History shows that the message of the Gospel has been best radiated by the Church when Christianity has been persecuted or greatly at odds with the culture of the day.

Pope Benedict has chosen the counter-cultural John Marie Vianney, the Curé of Ars, as Patron Saint for the Year of the Priest.

Even in his own day (1786-1859) Vianney would have been seen by the world at large, and by his fellow clergy, as one who was swimming against the tide. This humble, ascetic, emaciated, poorly educated, single minded priest symbolised a world that the French revolutionaries of the 1790s, who had enthroned the Goddess of Reason in Notre Dame Cathedral, thought they had buried forever.

If St Vianney was considered an anomaly in the nineteenth century, how would he be seen in the twenty-first? The American independent scholar and lawyer, James Kalb, in his book The Tyranny of Liberalism, describes Western society thus: “Because the world is to be re-created with man’s pleasure as the standard, human power – money, position, manipulative skill – are all that truly matter. History, tradition, biology, and religion become obstacles to be overcome as irrelevancies to be put to the side, rather than am order of things to be valued and accepted. Power and pleasure become the ultimate goods … religion turned into a ‘preference’”.

One could scarcely challenge that diagnosis, but to us as twenty first century priests, keepers of the mystery, can the Curé of Ars be relevant? Yes – if we acknowledge that saints are for inspiration not necessarily imitation.

We are called to distil the essence of the Curé’s faith life. The current post Vatican II aphorism, The Eucharist, the source and summit of our faith life, would have been unknown to Vianney, but its intent and purpose was central to his daily life. For him it was “the Mass that matters”. The daily Eucharist gave him sustenance for his long hours in the confessional. No doubt St John of Ars would have been amazed at the liturgical, rubrical and linguistic changes in the Mass since his day, but in line with his utter fidelity to ecclesia docens he would have absorbed them easily.

It is as a minister of the Sacrament of Reconciliation (would he have understood the change of emphasis that this name signifies) that he has become an icon for parish priests.

Sixteen hours a day in the confessional? An hour a day for multi-tasked priests in Australian parishes would be difficult, even supposing that penitents would come.

In the brief spring-time of the Third Rite of Reconciliation in the 1990s, it was recognised that those communal celebrations of the sacrament provided stepping stones to the First Rite. The misguided belief that the banning of the Third Rite would lead to a renewal of the First has proved to be a will o’ the wisp.

Nevertheless in this Year of the Priest, a time to reflect on the essence of our priesthood, we must take seriously Pope Benedict’s appeal that we proclaim enthusiastically the value of this sacrament for the faith lives of our people.

We are custodians of the Christian wisdom of the past. We recognise that while many in the scientific age have their eyes set on Mars, for us, a journey to Ars, at least in spirit, can be of great sacerdotal sustenance.

A Brief Encounter

The ABC on Sunday morning 16 August devoted the weekly radio program Encounter to the topic of the shortage of priests in Australia.

This media spotlight on a topical question proffered the usual pastiche of conflicting opinions from a wide range of concerned people. Quick-fix solutions, so beloved by our secular society, were given in abundance. One rural parishioner in NSW believed that the crisis would be over when he was able to attend a 7:30 am Mass on Sunday.

The importation of more priests from overseas was mooted. Two Indian priests working in the Maitland diocese were interviewed. They spoke eloquently and graciously of their warm reception by the Australian people. One mentioned that cricket is pastorally useful as a topic of conversation. The secular nature of Australian culture and the lack of young people at Mass had surprised them.

Of course there were advocates of voluntary celibacy. Fr Tony Percy, Rector of the Good Shepherd Seminary at Homebush, quoted the wife of a non-Catholic minister who advised the Catholic Church not to abolish celibacy!

Fr Eric Hodgens of Melbourne demonstrated mathematically that even the most sympathetic interpretation of the numbers in Australian seminaries showed there would be a continuing dramatic decline in the availability of priests to serve as pastors.

On that same night of 16 August, John Cleary, an ABC presenter on talkback, spoke of two current reports of paedophile priests and invited listeners to comment. Did they think, he asked, the culture (presumably of celibacy) was responsible for these perversions? It is ironic that on the day of these broadcasts we heard at Mass from the ninth chapter of Proverbs that Wisdom has built for herself a house of seven pillars.

The seven sacramental pillars of the Catholic Church, at least in the Western world, are being progressively weakened by the scarcity of priests. The same chapter of the Book of Proverbs contrasts Lady Wisdom with Dame Folly. The latter “acts on impulse is childish and knows nothing” (Proverbs 9:13).

History shows that the opposing voices of Lady Wisdom and Dame Folly have needed careful discernment in the 2,000 years of the Church’s life. For some the proposed liturgical changes, at a time of a sacramentally life-threatening crisis, may seem to be a distraction. Whatever the many inadequacies of the current English translation used at Mass over forty years, it has impressed itself on the collective memory of the numerically ever dwindling Eucharistic worshippers. Congregations welcome its comforting familiarity. There is no such thing as timeless English. The belief that the new translation will stem the tide of unfaith shows little understanding of the pastoral realities of our day.

A brief Encounter of fifty minutes may inform, but does not bring any solutions to our overwhelming pastoral challenges.

A national convention of representative bishops, priests, religious and laity, perhaps similar to the Federal Government’s colloquy on the republican proposals, might, if nothing else, demonstrate that the lay-faithfuls’ baptismal sharing in the priesthood of Christ is taken seriously.

Guest Editors: Robert Egar & Bob Wilkinson