By Catholic News Service
HOUSTON – The priesthood and the Catholic Church itself will emerge from today’s crises stronger than ever, according to a priest-psychologist.
Mgr Stephen Rossetti, an expert in treating psychological and spiritual difficulties, especially among priests, spoke on 13 April at the annual convention in Houston of the National Federation of Priests’ Councils.
Although a look at newspapers and blogs gives the impression that the priesthood “is dispirited, discouraged and disintegrating,” Mgr Rossetti said two studies he conducted of 4,000 priests between 2002 and 2010 show that “priests like being priests; they find great satisfaction in their lives”.
“Rather than disintegrating under the pressure and stress of our day, it appears to me that our priests are becoming stronger,” he said.
“As the public negativity rises and the chorus of naysayers crescendos, I believe our priests and Church are actually the better for it,” he added. “Truly, the more the Church suffers, the stronger it becomes.”
Mgr Rossetti, now a clinical associate professor of pastoral studies at The Catholic University of America in Washington, was accepting the NFPC’s Touchstone Award, presented annually to a priest “whose service in the Gospel of Jesus Christ exemplifies the purpose and goals of the federation.”
A priest of the Diocese of Syracuse, New York, and a former Air Force intelligence officer, Mgr Rossetti was president and CEO of St Luke Institute in Silver Spring, Md, from 1996 until October 2009. The institute is a residential treatment centre for priests and Religious with addictions or psychological disorders.
Mgr Rossetti said his own studies and others have shown that “the happiness of the priesthood is one of the best-kept secrets of our time.”
Among the results of his surveys:
l More than 90 percent of priests said they were happy as priests, 89 percent said their morale was good and 81 per cent said they were proud to be a priest today.
l More than three-quarters (77 per cent) said they had a good relationship with their Bishops, and 81 per cent said they supported his leadership.
l More than three-quarters (78 per cent) said they felt “called by God” to live a celibate life and 75 per cent said celibacy had been a grace for them.
l More than 40 per cent (42 per cent) said they felt overwhelmed by the amount of work they have to do.
“Why would someone be happy with a celibate life, little pay, long hours and a regular drubbing in the press?” Mgr Rossetti asked, adding that “now they are even after” Pope Benedict XVI “and it will be a long road for him up Calvary.”
He said reasons for “the countercultural joy of our priests” can be found in the fact that more than 90 per cent feel a sense of closeness to God (93 per cent), a relationship with God that nourishes them (97 per cent) and a sense that God loves them personally and directly (95 per cent).
Mgr Rossetti said many priests treated at St Luke’s “came through our doors feeling broken and hopeless,” but during their stay found “the transforming love of a God who was always with them.”
He called for a “new evangelisation” that will help everyone get in touch with that sense of a personal and loving God and the joy that comes with that feeling. “I do not think our greatest challenge to the faith of our day is explicit atheism” among a minority that says there is no God and no afterlife, Mgr Rossetti said. “The real danger is all around us; it is the apparent lack of interest, relevance. People are just not interested. God and religion do not blip the radar screens of their lives. They are what I call functional atheists.”
Noting that 48 per cent of priests he surveyed said they were concerned about the “lack of unity of the priesthood,” Mgr Rossetti called on priests to “stop the internal bickering.”
“Satan is never happier than when we are cutting each other down,” he said. “It is time to put our energy into breaking through the modern secular consciousness; people want to be happy and we have the key.”