A chara, – I am very grateful to Fr Brendan Hoban for telling it like it is, in his article "Criticised and insulted, priests are a lost tribe" (Opinion & Analysis, November 21st).
Exposing the vulnerable side of priests who “once imagined they had all the answers and that they were monarchs of all they surveyed” requires rare courage and offers a great sign of hope! But it also makes for heart-rending reading.
The clergy are not wholly to blame for these inflated notions of ordained priesthood. They were also nurtured by some of us laity who, happy to get a free seat on the bus to heaven, were disinterested in shouldering our own share of Christian priesthood. Fr Hoban’s article could be the beginning of the healing process.
It states that we need “to analyse the strands that conspire to burden unfairly and dangerously the lives of elderly clergy”.
I totally agree with this idea, but I hope I do not add to the burden of these elderly priests by suggesting that the central strand of the present suffering may be the decision of the Irish hierarchy in 1965 to refuse all aspects of Vatican II that involved the reduction of clerical spiritual power at the expense of empowering the laity.
Gaudium et Spes (Joy and Hope), the Vatican II document signed in December 1965, eight years before the ordination of Fr Hoban, was for many, a re-look at redemption theology. Moreover, it moved towards eclipsing the sacred into the secular and revalued the laity in relation to the priesthood. This led us into a new world of meaning regarding Mass and sacraments. Elderly priests who are now becoming, in Fr Hoban's words, "sacrament-dispensing machines" may be still offering, in the eyes of many, an out-of-date heaven!
But if we can, together, share the historical confusions of the past , we can ensure that elderly priests alone do not carry the burdens of history and that, above all, we free future generations to find meaning in their lives. – Is mise,
IRENE NÍMHÁILLE,
Blackrock, Co Dublin.
Sir, – One could not but feel empathetic towards parish priests in this day and age, even if that is tinged with a hint of schadenfreude. I do believe that, yes, something must be done to offset the loneliness and isolation that elderly parish priests surely do experience these days.
However, while Fr Hoban makes some very valid points in what must be done to address the wellbeing of parish priests, he doesn’t go far in establishing how priests need to reinvent themselves in a society where, in his own words, they are “pitied, patronised, reviled, insulted, disrespected, ignored and resented”.
In today’s societal landscape, due to almost a decade of recession and austerity, most of Ireland has reinvented itself or pivoted in order to stay relevant, so why should the Catholic Church not do the same? There is no longer a gap in the market for a figurehead to pontificate from the altar on moral issues so perhaps parish priests must now get more involved in the community than they were before.
Or better still, apply pressure to their superiors and lobby for change. Changes such as waiving celibacy or the church accepting same-sex marriages would go a long way towards countering some of the issues raised in Fr Hoban’s article.
Gone are the days where the parish priest, as in the community where I grew up, drove the biggest car in town, was ignorant toward the young, and looked to shake hands with only those that were “well to do” at the end of Mass.
It’s either evolution or revolution for the Catholic Church in Ireland.
And the time to choose is now. – Yours,etc,
ROBERT MAGEE,
Celbridge, Co Kildare.
Sir, – Thank you for publishing Fr Brendan Hoban’s thoughtful and honest article.
People who have devoted their lives to the service of others deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.
A life devoted to such service, however willingly undertaken, must exact a high toll in terms of health and happiness, yet how poorer life would be for the rest of us without that dedication.
Burnout, isolation and exhaustion are recognised as dangers in the medical, nursing and socialwork professions, and it is high time they were acknowledged and addressed among those working in pastoral care. – Yours, etc,
ELLEN GALLAGHER,
Dublin 8.