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[voiceinthedesert]

PRIESTS: RELIGIOUS LEADERS, DOCTORS OF THE SOUL
(a critique of Card. Joseph Bernardin's article of the same name)

Prior to his death, I had corresponded with Cardinal Bernardin on
several theological issues, but his article on priesthood had caught
my particular attention. "The souls of Catholics wither", says
Cardinal Bernardin, "as they increasingly find themselves unable to
find good preaching." Indeed, I thought to myself, Justice,
Holiness, and Truth, the pillars of Charity and mercy, are seldom
even mentioned. Truth has become a bad word in the academia (my own
graduate thesis titled God, the Most Excellent Spirit of All Reading
and Writing and Thinking: A Catholic Perspective was brutally
rejected by the secular-atheistic faculty at an American
University). This secular-humanistic tendency has somehow
extrapolated to many priests and teachers who "ceased to be "like
Moses, standing between the people and God, holy one, transparent to
the Divine." Yet, "in order to be bearers of God, doctors of the
soul, and spiritual directors and shepherds" Cardinal Bernardin
postulates, "priests should be spiritually superior to the rest."

Cardinal Bernardin is very right that "there is a gnawing hunger now
for the food of the spirit, for those words, insights, visions and
dreams that speak of the deep things of God." And he very aptly
describes the ideal priest. But there is an abyss between the ideal
and the real, and here comes my criticism. Perhaps unwittingly, the
Cardinal omits the key point that the "bearers of truth and
doctors," before they even become such, they must themselves undergo
many dark nights of spirit and of sense, and that the mere learning
about spirituality is simply not enough! Too many priests today have
never experienced any real suffering for Christ, and as a
consequence have little knowledge about the Cross and about the true
Love, and this should be heeded by those entrusted with the priestly
formation!

Moreover, I applaud Cardinal Bernardin's idea that "priests ought to
be mystics, contemplatives, and persons of prayer," and that "the
mystagogues are themselves artists in some respect." But again, a
deeper analysis shows that even more forceful recipe is required.
For example, Cardinal Bernardin never says that priests themselves
should become saints if they are ever to become "good preachers and
teachers the people want." For ultimately good preachers and
teachers, rather than "students of art," are students of God! It is
not only dialectics, I think, what the priests must study, or the
Sixtine Chapel, or Meister Eckhart. What they must study, and
practice and live, is morality, purity of heart, nobility and
justice, sensitivity to the marginated, and the true meaning and
sense of sanctity in this life - the cross!

As far as the two examples the Cardinal gives regarding the "times
when one feels most- called to be priest," I think they are
excellent. The work of a priest is "a noble service, requiring
courage, discernment, and sacrifice." In both examples the
priests "first said no, but then went," much like the "good son" in
the Parable of the Vineyard. The priest, says the Cardinal, "must be
Christ to every person, beginning with the one most in need." The
Cardinal rightly observes that the work of a priest "requires great
sensitivity, and that the priest "must be in the richest sense
possible spiritual director, mystical guide, shaman." A great damage
is done to the Church and to the faith by priests who do not measure
up.

All said, notwithstanding a few shortcomings, Cadinal Joseph
Bernardin's article "Priests: Religious Leaders, Doctors of the
Soul" is an excellent step in the right direction towards a more
meaningful and enlightened priestly formation for the tumultuous
future that awaits us.

[misterpee]

Eugeniusz Pacelli, przyszły papież Pius XII, wypowiedział swego
czasu zadziwiającą przepowiednię odnośnie do przyszłych zaburzeń w
Kościele: Zmartwiło mnie przesłanie Matki Bożej skierowane do Łucji
z Fatimy. Poprzez znaczące słowa Maryi na temat niebezpieczeństw,
które zagrażają Kościołowi, Bóg ostrzega [nas] przed samobójczym w
skutkach wypaczaniem wiary, [wyrażonej] w jego liturgii, w jego
teologii, w jego duszy. (…) Dokoła słyszę głosy nowinkarzy,
pragnących rozebrać Święty Przybytek, stłumić płomień powszechności
Kościoła, odrzucić to, co jest jego chlubą, i sprawić, by poczuł
wyrzuty sumienia z powodu swej przeszłości. Przyjdzie dzień, kiedy
cywilizowany świat odrzuci swego Boga, kiedy Kościół zwątpi, tak jak
zwątpił Piotr. Będzie kuszony, by wierzyć, że człowiek stał się
Bogiem. W naszych kościołach chrześcijanie szukać będą bezskutecznie
czerwonej lampki, [wskazującej miejsce] gdzie czeka ich Bóg.
Podobnie jak Maria Magdalena, płacząca przy pustym grobie, będą
pytać: „Dokąd Go zabrali?” (Roche, Pie XII devant l’historie, s. 52–
53).

[stara_swinia_nowynick]

smutne to ale jak widać prawdziwe, skoro podjesz już książki i numery stron
dawaj dalej albo wal na priva ;-)

[misterpee]

ELEISON COMMENTS CL (May 29, 2010) : EMBATTLED BOYS.




EC 146 told of the difficulty that teaching Sisters have with
today's girls. EC 147 traced the problem back to the home. Now, some
of you ask, what about the boys ? Catholics know that boys and
girls, as to the saving of their souls for the next life, are equal,
so both must be prepared alike, first and foremost, to get to
Heaven. But about there the likeness ends. God has appointed man and
woman for quite different roles in this life, which is why the
Church has always condemned co-education. Then what do boys
specifically need ?




As woman has gifts of heart to look after home and children, so man
has gifts of reason to lead them and provide for them by, ever since
original sin, "the sweat of his brow" (Gen. III, 19). Therefore
while a girl's formation must centre around what will serve husband
and children inside the home, a boy's formation should train him for
(1) work and (2) responsibility outside the home, which will usually
mean, in the big bad world. There he is going to need (3) judgment,
(4) self-discipline and (5) manliness. We already have quite a
programme !




In this programme, the example given to a boy by his father is all-
important ! Parents of today, you must have been yourselves formed
20 to 30 years ago, well after the revolutionary 1960's. Do all of
you realize what that means ? Do have the humility to recognize that
your own formation, in school and/or home, most likely ill prepared
you to raise children so to live as to get to Heaven. Fathers, set
about correcting your own indolence, irresponsibility, silliness,
self-indulgence and unmanliness, and you will be doing the very best
you can for your boys !




WORK outside in nature is the best. Let a boy swing an axe, cut down
a tree, plant a garden, ride a horse, build a shed. Sport at best is
manly recreation, but it is not meant to be any more than
recreation. A genuine need of the family best teaches
RESPONSIBILITY, also taught by a boy's suffering from the
consequences of his own mistakes, instead of being protected from
them. JUDGMENT he will learn by being encouraged to use his mind, by
discussions at the family table, by the company and instruction of
his father whom he naturally hero-worships and follows, but who must
take time to listen to his boy and counsel him, especially in
adolescence. DISCIPLINE he will learn by getting up early in the
morning, by a daily routine to which he sticks, by getting early to
bed, and by not dating until, more or less, he is looking to marry.
The less he gives to girls he will not marry, the more he will have
to give to the girl he will marry. MANLINESS will be the reward for
following out such a programme.

Finally, parents, notice how electronics as a rule make a boy 1
idle, 2 irresponsible, 3 silly, 4 soft and 5 frustrated.



Cast out of the home electronics' spell,


If your boys are not to drop into Hell !




Kyrie eleison.