The Pastoral Care of The Clergy

Extract

A few years ago, it would have sounded unthinkably liberal to say that a priest should not let a week go by without spending an evening socially with laymen. To many maybe it still does. But the point is obvious enough; there is no better way for a priest to cut through platitudes and pat answers and learn to address himself directly to realities than through candid and honest conversation with lay friends, on a level of social parity and about matters of common human interest, and not merely those of a professional, ecclesiastical nature. Such exchanges would benefit particularly the young priest and help him overcome the brash and insensitive enthusiasm which is so often the product of much education and little experience. This would appear to be what Vatican II’s Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests means in its statement that ‘the Word of God ought not to be explained in a general and abstract way, but rather by applying the lasting truth of the Gospel to the particular circumstances of life.’ In its first chapter this decree states that, although priests are taken from among men and ordained for men, they are nevertheless to ‘live on earth with other men as brothers,’ and in a manner which is marked by such human virtues as affability and sincerity. ‘They are not to be separated from the people of God or from any other person.’ The reason for this is quite clear: ‘They cannot be of service to men if they remain strangers to the life and conditions of men.’