Guide to Ongoing Formation for Priests (Ascension)

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Chapter 6: Pastoral Formation

MARKERS OF THE PASTORAL DIMENSION Freedom for Ministry

210 The first marker of pastoral formation is the absence of glaring interior barriers to priestly ministry. These might be human barriers: for instance, compulsive behaviors, unhealthy relationships, narcissistic tendencies, or an escapist disposition to feed on entertainment and distraction. They can also be spiritual barriers, such as interior superficiality, scrupulosity, or a frenetic activism. A priest who does not find his joy in Christ, after all, frequently tries to find it instead in exterior accomplishments or comforts. These human and spiritual barriers all represent forms of slavery that prevent a priest from living in freedom and that limit his pastoral effectiveness. 211 Interior freedom is also a necessary condition for healthy celibacy, obedience, and simplicity of life. Celibacy, as we observed in chapter three, is primarily not a renunciation but a positive choice, a new and powerful way of loving more broadly. To be free, a priest must break with attachments that suffocate the charismatic grace of celibacy. 176 212 Obedience is not a slavish conformity to the will of a superior; it is a humble and mature embrace of legitimate authority. It includes practical obedience to the diocesan bishop and loyalty to the Holy Father and the teachings of the Church. 177 It cannot flourish in a 176 “Consecrated to Christ in a new and excellent way (see PO, no. 16), the priest must therefore be well aware that he has received a gift from God, which, sanctioned in its turn by a precise juridical bond, gives rise to the moral obligation of observance. Freely assumed, this bond is theological and moral in nature before being juridical, and is the sign of that spousal reality coming to be in sacramental Ordination.” DMLP, no. 58. “Through his celibate life, the priest will be able to fulfill better his ministry on behalf of the People of God. In particular, as he witnesses to the evangelical value of virginity, he will be able to aid Christian spouses to live fully the ‘great sacrament’ of the love of Christ the bridegroom for his spouse the Church, just as his own faithfulness to celibacy will help them to be faithful to each other as husband and wife.” PDV, no. 50. 177 “Since the priestly ministry is the ministry of the Church herself, it can be discharged only by hi erarchical communion with the whole body. Therefore, pastoral love demands that acting in this communion, priests dedicate their own wills through obedience to the service of God and their brothers. This love requires that they accept and carry out in a spirit of faith whatever is commanded

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