THE DIOCESAN PRIESTS NEED COMMUNITY

Posted on March 14, 2022 by franksantucci

As a Missionary Oblate, community life was an essential aspect of Bishop Eugene’s life. He understood the difficulty of living and working alone without fraternal encouragement. Without a link to a supportive community the priest could succumb to problems. His diary entry shows that this had happened to one of the priests in his diocese.

Is it a warning, is it a reproach that the Lord is giving me today? I have just learned that a priest of my diocese is behaving badly, from which I conclude that I must, more than ever, insist that the priests live in community. This one arrived at this excess only gradually.

Eugene’s solution was to insist that all the diocesan priests serving in the same parish would live together. His appeal led to major opposition among the clergy.

Do I not have to blame myself for having stopped myself in front of almost insurmountable obstacles, I must admit that from every corner there is opposition to the resolution that I had taken to oblige my priests to live in community? This example will provide me a further argument, when finally I shall smash all the obstacles which each has not ceased to place before the execution of a plan which was conceived only in a supernatural perspective for the honor of the Church and the preservation of the clergy.

He had been so discouraged by their reaction and had not pushed strongly enough.

If I had been helped a little, I would have obtained more results than those which I have been able to obtain. Has it not been said that I was the only one to insist on this measure, and that I would be obliged to give it up.

Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary, 3 October 1844, EO XXI

Eugene insisted on this until the day of his death, but it was a losing battle that dissolved on the day after his death.

This entry was posted in WRITINGS. Bookmark the permalink.

One Response to THE DIOCESAN PRIESTS NEED COMMUNITY

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Oblate Associate says:
    March 14, 2022 at 10:48

    Even knowing that ‘one size’ does not always fit all I understand why Eugene as their bishop was demanding that they form and live in small communities. His own experience of trying to do it on his own had contributed to his almost dying. But trying to demand that all of his priests find in his way of doing things – an effort that surely was doomed even as it began.

    I laugh as I think back – my mother always wanted me to settle down, get married and have children, just as she had done. It was what she knew and was a way of life that surely would bring me happiness. Her dream not mine and what worked for her was not what I was called to.

    Eugene was a man with a heart as big as the world. He loved, he loved all those he served, not just his Oblate sons or the poor and abandoned – he wanted for his diocesan priests what his Oblate sons experienced and lived. Eugene was a passionate man, but obviously his passion would not be able to change the hearts of some of his priests.

    I think of the Synodal Journey that we as a Church have embarked on – a journey for which we have all been invited to take part in. Praying, discerning, listening and sharing demands great trust and loving service from all of us. It is something that I have responded to with a joyful “Yes”, but not all others believe in it.

    God created each of us in God’s image and likeness. And God will offer us the grace and the love for us to respond to the type of life to which we are called. One size does not fit all, but there is room for every single one of us in God’s house.

    This reminds me that ‘my way’ is not necessarily the way for all others.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *