by Ani Gonzalez W.B Ray High School- 11th grade OLPH Parish
“And all men are ready to pass judgment on the priest as if he was not a being clothed with flesh, or one who inherited a human nature.” ~John Chrysostom
Being a cradle Catholic, a daughter of Schoenstatt and a second year Confirmation student, I grew up trusting anyone wearing a Roman collar. The collar represented an almost surreal holiness, as if the priest was a living saint or an angel who just happened to teach our class or eat next to us in the cafeteria.
As I grew older and gained a deeper understanding of the Church, the collar became a symbol of great power; not necessarily in the sense that its wearer was powerful, but that it could not merely be given – it had to be gained through extreme dedication and pure love, the spiritual power of the priest who wore it.
I was fascinated by this and thought that perhaps one day I could reach this level and serve the Lord in this way. Then I began to read the Catechism. Finding myself regrettably excluded from the collar on the basis of gender and tradition, I contented myself with learning all I could from the priests, the pillars of our faith.
I, as I have already stated, am Catholic; indeed, I am known as “The Catholic One” among my friends, who see me as some sort of human encyclopedia about all things to do with the Church. Because I am Catholic, I was blessed to grow up with love, respect and just the tiniest bit of fear towards the figure of the priest; unfortunately, the rest of the world is not so lucky. One has only to look to the news to see the terrible image being presented of the Catholic priest – and how quickly such horror spreads!
The secular world cannot seem to grasp that a few misguided souls do not represent the behaviors of the entire priesthood, and the attacks on the faith directed to me increasingly focus more on priests and their alleged transgressions than any point of Church doctrine or Scripture. The image of the priest today, to the rest of the world, is someone who preaches sanctity but is steeped in sin, and people apply this – crudely, rudely - to every single priest in the one holy apostolic Church.
I would like to bring them to the parish where money is being raised for the Food Bank. I would like to have them see the priest wake up at three in the morning to hear the confession of the dying, and give them their final blessing. I would like to take them to my grandfather’s funeral, so many years ago, and have them watch the monsignor find the exact words to comfort the tiny seven year old who needed so desperately to know that this was not truly the end for her beloved granddaddy. I would like to bring them into my life, to know all the wonderful priests I have known, to see all the incredible works they perform in the name of the Lord, to appreciate them as both “normal people” and the blessed men they are.
I would like to show them that they are wrong.
Any member of the Catholic clergy today goes about their vocation as though wading through a firestorm. Where priests were once respected as holy people, they are now derided and reviled as child molesters and pedophiles and all manner of evildoers. While this infuriates me, it has done nothing but strengthen my respect for the priesthood. Anyone who can serve through this awful period in Church history is truly incredible; it takes an incredible amount of effort to keep the faith in times of peace, let alone times of such strife.
To be a priest today is quite possibly taking on one of the hardest jobs in the world. A priest today is a figure of extreme courage. He must be the rock that anchors his community in faith. He must keep tradition alive while embracing the modern world. He must work doubly hard to prove himself a sincere servant of the Lord, to his parish community and the rest of the world. He must be the strongest defender of the faith in a God whose existence our secular world denies.
Above all he must love. He must love because of the greatest commandment of them all: “Love one another as I have loved you.”