Guide to Ongoing Formation for Priests (Ascension)

GOFP 222

Guide to Ongoing Formation for Priests

ends: the salvation of souls. 199 A wideness of heart and a broadness of mind enable him to work readily and competently with people from different cultures, outlooks, and theological and ecclesial points of view. 200 This work includes openness to the unique, popular cultural Catholic traditions among diverse Catholic populations. He is particularly keen to address deep-seated injustices such as racism and other chronic prejudices. He can work in different ministerial settings, for instance among youth and young adults as well as the elderly; he is comfortable in multicultural environments. He is collaborative in his ministry, respectfully and gratefully working shoulder to shoulder with lay people, deacons, and religious men and women. Finally, he is actively engaged in the wider community, outside the confines of his parish and the members of his congregation, seizing opportunities to work with ecumenical, interreligious, and civic associations. 222 The Church offers many examples of holy priests who exemplify the gift of self to their flock. Blessed Michael Joseph McGivney, during his thirteen years of ministry, spent his priesthood in parish ministry and established the Knights of Columbus to build unity and charity. And Venerable Augustus Tolton heroically overcame many obstacles to offer his life as a priest to the Church. He was born an enslaved person but was brought into freedom by his mother a year after the Civil War ended. He was denied entrance into seminary in the United States, so he was sent to Rome, where he completed his studies, thinking he would become a missionary to Africa. Upon ordination, he returned to the United States and ministered to both African Americans and European Americans in his parish— something unheard of at the time in a segregated world. He went

199 See CIC, cc. 222 §2 and 287 §1. 200 “A distinctive manifestation of this dimension in building up the Christian community consists in transcending any particularist attitude: in fact, priests must never place themselves at the service of a particular ideology insofar as this would wane the efficacy of their ministry. The priest’s relationship with the faithful must always be essentially priestly.” DMLP, no. 41.

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