Guide to Ongoing Formation for Priests

52 | GUIDE TO ONGOING FORMATION FOR PRIESTS

Catholic concept of the human person and will assist the priest in the context of that understanding. No priest should hesitate to take advantage of these resources when they are needed, because addressing his struggles courageously and growing in human maturity makes him a better instru ment in the hands of the Lord for the service of souls.

FRATERNAL MEANS

138. During his visit in 2008, Pope Benedict XVI addressed the bishops of the United States as a body. It is noteworthy that the Holy Father chose that important occasion to offer these words about priestly fraternity and ongoing formation. “Each of us knows how important 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 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. 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 139. 140.

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, www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/speeches/2008/april/documents/hf_ben-xvi_ spe_20080416_response-bishops.html .