Appeared in The Catholic Virginian May 15, 2000

Priesthood

This Sunday, May 14 marks the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. The Fourth Sunday of Easter depicts Jesus as the Good Shepherd who is ever faithful in caring for the flock. Jesus provided for the Church he founded by choosing apostles to continue his mission. As the number of disciples grew, the apostles selected others to continue Christ's saving work. All of us, by reason of our baptism, have a share in the very priesthood of Christ. The Church under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, does set aside or ordain men to be leaders of the faith community for proclaiming God's word, for sanctifying and offering the eucharistic sacrifice of Jesus and for serving the spiritual needs of God's people. The ordained priest touches and affects lives more than any other vocation in life. The ministry of the priest is both life giving and life saving.

In the past, our Catholic people took for granted that the bishop would always have a priest, ready and waiting, to be assigned to a parish. In the past parishes would even have more than one priest assigned to respond to the spiritual needs of the people he is called to serve. Times have changed not only in the Diocese of Richmond but in the vast majority of dioceses in our country.

I have not yet pushed the panic button or said that we have a vocation crisis. Such an attitude would now be self-defeating or could become a self-fulfilled prophecy. Thankfully, two of our seminarians who are now deacons will be ordained to the priesthood on Saturday, May 27. Thankfully too, we have an active Vocations office under the direction of Father Michael Renninger, our Vicar for Priestly Formation. I am both hopeful and optimistic that more young men will be forthcoming to enter the seminary in preparation for priestly service in the diocese.

Many factors have contributed to the present shortage of priests. The untimely deaths of four of our excellent priests have reduced the number of priests ministering in the diocese. Since becoming bishop of the diocese, now 26 years ago, I have established about 30 new parishes. This of itself has depleted the number of priests serving in a particular parish. Many priests have either retired from active ministry or are approaching the age of retirement. Thankfully, most of our retired priests are driving here and yonder to fill in, as it were, on weekends. Their service has been invaluable and so much appreciated. Also, we need to be aware that the Catholic population in southern and central Virginia is growing rapidly. While the current population of active Catholics is about 5% of the total population, new arrivals are about 20% Catholic.

Sometimes it takes a priest's funeral to make all of us, including priests, to be more keenly aware how important priests are in the lives of people, how deeply they are loved and how much their ministry is appreciated. We must know and believe that priests make a tremendous difference in the lives of people. Around the diocese, people are becoming more aware of the growing priest shortage. They wonder if their parish will end up without a resident priest in the next series of appointments. Care and concern for priests' utter physical and emotional welfare has reached the attention of our people as never before.

For whatever reason, priests live under greater stress then ever before. Priests today tend to be overworked and over-stretched. Yet, at times people have unreal expectations of priests or make unreasonable demands. I firmly believe that all priests, myself included as bishop, have to be more accountable to those we are called to serve. At times, priests are caught in a vice from self-appointed vigilante groups who nit-pick every moment of a priest's life or those who are unwilling to forgive or to reconcile when a priest knowingly or unknowingly causes hurt of whatever kind.

I can unequivocally say that the priests of our diocese are dedicated, spiritually motivated and zealous almost to a fault. They have a ministry of care for others and have the awesome responsibility for the spiritual and thus the eternal lives of many. Priests add to the their own stress because they have a difficult time to saying "no" to a request, even an unreasonable one. Priests at times fail to recognize their own limitations or their own human frailties. Basically priests are caregivers as they try to imitate Jesus who came to serve and not be served. Unfortunately, in being concerned for others priests have less concern for their own physical and spiritual well being. In a recent address, Pope John Paul II speaks of the priest as a treasure in an earthen vessel. He extols their courage in following the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. I constantly like to remind priests to be good to themselves and not feel guilty in doing so. I would like to remind all of our people to affirm our priests from time to time, pray for them regularly, care for and about them because they make such a difference in the lives of all of us.

During this Easter season, we remind ourselves that Jesus is alive and shares his very Spirit with all of us. The promotion of vocations to the priesthood and religious life is the responsibility of the entire Church of Richmond and is not left exclusively to the bishop, a vocations office or zealous priests. Good Shepherd Sunday reminds us that we are all called to roles of shepherding whether it be in the family, in our parish or in the community in which we live and work. I also want to take this opportunity to give special thanks to all our lay people and religious who minister in all our parishes. We would be lost without them. They collaborate in multiple ways in the building up the reign of God in our world.

At the same time I lift up the ordained priesthood as a special call from God, a beautiful and life-giving vocation, one with its own rewards one-hundred-fold. This priesthood is the special gift Jesus has given to his Church.

+ Walter F. Sullivan
Bishop of Richmond