For priests, close of special year is moment of grace
By John Thavis
Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY – By all accounts, the estimated 15,000 priests who came to Rome for the closing events of the Year for Priests set a record, but they were a small fraction of the 409,000 priests who serve around the world.
Some, such as Fr Robert J Carr, the pastor of St Benedict Parish in Somerville, Mass, said they came as representatives of their local Church communities.
It was Fr Carr’s first trip to Rome; he’d never been to Europe before and, he said, had “never been east of Cape Cod.”
Others had personal reasons to attend the encounters in Rome from 9-11 June.
“It’s an important occasion for me. It’s a landmark because the last time I was here was 40 years ago, so I thought it was a good occasion to come back to Rome,” said Fr Patrick Arowele of Abuja, Nigeria.
The best part of being a priest?
“Serving the people, especially in my part of the world,” Fr Arowele said.
Fr Roland Hafliger, 43, of Lenzburg, Switzerland, came with another priest.
“We wanted to feel part of the community of all the priests. In Switzerland, there are not many of us, so it is good to know we are not alone,” he said.
There was another reason, too. Fr Hafliger celebrated his 15th year as a priest on 11 June, the day of the closing Mass in St Peter’s Square with Pope Benedict XVI.
“It’s an honour to celebrate Mass here with the Holy Father for my anniversary, even if it is not my silver anniversary,” he said.
At the Mass, the priests renewed their promises with the Pope. That was a highlight for many participants, including Fr Anton Quang Dihn Van of San Francesco di Paola Parish in San Antonio.
He said the point of the Rome events was to help people be better and more holy priests, an ongoing task that requires self-reflection.
“I look at myself every night before I go to sleep: Was I good today? Did I help people?” he said.
Fr Daniel Divis of St Mary Parish in Lorain, Ohio, said the week’s programme of speeches, conferences and liturgies did not necessarily cover new ground, but made a profound impact.
“You know, they said we need prayer, we need service to the poor and we need to focus on our personal relationships with the Lord. It wasn’t anything I hadn’t heard before, but when you hear them saying it in this kind of context, it really was a grace moment. It was reaffirming, it was electric, it was pretty good,” he said.
A speech by German Cardinal Joachim Meisner of Cologne on the importance of confession created a buzz of reaction among many priests.
Oblate Fr Paul Beukes of Johannesburg said Cardinal Meisner’s observation was something he will take back with him, along with the experience of Mass with the Pope.
“The Mass this morning was wonderful. There was a spirit of prayer that was good, that was beautiful. I think it was something that will lead me to look at my life and to go home and say, ‘We’re going to make the changes,’” he said.
For Filipino Mgr Vicente Bauson, who works in campus ministry in the Archdiocese of Manila, the Pope’s comments about encouraging new vocations were insightful.
“He encouraged priests to realise that modelling and witnessing are very important, and also that priests must learn to be humble – and even Bishops. And I think that if young people see that lived in a true way, then surely we will get vocations,” he said.
The concept of humility was cited as an important theme by many priests who came to Rome.
As Daniel Engels, a deacon soon to be ordained a priest in Limburg, Germany, said, “The priesthood isn’t just, ‘Oh, he’s so good, so great.’
“A priest is just a servant, and we thank God for the priests who guide us.”
Mgr Blaise Zubuor from the Diocese of Tamale, Ghana, who works at the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, said he came to the events to meet priests from all over the world and to mark the 150th anniversary of St John Vianney, patron saint of parish priests.
“He is our model as priests – to be humble, loving, obedient, all the adjectives you can think of,” he said.