals of the Kingdom of God. Political responsibility as a priestly responsibility is integral to the mandate ‘to go forth and preach the Gospel’, for it is directly action for justice and participation in the development of the world. By standing aside from political struggles, the clergy might support an unjust social order or encourage indifference toward the moral dimension of public affairs.
Definition
Priestly ordination is a solemn sacramental celebration by which a person is received into the order of presbyters, assumes public office in the Church, and is enabled to act in the name of Christ and the Christian community with the promised assistance of the Holy Spirit (Walter J Burghardt, “What Is a Priest?”, The Way, Supplement, No 23, (Autumn 1974), p. 56).
There is a shift in the emphasis from possession of spiritual and hierarchical power to community relatedness and from performer to enabler in the newer concept of holy orders. The revised Roman ritual for ordination no longer speaks of priestly power but only of office and dignity. In all these ways, this sacrament is regaining its community orientation. Furthermore, the ritual declares that the one most worthy to be ordained as leader must be the one most proven as servant.
Chapter Ten Characteristics of Leadership

More than ever before the priest is called to be a leader in his community. In the spiritually intelligent leader, spirituality and humanity come together, fleshing out and making real the popular appeal for good leadership. The following traits are present in the great leader.
Courage —It is difficult to lead when you are afraid. Note – I Tim 1:6-7.
No resentment — ‘There is no limit to what you can achieve provided you don't mind who gets the credit.’
Passionate —'Are you prepared to break your heart in pursuit of the vision of true leadership?'
Openness —When everyone is thinking the same way, nobody is thinking very much.
Service —There is a dignity about being a servant that keeps the leader level-headed!
Confidence —It does not exclude uncertainty or mistakes. But it does include a sense of one's own uniqueness.
Inner Authority —Do you speak, act and lead out of your ego or your essence? Transparency —To be truly authentic, to be transparent, to be honest, and to be trustworthy is essential for any leader in our age of corporate cover-up, in State and Church.
Presence — A certain type of personal, physical presence is found in true leadership; a real presence; a presence that witnesses; a presence that speaks of justice and compassion, a presence that transforms.
Self-awareness —Without a knowledge of our own weaknesses, wounds and shadow, we will never be able to lead or liberate others into their true selves. We can only walk with others, sensitively and usefully, as far as we have walked with ourselves. We can only win the minds and hearts of others to the extent that we have won over our own.
Spirituality —The non-negotiable basis for achieving and acquiring the qualities just outlined is the contemplative dimension of our lives, the total surrender of our own hearts into the peace, power and passion of the heart of the Mystery. It is here, during that silent, daily time set apart for meditation, during which even religion-less leaders are renewed, that the spiritual dimension of leadership is nourished and maintained. In contemplation, the soul is searched.
(From ‘Courageous Conversations’ by Daniel O’Leary, Furrow, Feb 2006, Vol 57, No 2).

Chapter Eleven CELIBACY
The Apostles were, for the most part, married men who had discovered the hidden riches of the Kingdom of God and were so enthralled at the prospect of being involved in establishing the Kingdom that they joyfully left everything, without counting the cost, to follow Jesus. Thus, while they were essentially capable of marriage, their involvement with Christ and his Kingdom so engaged them that they were “existentially incapable” of doing other than leaving all things to follow Christ. In this sense, they are truly “eunuchs” for the sake of the Kingdom.
In the Synoptics, the original experiential fact of this ‘inner logic’ is already formulated as a demand. Whoever wants to be Jesus’ disciple must leave everything - ‘house, brothers, land, mother, father’(Matthew). In Luke, the formulation of this demand is less strict. The term ‘leave’ is weakened to ‘hate’ – weakened, because for a Semite ‘hate’ in such a context meant ‘to love less’. Jesus approvingly states a fact of religious psychology; in view of their joy in finding the ‘hidden pearl’ some people cannot do other than live as unmarried. But there is absolutely no question of a law commanding this. Thus, the NT knows no juridically binding connection between office in the Church and celibacy, but it recognises something more fundamental - that the religious experience of the overpowering attraction of God’s Kingdom and of being involved in establishing it becomes, for some people, a condition which makes entrance into marriage impossible in practice. Still, the image of the Church official in Apostolic times is that of a married person, who is a good parent.

• The Encratic Influence.
• Elvira, c295-302 - Imposes celibacy on bishops, priests and deacons, but has not universal application.
• Nicaea, 325 - Forbids marriage after receiving orders.
• Popes Innocent I in 401 & Pope Leo I, 440-461, allow married priests to live with their wives ‘as brothers and sisters’.
• Trullo, 692 - Forbids marriage after receiving orders.
• Pope Nicholas II forbade the faithful from attending Mass said by a priest who was not celibate in 1059.
• With Gregory VII in 1073, celibacy became a condition for entering the presbyteral ministry.
• The First Lateran Council (1123) prohibited those in holy orders from marrying and ordered all married priests to renounce their wives and do penance. The Second Lateran Council (1139) declared celibacy a law of the universal Church. It said that marriage of subdeacons, deacons, or priests after their ordination was invalid. Candidates for the priesthood who were already married might not receive any higher orders unless they severed all relations with their wives.
• Trent confirms the discipline.
Motives for the Law.
• Divine Intimacy
• Cultic Purity
• Attraction of the Kingdom (Mt 19.12)
• Social Motives
• Evangelically Inspired
• Pope Paul VI: Christ, Church & Eschaton
• Pope John Paul II: Freedom for Service & Sign of Fidelity
Conclusion
Richard Sipe says: ‘Celibacy is a freely chosen dynamic state, usually vowed, that involves an honest and sustained attempt to live without direct sexual gratification in order to serve others productively for a spiritual motive’. While the Church never imposes celibacy on anyone against his will or obliges anyone to become a priest, she has the right to impose restrictions on the manner of life of those whom she chooses as her ministers. On the basis of the biblical connection between religious celibacy and the Kingdom of God, she has concretised the state of life of all who wish to freely accept office in the Church into a Christian way of life that makes them available to all in a special way. Therefore, she permits only those who feel themselves called to celibacy to enter the ranks of her ministerial priesthood.



Chapter 12 Inter Insigniores


Reasons for not ordaining women as priests.
1. Jesus Christ did not call any woman to be part of the twelve apostles.
2. The Apostles did not include any women in the apostolic group.
3. From the earliest centuries, the constant practice of the Church has been not to ordain women to the priesthood.
4. No natural resemblance to act in the name of Jesus.
5. Not a human rights issue.
6. Church has not got the authority.

Reasons given for showing that women can minister as priests.
1. Jesus liberates women.
2. During the Last Supper, Jesus empowered women to preside at the Eucharist.
3. Church is called to be Liberated from Prejudice.
4. Affirmed in latent tradition.
5. Women were Ordained as Deacons.
6. Supported by developments in other Christian Churches.
7. Called by the Holy Spirit

SUMMARY
• Basis of Sacrament: Heb 5 (Jesus the compassionate High Priest of the Order of Melchizedek).
• Institution: Mt 18:18 (binding & loosing), Lk 22:19 (Do this in memory of me).
• Practice: 2 Tim 1:6 (Fan into a flame the gift God gave you, when I laid my hands on you).
• Prophetic Act: Lk 6:12-16 (Choice of 12); 9:1-6 (Mission of 12).
• Doctrine: The sacrament of Order was instituted by Christ and is conferred through the imposition of hands and the prayer of ordination. The minister of the sacrament is the bishop. The sacrament confers the Holy Spirit and grace for the exercise of the ministry. It imprints a sacramental character which conforms the recipient to Christ the Priest. Some ministries can be conferred on lay people by installation.

TEN PRINCIPLES FOR A PRIEST’S LIFE PATTERN

1. How I live as a priest is more important than what I do as a priest.
2. What Christ does through me is more important that what I do by myself.
3. It is more important for me to live in union with the presbyterium than to be alone and absorbed in my work.
4. The ministry of prayer and the word is more important than serving at tables.
5. It is more important to work united with my fellow workers than to do the maximum number of jobs all by myself.
6. It is more important to concentrate on a few points and to influence others than to be hurried and incomplete in everything.
7. Joint action is more important than isolated action, no matter how perfect.
8. The cross is more important than efficiency; it is more fruitful.
9. Openness to the whole (community, diocese, Church throughout the world) is more important than a particular interest, no matter how important that may be.
10. It is more important that the faith be witnessed to all than that all ‘traditional’ demands be satisfied. (From ‘The meaning of Christian Priesthood’ by Gisbert Greshake).