Guide to Ongoing Formation for Priests (Ascension)

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Chapter 3: Human Formation

priestly fraternity has been in our lives,” he said. “That fraternity is not only a precious possession, but also an immense resource for the renewal of the priesthood and the raising up of new vocations.” 111 139 This “immense resource for the renewal of the priesthood”—that is, priestly fraternity—is first found in the gift of authentic friendship itself. Priestly friendships cannot settle for a shallow superficiality but must have the boldness to go deeper. By spending time together, getting to know one another, and sharing the gifts and struggles of priestly ministry, priests can be a source of tremendous strength for each other and a great means of human growth. 140 Friendships with brother priests make special demands on us and push us in unique ways. There is a transparency that comes with true friendship: being known by the other and wanting to be known, based upon a degree of earned trust and appropriate vulnerability. True priestly friendships offer the immeasurable gift of fraternal correction, a crucial source of self-knowledge and accountability, particularly for celibate priests, who do not have the natural correctives of a wife and family. The need for such correction has become all the clearer in the face of the clergy sexual abuse scandals of the last decades. It can only be speculated how many of those grave failures could have been avoided had wayward priests had priest friends to correct them in the first stages of their descent into deception and depravity. 112

111 Pope Benedict XVI, “Responses to the Questions Posed by the Bishops,” Meeting with the Bishops of the United States of America, National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, DC, April 16, 2008, no. 3. 112 Many accused priests began abusing years after they were ordained, at times of increased job stress, social isolation, and decreased contact with peers. Generally, few structures such as psychological and professional counseling were readily available to assist them with the difficulties they experienced. Many priests let go of the practice of spiritual direction after only a few years of ordained ministry. See John Jay College Research Team, The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States , 1950-2010 (Washington, DC: USCCB, 2011), 5.

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