Expectations of laymen from the priests and the consecrated

Dr. K. M. Francis

Former Professor, Department of Economics, St. Thomas' College, Thrissur - 1, Kerala, INDIA
franciskm@ymail.com

While the Church thinks about the different steps that she should resort to in order to renew the priestly and religious formation in response to the signs of the time, information regarding the expectations of the laymen with regard to the ministry of the priests and the religious, is essential. To develop this paper an opinion survey was not conducted to abstract the expectations of the laymen. I have presented in this paper my personal opinions on the subject. How do we know that my expectations from priests and the consecrated are the same as the expectations of the people of God? For that purpose I have relied on my personal experiences which are in congruence with the expectations of the laymen in my acquaintance, and the observations of the Magisterium . More than hearsays and mere opinions this paper considered the congruence between intelligence and reality. This paper, in other words, is not with “those who think that truth is born of consensus and not between intellect and reality” (Fides et Ratio 56).The study of reality is philosophy and study of Man is one branch of philosophy. Since this seminar is related to the discussion of the anomalies gone into the curriculum frame work and syllabus of seminary formation, the paradigm behind the curriculum and syllabus should be re-viewed first.

Paradigm is a term framed and popularized by a scientist named Thomas S Kuhn, in his book The Structure of Scientific Revolution(1962). He analyzes the steps in the growth of knowledge, which is essential for framing curriculum. Reality grows through a particular sequence. In the language of physical science every reality is formed through the atoms of different elements.     Elements together form relations; many relations together form structures. Many structures join together and form systems and many systems together form organism. Knowledge also grows through the same sequence.  Kuhn says that growth of knowledge has the following sequence: 

1. normal science
2. puzzle solving 
3. paradigm 
4. anomaly 
5. crisis 
6. revolution. 

Normal science includes basic variables, its relations i.e. laws and different theoretical structures within a system. This system is the basis of paradigm. According to Kuhn, paradigms are integral to normal science, practiced by a scientific community, which continues as long as there is plenty to do, open problems which yield to research using methods (laws, instruments) acknowledged by the tradition. In this light I observe that the existing seminary formation, though is based on certain paradigm, is found to be incapable of solving puzzles/anomalies in the consecrated life.

What are some of the anomalies pointed out by laymen in the life of the consecrated? Some of them are: 
a) priority to fulfill material needs 
b) absence of personal spirituality 
c) elitism 
d) single approach to all categories of the faithful and 
e) partiality towards the rich, the powerful and the beautiful. 

These are, in my opinion, mere symptoms of something else, which are discussed in the following subsections. This paper is an attempt to probe into the praxis (theory + practice) structures of seminary formation.

a)    Priority to fulfill material needs: What do people need? And what do they expect?

What people expect from the Church and what they need are entirely different.  So it is the task of the religious to identify what actually people need, no matter what they expect from you.  People approached Jesus Christ to receive material benefits but Jesus provided them with Food for Eternal Life.  So the fundamental duty of a priest and the religious is to show the ways and means to get Eternal Life.  Sacraments are the ways through which the Church provides eternal life to ‘Man’. If the priests do not have the time to provide sacraments to the people of God, the identity of the priests will be shattered. But now the priorities of the priests and the religious are to provide food, clothing, health and shelter – the fundamental material needs of the people. In the words of St. John Paul II,“In the Encyclical Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, I stated that ‘the Church does not have technical solutions to offer for the solution of the urgent problem of underdevelopment’ but ‘offers her first contribution to the solution of the urgent problem of development when she proclaims the truth about Christ, about herself and about man, applying this truth to a concrete situation.’ The Conference of Latin American Bishops at Puebla stated that ‘the best service we can offer to our brother is evangelization, which helps him to live and act as a son of God, sets him free from injustices and assists his overall development.’ It is not the Church's mission to work directly on the economic technical or political levels, or to contribute materially to development. Rather, her mission consists essentially in offering people an opportunity not to ‘have more’ but to ‘be more’ by awakening their consciences through the Gospel. Authentic human development must be rooted in an ever deeper evangelization"(Redemptoris Missio58).Why do priests and the consecrated lose their priority and spend most of their energy in providing the people with ‘having more’ rather than making them ‘being more’? This is only a symptom of the deep rooted problems in the formation itself.

The curriculum of seminary formation includes three areas: spirituality, philosophy and theology. What are the different activities seminarians engage themselves in during the period assigned to them for spiritual training? Is there any specific structure for spiritual training? If they receive sufficient training in spirituality priests will provide spiritual guidance to People of God. If people go astray, it indicates the lacuna in the spiritual growth during the formation period of the priests. An analysis of the existing(?) personal spiritual formation may give light to these lacunas.

b)    Absence of Personal Spirituality

Catholic life is centered on the fulcrum of prayer.“Master (Dear Priests) teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1). Has the Church succeeded in training the people to pray?  Human life has two dimensions: individual and social.  Prayer also has two dimensions: individual and social.  Christians in general do not have personal prayer and relationship with the Creator.  Spirituality is personal relationship.  Can a Christian personally realize a relationship with his Creator?  Or, is it reserved to priests and the religious alone?  If not, what pastoral plan has been developed by the Church for an ordinary Christian for developing his personal relationship with his Creator?  Is there any such scheme already prepared by the Church? After 2000 years of tradition the general assembly of Syro Malabar church decided to formulate a common prayer book only now, August 2016!

We know that only those good habits formed in the early childhood can be developed in later years.  If people are not trained at a very early age to follow a personal spiritual life, how can the seminarians, who lived in the families up to the age of 18, without having any habits of personal spirituality, be given training for spirituality later, i.e. after their admission to a seminary?

The fundamental lacuna in Christian spiritual life is the reason for the lack spirituality of the priests and the consecrated. But who is responsible for that? The priests should accept this responsibility. The fundamental dogmas--normal science of the Church-- entrusted this responsibility to the priests. Does a layman have the right to print a personal prayer book? Even though the responsibility is on the priests to practice themselves and train the people in personal prayer they cannot because they are not hearing the gospel. Pope Francis says that hearing kerygma again and again is the foundation of Christian life and spirituality(Amoris Laetitia 58, Evangelii Gaudium 35,164,165). The term ‘hearing the gospel’ has to be interpreted further.

In prayer and spiritual life there is only one category i.e. God and man. God speaks and man hears. Now, priests speak and laymen hear! Let us hear Pope Benedict XVI“ Each member of the People of God has different duties and responsibilities with respect to the word of God. Accordingly, the faithful listen to God’s word and meditate on it, but those who have the office of teaching by virtue of sacred ordination or have been entrusted with exercising that ministry”, namely, bishops, priests and deacons, “expound the word of God” (Verbum Domini 59). For example the first proclamation of the Church (kerygma) states that it is you who crucified and killed Jesus by the hands of lawless men but God delivered him from death (Acts 2:22). When a priest hears this, does he consider himself as a person included in the phrase ‘you crucified’ or does he consider himself as a ‘spotless lamb?’. Even after hearing this statement he/she considers himself /herself as spotless; they are not hearing. This fundamental error is magnified in Islam. Christians classify people as priests (divine) and the lay(profane) men; Islam classifies people as the faithful and the khafir. In this respect Islam is better than Christianity because they preach their good news to the world, while Christians(priests) preach the good news to their laymen who are already ‘the faithful’.

          Take another example Gospel says “…you have not Gods love within you” (John 5:42).  Does this “you” include priests and the consecrated? Confession should begin from the statement that “I love myself more than anything else”. Preachers (including the priests and the consecrated) while preaching, proclaim to the laymen that “you are loving yourself more than God”, instead of admitting that “we are loving ourselves more than God”. They project their own selves and are not preaching; instead it is an accusation arising out of their own guilt consciousness. Fortunately, my grandparents preached, kerygma, in my house, by stating that we are responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and I started to confess that ‘God delivered Jesus Christ from death, who was crucified byme’. This, I think is the basis of Christian spirituality. Absence of this spirituality creates a feeling that, we are superior to the others. Now the priests and the religious are the complainants and the laymen are the accused in the crucifixion event. This is elitism. Let us first observe the definition of elitism as given by St. John Paul II. He states “That seems still more evident today, if we think of Christianity's contribution to the affirmation of the right of everyone to have access to the truth. In dismantling barriers of race, social status and gender, Christianity proclaimed from first the equality of all men and women before God. One prime implication of this touched the theme of truth. The elitism which had characterized the ancients' search for truth was clearly abandoned. Since access to the truth enables access to God, it must be denied to none. There are many paths which lead to truth, but since Christian truth has a salvific value, any one of these paths may be taken, as long as it leads to the final goal, that is to the Revelation of Jesus Christ”.(Fides et ratio 38).Elsewhere he says ”It is also necessary to recognize and overcome certain temptations which sometimes, by diabolical deceit, present themselves under the appearance of good. Thus, for example, the legitimate need to be familiar with today's society in order to respond to its challenges can lead to a surrender to passing fashions, with a consequent lessening of spiritual fervour or a succumbing to discouragement. The possibility of a deeper spiritual formation might lead consecrated persons to feel somehow superior to other members of the faithful……. (Vita Consecrata 38).

c)     Eradicate Elitism

Priests and the religious assume that by way of Ordination or by virtue of special training, they are getting privileged position in knowledge – so they believe that, they have better knowledge than the laymen have.  This creates elitism.  Due to elitism priests never listen to laymen; instead, they sit in the seat of Judgment, which is the specter/phantom of inquisition.

If any layman makes any mistake while preaching or writing an article, priests hurry to form themselves a group and attack him as if he has done a mortal sin.  At the same time they ignore the dogmatic mistakes committed by priests themselves in their talk or writing.  Priests always give importance to who said it instead of what is said.  This is a major stumbling block in the growth of philosophy. Is there any possibility to appear fundamental mistakes in the proclamations of the Saints and the Popes? If so, why do we worry much about the theoretical errors of laymen?

d)    Need for Multiple Approaches

Different categories of people have different approaches to maintain relationship. A human being grows through the following sequence: infant, child, adolescent, youth, middle age and old age. In each stage of his life, man needs to be satiated with different types of behaviors.

a)     Infants need to be pampered

b)    Children need (rely on) fantasy

c)     Teenagers need emotion

d)    Youth need reason

e)     The middle aged need recognition

f)      Old people need respect.

The above categorization has two dimensions. Firstly, if a man in his growth missed any one of the above inputs, until his death he will seek it. This is applicable to priests and the religious also. Pope Francis says about this in the context of family (Amoris Laetitia 239,240) and in the context of seminary formation (Amoris Laetitia203). In his words “Understandably, families often experience problems when one of their members is emotionally immature because he or she still bears the scars of earlier experiences. An unhappy childhood or adolescence can breed personal crises that affect one’s marriage. Were everyone mature and normal, crises would be less frequent or less painful. Yet the fact is that only in their forties do some people achieve a maturity that should have come at the end of adolescence. Some love with the selfish, capricious and self-centred love of a child: an insatiable love that screams or cries when it fails to get what it wants. Others love with an adolescent love marked by hostility, bitter criticism and the need to blame others; caught up in their own emotions and fantasies, such persons expect others to fill their emptiness and to satisfy their every desire.”(Amoris Laetitia239)

“Many people leave childhood without ever having felt unconditional love. This affects their ability to be trusting and open with others. A poor relationship with one’s parents and siblings, if left unhealed, can re-emerge and hurt a marriage. Unresolved issues need to be dealt with and a process of liberation must take place.”(Amoris Laetitia240)

“Seminarians should receive a more extensive interdisciplinary, and not merely doctrinal, formation in the areas of engagement and marriage. Their training does not always allow them to explore their own psychological and affective background and experiences. Some come from troubled families, with absent parents and a lack of emotional stability. There is a need to ensure that the formation process can enable them to attain the maturity and psychological balance needed for their future ministry. Family bonds are essential for reinforcing healthy self-esteem.”(Amoris Laetitia203)

Secondly, the priests should keep in mind the above categorization when they approach different categories of people. How did the Catholic Church formulate its Catechism texts for the children and teenagers? There is not even a single story in the entire curriculum. This is the cause of the failure in the catechism system of the Church. Jesus knew how to teach. So he used stories to teach. The church disregarded the stories from the bible and developed catechism texts. Do the priests know how to respect the old aged? People say no. Do the priests know how to present Gospel to the youth? It is the opinion of the laymen that the priests and the consecrated only know the language of authority and  not the congruence of intellect and reality.

e)     Need of a Catholic philosophy

St. John Paul II says that “The Church has no philosophy of her own nor does she canonize any one particular philosophy in preference to others”(Fides et Ratio 49 ). This statement is a confession. Philosophy deals with the study of the nature of reality. If Church does not have a philosophy or an understanding about the nature of reality of man how can she explain the way through which grace fulfills nature? St. Thomas Aquinas says that Grace never contradicts or substitutes nature, instead it fulfills nature. Are the vows of evangelical counsels contradictory to the nature of man/fulfillment of human nature? If the vows which are taken by the consecrated are contradictory to authentic and basic human nature, then the state of the consecrated must be superior to laymen! If that is the case, you may give formation to the seminarians to become consecrated as ‘superior’ to the laymen. If on the other hand the consecrated life is the fulfillment of human nature, you must train the seminarians to become authentic human persons. Let us hear pope Francis “Consequently, ‘it is not a matter of diminishing the value of matrimony in favour of continence’. ‘There is no basis for playing one off against the other… If, following a certain theological tradition, one speaks of a ‘state of perfection’ (status perfection is), this has to do not with continence in itself, but with the entirety of a life based on the evangelical counsels’. A married person can experience the highest degree of charity and thus ‘reach the perfection which flows from charity, through fidelity to the spirit of those counsels. Such perfection is possible and accessible to every man and woman” (Amoris Laetitia160).

What is the basic nature of an animal regarding food, sex, power and rest? Every animal is intent on satiating the above stated needs to the maximum. Animal is a sub-set of man. In other words all characteristics of animal nature are dormant in man. This does not mean that human beings are not transcending animal nature. Man can transcend above described animal nature only with grace. Loss of grace due to sin is hindering human beings to transcend animal nature within his being. Vows to follow evangelical counsels are a wrestling of man with his own perverted human nature to become an authentic man. Without grace no man can fulfill this. Here is the need of spirituality. In the absence of spiritual life, the consecrated cannot fulfill their vows. The vows are not be trespassed directly. Instead, its symptoms will be manifested in the life of the consecrated. Though they take the oath of poverty, they love only the rich (hope, they do not appear being lost to gluttony); though they take the oath of celibacy they love only the beautiful; though they take the oath of obedience they love only those who are in power; though they are called to keep night vigil in prayer to fight idleness and laziness, many priests and the religious find themselves too busy to be awake with the lord even for an hour. The nature of the cherished acquaintances of the consecrated shows whether they are following the vows or not. The laymen always complain that the consecrated love only the rich, the powerful and the beautiful. St. James says “My brethren, show me partiality as you hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man with gold rings and in fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “Have a seat here, please,” while you say to the poor man, “Stand there,” or, “Sit at my feet,”  have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?  Listen, my beloved brethren. Has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he has promised to those who love him? “But you have dishonoured the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you, is it not they who drag you into court? Is it not they who blaspheme the honourable name which was invoked over you?”(James 2:2-7). So train an aspirant fundamentally to become ‘man’, not to become a priest or a religious.