Lucas D. Sayre

Catholicism in Contemporary America

Professor Yamane

11/13/2003

A Rock in the Midst of a Storm: the Necessity of Priesthood in the Catholic Church

 

 

The Roman Catholic Church is, in its essence, an institutionalized link between humanity and God. Jesus initialized this link when he uttered the famous words: “…And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matt. 16:17-19). In this role, the Church has a responsibility to its followers, and indeed to all of humanity, to maintain its strength and ability to teach Christ’s eternal message. This paper will argue that the institution of Priesthood is integral to that role. Further, with a significant shortage of priests in the United States and elsewhere in the world today, the Church must adapt the Priesthood as well as surrounding sociological factors to meet the demand for Priests. Of the two major proposed changes, an end to the celibacy requirement and female ordination, only the latter is a theologically and institutionally palatable option.

 

Necessity of the Priesthood

 

            The Church derives the authority of the Priesthood, in part, from Jer.3:15 “I will give you shepherds after my own heart” (Shepherds, 7). Pope John Paul II, in his Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation I Will Give You Shepherds, firmly states that, “Without priests the Church would not be able to live that fundamental obedience which is at the very heart of her existence and her mission in history, an obedience in response to the command of Christ…” (Shepherds, 7). From a Christian theological perspective, much Scriptural evidence exists for existence of priests or general clerics to lead the faithful. While the Roman Catholic Church and different Protestant denominations may disagree over the nature of said clerical ministers, nearly all agree that Christ called on some people to be leaders of faith, to share his message with “the flock.” One need look no further than Jesus’s conversation with Simon Peter (as seen above), his baptism of John the Baptist, his discussion with the twelve apostles at the Last Supper, or the conveyance of the Holy Spirit on the apostles at Pentecost, to understand this general call.

            From an institutional perspective, Priesthood is central to the Church’s function and identity in two ways. First, the Church is self-identified as catholic (“one”). Its unity serves to protect its mission of furthering Jesus’s teachings from the pitfalls of splintering and lack of cohesiveness. The modern state of Christianity in America and around the world provides countless examples of these pitfalls. In Northern Ireland, Protestants and Catholics quarrel, largely due to their stratification along ethno-religious lines. In the United States, the number of Christian sects increases with each passing day—each with its own interpretation of Scripture and the mystery of God’s creation. Some of these positions are the result of disciplined, concerted, and sophisticated consideration of theology, but others are not. Without unity and authority, no mechanism exists to ensure the depth and consistency of Christian doctrine.

            The Church’s unity and authority are protected by its sacerdotal tradition. The Priesthood forms the foundation of the Church’s magisterial hierarchy (Schoenherr, 6). Priests, with their elevated position, lead the flock of believers at the Parish level. Since they have taken vows to dedicate their lives to God’s work and to the Church’s role on Earth as well as being assigned and nurtured by other holy men in the hierarchy, they are imminently prepared and positioned to be effective leaders and teachers in this domain. Pope John Paul II explains the benefit of a unified Priesthood as follows: “All priests in fact, whether diocesan or religious, share in the one priesthood of Christ the head and shepherd; ‘they work for the same cause, namely, the building up of the body of Christ…” (Shepherds, 35). As their dedication, experiences, and abilities dictate, they may advance in the Church hierarchy, and take on increased leadership responsibilities. This structural system gives Priests an authority they would otherwise lack. Since the hierarchy ultimately guides the Church, its authority transitively stems from the authority of its Priests. Furthermore, since the hierarchical system is self-enclosed, in addition to having authority, it unifies the Church.

            The second way that Priesthood is central to the Church’s function and identity lies in the institutionalized level of dedication to theological training and sacramental worship maintained by Priests. Sociologist Father Andrew Greeley’s studies of the Church “show that the sacraments ‘are the strongest predicator of propensity to stay in the Church’…” (Schoenherr, 4). Furthermore, numerous Church authorities (and Catholic theologians and sociologists) acknowledge that Sacramental worship is a key element of one’s Catholic identity. Clearly, for the Church’s identity to survive, the celebration of the Sacraments must not be overly diminished. Again, Priests are uniquely positioned and suited to excel in this field. They have vowed to dedicate their lives to God and their entire lives are necessarily immersed in God’s work and the study of his Word. Priests are spared from needing to work a “practical fieldcraft” and thus have almost the entirety of their time spent in their holy endeavors. Beneficial to this immersion is the Church’s celibacy requirement-- an argument that will be expounded upon later. They either live on their parish grounds—in the case of diocesan Priests—or in close proximity with other Priests in missionary type work. This physical and human proximity has a synergistic effect on the Priest’s growth in his life work. As a result, Priests are more able than the average lay person to study the fullness of the meaning of the Sacraments and theological principles and more qualified to administer these Sacraments and teach theological virtues and principles.

 

The Priest Shortage

 

            The statistics facing the Church are disconcerting, and show that the institution of the Priesthood is indeed in trouble. In the period from 1965-2003, the number of diocesan priests dropped eighteen percent and the number of religious/order priests dropped thirty-seven percent. Meanwhile, demand for priests rose, as the number of parishes in that same time period rose eight percent and the Catholic population rose thirty-nine percent. Most alarmingly, the number of American parishes without any priest rose five hundred and fifty-four percent (class notes, 10/28/03)! If this downward trend continues, more parishes will be without priests, Catholic lay people will have less access to the Church and the Sacraments, and priests will be burdened to increasing degrees.

            In order to find solutions to this emerging crisis, one must ascertain the nature of the shortage, the causes. Both the Church and certain sociologists identify the celibacy requirement as a part of the problem, but disagree on the sociological/ecological factors also necessary for such an explanation. Certain sociologists, such as Schoenherr identify unstoppable sociohistorical trends that change the landscape in which the Church and its celibate Priesthood lie. Among these:

(1) a shift from dogmatism to pluralism in worldviews, (2) change from a transcendentalist to a personalist construction of human sexuality, (3) decline of a Eurocentric Church and rise in a worldwide inculturation of Catholicism, (4) decline in male superiority and rise in female equality embodied in the feminist movement, (5) decline in clerical control and rise in lay participation embodied in the Roman Catholic lay movement, and (6) decline in sacramentalism and rise in Bible-based worship embodied in the Roman Catholic liturgical movement. (Schoenherr, 8)

 

Pope John Paul II’s I Will Give You Shepherds addresses the changing sociohistorical trends as well, especially in regards to points one, two, three, and five above. However, he frames the issues from a different perspective. He describes the three perils of “rationalism,” “individualism,” and “subjectivism.” Rationalism “renders human reason insensitive to an encounter with revelation and with divine transcendence” (Shepherds, 15). In other words, this philosophy, which he says is still very much alive, debases all of human experience and earthly existence to science alone, and ignores the innate spiritual aspects of life.

Individualism, when taken to its extreme, diminishes human attitudes towards sexuality and other life experiences to that of the most immediate “gratifying individual experiences.” Inevitably, this attitude lessens the observable benefits to entering the Priesthood: “[many people today find] themselves indifferent and ‘paralyzed’ as it were when they come face to face with the summons to embark upon a life project which includes a spiritual and religious dimension and a commitment to solidarity” (Shepherds, 16). Finally, subjectivism in matters of faith leads to “[a]n increasing number of Christians seem to have a reduced sensitivity to the universality and objectivity of the doctrine of the faith because they are subjectively attached to what pleases them…” (Shepherds, 17). This philosophy, when tied into an individualist reading of the Bible, colors that reading with personal goals, rather than with the universal goals for humanity.

 

Solving the Problem

 

            Where Pope John Paul II disagrees most with Schoenherr is on the inevitability of these sociohistorical trends and the changes in attitudes there associated. While Schoenherr says these trends are natural and inevitable, John Paul contends that the Church can, and indeed has an obligation to, influence humanity against the associated negative philosophies. Yet, the Church is caught in a Catch-22. For it to remain effective in its battle against secularism, it needs Priests in order to be a strong and effective religious institution, but with these trends reducing the number of Priests, its ability to be affective is continuously reduced. The solution is for the Church to adapt the Priesthood as well as working to change worldly human attitudes.

            Schoenherr firmly states that the mandatory celibacy requirement is at most to blame for the Priest shortage. He sets up the argument as follows: “The Church will either have to guarantee this generation its baptismal right of access to the sacraments or continue to insist on a male celibate priesthood. The choices are mutually exclusive” (Schoenherr, 4-5). This view, is in the context of this paper’s argument, without merit. First, mandatory Priest celibacy is greatly beneficial to the Priesthood and Church; and second, other options are available to the Church to change the Priesthood, without ending mandatory celibacy.

            Earlier this paper argued the necessity of the Priesthood to the survival of the Catholic Church. At the crux of the institutional necessity of the Priesthood, are the unique benefits conferred by the immersion and dedication of Priests into their theological and Sacramental fields. In the best possible system, this institution would include a mandatory celibacy requirement. Currently, Priests benefit from not having to work in a “practical fieldcraft” as well as not having to dedicate their time to the vagaries associated with family life. Both father and mother should be dedicated to the well-being, upbringing, and spiritual enlightenment of their family, and these responsibilities necessarily require a massive amount of time, energy, and resources. The endeavor of the parent is noble, and the role teaches the parent much about the human faculties: love, anger, jealousy, confusion, etc. Critics within the Church, as well Protestants who do not have the celibacy requirement on their ministers, point to these lessons as superb qualifications for the cleric and pastor. While these qualifications are pertinent to officials and lay ministers within each parish, they are not requisite for the Priesthood. Rather, the Priest’s niche is with the higher spiritual matters: a dedication of the majority of his faculties to prayer with God and to reading the Word. In the ideal, the Church would have both the Priesthood and the lay ministers within every parish. However, if all other options have been exhausted, then an end to mandatory celibacy would be in order, so as to save the Priesthood from total collapse. Fortunately, all options have not been exhausted.

            Several administrative changes and recruitment strategies have not been fully undertaken by the Church. For instance, budget increases for lay ministers and lay administrative officials would take much of the burden off of parish pastors and assistant-pastors. This would make the Priesthood more attractive, because of the less personal burden. Also, the Church could enact better outreach/vocational programs in its schools and other institutions. It is not enough for Church officials to merely mention the Priesthood as an option in elementary school, high school, and collegiate levels. It must actively teach the youth the spiritual advantages of following one’s calling to be a Priest. These advantages are not easily evident, especially in a world with a high number of other more-immediate personal gains.

            Finally, the time has arrived for female ordination. The force of numbers is simple. Currently, the Church disqualifies around half of all possible candidates to the Priesthood, merely because of their sex. Removing this disqualification would potentially double the interest in the Priesthood, and the Priest shortage crisis would likely be stopped right in its tracks. The Church’s arguments against allowing females to enter the Priesthood are less than convincing. They concentrate on the fact that all twelve of Jesus’s Apostles were men. However, just because those initial individuals who Jesus chose as his followers were men, does not necessarily imply that all future leaders of Christ’s teachings must also be men. Jesus never explicitly stated that only males should lead his Church, and Bible scholars disagree as to whether or not he implied it. Furthermore, the Church, including John Paul II, has consistently said that Priests should be molded in the image of Christ. Would they not be shallow to look at Jesus’s sex, in drawing such a comparison, rather than his theological ideals and lessons to humanity? Jesus was so special because he devoted his entire life to preaching God’s message of salvation. His role, as the Son of God, involved the ultimate sacrifice—that of his life. In a similar manner, Catholic Priests enter into a sacrifice, albeit on a lesser scale.

 

Conclusion

 

            The Catholic Church’s role in this world is integral with humanity’s spiritual yearning to know God and to understand, as best as possible, the mystery of his Creation. The Church, in fulfillment of this role, has a duty to maintain its own survival, without sacrificing the core principles undergirding its institutional being. Reaffirming mandatory Priest celibacy, as well as allowing female ordination, are two steps it can take to strengthen the well-being of the Priesthood. In doing so, the Priesthood’s position in the Church will remain a rock in the midst of the storm of secular pressure that will forever face humanity on earth.

Sources Cited:

 

Schoenherr, Richard A. Ed. David Yamane. Goodbye Father: The Celibate Male Priesthood and the Future of the Catholic Church. Oxford Press: New York. 2002

 

Paul II, Pope John. I Will Give You Shepherds (Pastores Dabo Vobis). Hunter Publishing. 1992