By Anthony Barich
ARCHBISHOP Barry Hickey has encouraged priests to continue bringing Christ to the world undaunted by the increasing difficulties of doing so.
Gathering priests, Religious and lay for Evening Prayer of the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus at St Mary’s Cathedral to close the Year for Priests “in solidarity” with Pope Benedict XVI, the Archbishop emphasised the Holy Father’s 14 April speech which stressed the urgency of priests’ call to teach, “as the world is so confused what is right and wrong and how to live”.
Archbishop Hickey led the Evening Prayer on 10 June as the Pope was leading celebrations in Rome from 9 to 11 June to close out the Year for Priests, which ran from 19 June 2009 to 11 June 2010.
St Mary’s Cathedral assistant priests, recently-ordained Frs Jeronimo Flamenco Castillo and Jean-Noel Marie, were the cantors.
Vicar General Mgr Brian O’Loughlin, chaplain of the WA Knights of the Southern Cross, presented the Archbishop during the event with a book The Catholic Priest – Image of Christ: Through 15 Centuries of Art.
The Archbishop said the Pope emphasised how priests must offer the truth and show people how to live as followers of Jesus, and that, “often, priests feel like a voice crying in the wilderness” like St John the Baptist who announced Jesus’ coming, but this is their job. “Let us follow the example of Jesus, the one promised by the prophets; who, when He stood up in the temple and said that the prophecies were being fulfilled after He read from the Scroll, some listened to Him, some didn’t,” the Archbishop said.
“But that didn’t stop Him from calling people to the truth, so we shouldn’t let the forces that make people deaf to Jesus deter us.”
It is understandable, he said, for priests to sometimes see the world and wonder if there is any point going on, but he urged them to never stop acting in the person of Jesus, as “we don’t know how far our words go”, or what the Holy Spirit does with them.
“We are called to proclaim that the Kingdom is open to those who wish to enter, so we continue to do so in our homilies, our personal counselling, in schools, we offer what Jesus has given the Church – the Good News of salvation,” he said.
“You have the Holy Spirit with you, urging you to proclaim the love of Christ to a world that needs it.”
While the calling to act in the person of Christ is not to be “put on a pedestal”, the Archbishop said that such a calling can “make us fearful and feel unworthy to rise to such great heights; yet, so full of our faults, on our ordination day we said ‘yes, we will bring You (Jesus) to the people”.
The Holy Spirit has given priests the courage and knowledge that gives the strength to be “the living Lord” to comfort, bring peace and the warmth of the love of Christ to those in families who have experienced violence and other hardships of life.
“May it continue to be clear that we must respond to the call to be Christ in the lives of others, but not to think of ourselves as special,” he said.
During a general audience at St Peter’s Square on 14 April, Pope Benedict said: “We live amid great confusion about the fundamental choices of our life,” adding that there are “so many contrasting philosophies, which arise and disappear, creating confusion about the fundamental decisions”.
But as promised in the Gospel, the Lord has compassion on His “sheep without a shepherd,” the Pontiff said.
“The Lord, moved by compassion, interpreted the word of God, He himself is the Word of God, and thus He gave guidance.
“This is the function in persona Christi of the priest: to render present, in the confusion and disorientation of our times, the light of the Word of God, the light that is Christ Himself in this our world.”
This means, Benedict XVI explained, that the priest “does not teach his own ideas, a philosophy that he himself has invented, has found and that pleases him; … but, in the confusion of all the philosophies, the priest teaches in the name of Christ present, he proposes the truth that is Christ Himself, His word, His way of living and of going forward.”
Mgr Brian O’Loughlin
Vicar General
The Year for Priests has, for me, been a focus on Christ the one priest, and all that this means in one’s self-offering to the Lord, and being a minister of Word and Sacrament to the people. But it has also been a focus on solidarity and communion with other priests, as while we share in the one priesthood of Christ, we are His priests, and we are brother priests in the presbyterum in the Archdiocese.
Parishes in various ways have acknowledged past and present priests, which I saw as like a married couple celebrating a 25th or 50th wedding anniversary – an occasion to look back in gratitude and look forward in faith and hope. I personally found challenging the beatification last Sunday in Poland of Fr Jerzy Popieluszko, known as the Solidarity priest, who was seemingly a delicate priest who hadn’t been involved in political themes but was caught up due to his involvement in the Solidarity movement (which opposed the Communist regime in Poland). So that focus on a modern priest-martyr was a reminder to me that, in our own way we die to self in order that Christ might be revealed in His fullness.
Fr Jeronimo Flamenco Castillo
Assistant priest,
St Mary’s Cathedral
This evening we celebrated the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus as the Archbishop invited us to gather to celebrate this special year. For me, the priesthood is not about privilege or power. I absolutely believe it is a special gift from God, to serve to the Christian community. The priest shows empathy when he shares the feeling of happiness and sufferings of the people, I think this is the kind of priest that the Catholic Church needs in this present time.
Fr Michael Gauvreau
Franciscan Friar of the Immaculate, Toodyay
Travelling from Italy to Canada, Italy, India, Australia in the past year during this Year for Priests, and knowing I’m going to Nigeria soon, I tried to keep in mind the example of the priesthood that Pope Benedict XVI gave us in St John Vianney, and how his whole priesthood was not lived for himself but was a sacrifice for others. In order to make sense of all the travelling I’d been doing, it made sense as a sacrifice for others, and not for myself.
No matter how enjoyable it is to say ‘I’ve been here and there’, in the end it’s a sacrifice to be constantly moving around. It helps to make sense and it’s also helpful to keep in mind that the whole life of a priest is meant to be a sacrifice, which culminates in the Mass – it’s like living the Mass, and that’s basically what the Year for Priests emphasises.
Fr Francisco Mascarenhas
Parish priest,
Santa Clara, Bentley
My parishioners organised a special day for me on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood on 2 May. That really touched me very much. Amidst all the things happening today, it was a boost, a shot in the arm, that the people recognised not only me but all priests.
Fr Stephen Cooney Opraem
Parish priest,
St Patrick, York
In the country, there was very little celebration for the Year for Priests, but next door in Northam, we have a statue and devotion to the Curé of Ars (St John Vianney). That the Pope has dedicated this year to the Year for Priests has been edifying, as is the fact that the priesthood has been recognised in this way.