Guide to Ongoing Formation for Priests

CHAPTER 1: PRIESTLY LIFE | 21

be afforded the presumption of innocence prescribed by canon law 41 and central to the US legal system as well.

54. An atmosphere that can be perceived as divisive can be inflamed by an erosion of ecclesial and fraternal communion. Deep theological and liturgical differences often can be found among priests of different age groups, differences that impede cross-generational fraternity. This division is exacerbated by overwrought websites, of both the progressive and tradi tionalist variety, that present themselves as a kind of “parallel Magisterium” purporting to be more reliable than the actual Magisterium of the Church. Furthermore, as in every age, clerical envy and comparisons continue to diminish the unity that we should enjoy as brother priests. Then we must consider the obstacles that arise from the wider US culture. Social divisions, of course, have always been part of our diverse society. Today, however, they seem to have reached a new intensity. Racism and old nativist bigotries continue to foster injustice and fray the solidarity of our society. New prejudices against people of faith or moral conviction have added to this disorder. Political ideologies are intensifying, and their core constituencies are drifting further and further apart. The worldviews of opposing camps are increasingly at odds, even incompatible. Moral bonds once forged by a common outlook seem to be disintegrating. Tensions are rising, and few in our country seem able to have sober discussions. This atmosphere of bitter antagonism has seeped into the Church and even into the priesthood. It does not make the pursuit of holiness any easier for our priests, who themselves are sometimes swept into a highly emotivist approach to resolving conflict. A final, but by no means inconsequential, source of pressure on priests comes from our highly secularized society. We can easily iden tify bright lines of disagreement between the Church’s doctrine and the increasingly intolerant doctrines of secular ideals, starting with the strident rejection of the right to life of the unborn. This core tenet of the secu larist creed will inevitably start to include—indeed has already started to do so—other vulnerable populations such as the elderly and the terminally FROM THE WIDER CULTURE 55. 56.

41

See CIC, c. 1321.