![]() ![]() ![]() Several years ago, a bishop confided that he was rather disturbed about the typical daily schedule of a number of his younger priests. From this follows a second aspect: organisation, the structuring of one’s days, the rule of life. This reverberates throughout many aspects of the ministry, but also in the field of resisting temptations and seeking the means to strengthen oneself against them, especially the great means of penance.Ģ. In large sectors of the younger clergy (let’s say aged fifty and under), it is not unusual to see a reluctance to make sacrifices. In particular, they were not raised in the faith from an early age and, above all, they were not educated in the value of renunciation and sacrifice. Many of today’s priests did not receive a solid human, affective, and religious education in the family. And we must add that today even the parish or Catholic associations often do not carry out their educational and formative task well. The parish or ecclesial association that the children may attend has an important role, but it cannot replace the essential religious education that is received in the family. Moreover, even in Catholic families there is often not enough religious education, or none at all. But in many cases, it is not understood that loving children means sacrificing one’s own time and energy in order to be a consistent presence for them, to correct and even punish them if necessary, so that they may grow up well. A parent may believe he loves his children simply because he feels love for them. One of the main causes of this is that today the importance of sacrifice is not understood. From the educational point of view, parents are absent. That is why young people today get their education (or rather miseducation) from school (too often a venue for ideology), television and the internet, as well as from their peers, who however are in the same situation. Children are often left to themselves, when they are not left in bad company, either because both parents work or because, when they come back home, they don’t have it in them or don’t want to sacrifice the last hours of the day to being with their children and educating them. In present-day families, for many reasons, there is a great educational void. Today’s younger priests have often grown up in families where their parents almost always loved them, but often did not also educate them. Without claiming to make a complete list, let us try to mention some of these elements that today, more than in the past, put the moral integrity of the priest at risk:ġ. And we say “more so than in the past” not because all previous eras were better than ours, but because today there are means and habits, at least in the Western world, that facilitate sin, when they do not positively approve of, promote, and recommend it. The temptations and opportunities to fall into sin are truly many one could say more so than in the past. Menu Search for something Submit search query Search ![]() Search for something Submit search query Search.The CTS Newsletter – 10% Off Your Next Order.Weekly Spotlight: Upcoming Publications.Cardinal Sarah: Modern Risks to the Catholic Priest’s Moral Integrity | Catholic Truth Society ![]()
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