The mass exodus from the priesthood is one of the Great Facts of the American Church of the last half century. One source reports that in the decade after the Council the Church lost over 100,000 priests. Leaving the priesthood became the "new normal." Most of us number them among our friends and family. They are on the whole admirable men: talented, altruistic, generous, intelligent, seriously spiritual, and living wholesome, fruitful lives.
<p>We know that the sacrament of Holy Orders imprints a permanent, indelible spiritual seal upon the soul of the recipient. This mysterious imprint, like that of baptism and confirmation, cannot be removed...not by the pope, not by laicization, not by a change of mind. And so departure from the priesthood presents a deeper dilemma than does that from the religious life. In the later, we see dispensation from a vow and a permission to marry. With the priesthood, there is such a dispensation and permission, but the permanent seal remains. What are we Catholics to make of this invisible, now covert seal? It is not nothing. It is not erased. It cannot be entirely ignored or dismissed. It is a Mystery worth pondering.
<p>It is said that the sin of a priest, because of the graces received in ordination, is more grave and consequential. A deeper place in hell is said to be reserved for bad priests. That makes sense within the Catholic economy of sin and grace.
<p>What is the grace of ordination? I think of it as an interior configuration to the person of Jesus Christ, an extraordinary identification, of even greater intimacy-depth-intensity than that of baptism/confirmation. With that comes sacramental powers, especially to absolve sin and confect the Eucharist, and a share in the governance and teaching authority of the Church. If a man is laicized, released from the clerical state and obligations, marries in a valid sacramental manner and lives a grace-filled married Catholic life...the permanent seal remains in place. This defies understanding.
<p>For many (hard to quantify), departure from the priesthood entailed a rejection in part of Catholic life and thought: marrying non-sacramentally without laicization, entry into a gay lifestyle, acceptance of the sterilization of sexuality in contraception, contempt for the masculinity of the priesthood, and typically the embrace of the "therapeutic" or left wing politics as surrogate religions. This then is part of the Great Apostasy of the Church of our generation. It is a profound error of the intellect, not a volitional act of bad will. It flows from a judgment against the Church; a distrust; an attitude of superiority against a "retrograde" institution.
<p>The departed priests who marry sacramentally, raise families, and live charitable, generous lives seem to be normal lay persons, living out their baptismal/confirmation graces, detached from the official acts of the Church. But the seal remains. What do we make of that? I do not know. It seems best to not probe too deeply. But it is not nothing. We need to wonder at it.
<p>Particularly interesting are those who do not marry or who marry and then divorce. They in effect remain in, or return to, the celibate life. Alone. Here the intimacy with Jesus that is granted in ordination is able to flourish. Without wife and children, the ex-priest can lean into the profound relationship into which he surrendered on his ordination day. He can renew a deepened life of prayer and charity as providence invites. Some priests seek laicization but are not dispensed from celibacy or the daily office. One such was Ivan Illich: the brilliant, eccentric, iconoclastic, mystical, ascetical provocateur who maintained his vows of celibacy and prayer of the daily office as he pursued an entirely strange, extraordinary life of thought.
<p>I have known others who went on to live quiet, modest, hidden, ordinary Catholic lives...prayerful, filially obedient to the Church, generous in simple ways. I think of St. Charles de Focault who remained a priest but buried himself in the Sahara desert, alone among unbelievers, living a life of hidden prayer and quiet charity. Perhaps he is the patron saint of the unmarried ex-priest. This a beautiful, unspoken, underestimated Mystery that we do well to appreciate and contemplate.
No comments:
Post a Comment