Ordained priests for the service of the Church, by the gift of the Holy Spirit and the laying on of hands, you are an immense grace. An open letter to new priests who keep the fire of mission alive and overcome the crisis of belief.
Dear Henry and Timothy, I take up my pen as you approach your priestly ordination, and that of so many others these days. You could both be my sons… It should be noted that we belong to a small community called Aïn Karem – a micro-organism of the diocese of Paris –, where all the states of life are found in view of the mission.
I therefore address this open letter to you, full of tenderness and gratitude, as an “elder”.
The one who has traveled before you – and with you – on many rough seas, that of our open-wind missions. You are witnesses that our efforts have not always been crowned with success! Why bother then? I can already hear some grumpy people talking between their teeth: “What a pity to see brilliant young boys lose themselves in ecclesiastical celibacy…” I will not answer for you. But I’m sure you’re going to have the best time of your life.
What will your ordinations be used for in our disordered world?
Everything is shaken in France, like its National Assembly and even in the Church… Pierre’s boat takes on water. And yet you do not shrink from this storm warning. You are taking an enormous risk, and your Mother Church is taking it with you, after years of discernment. Why embark on this journey without a return ticket? Why stretch out at your full length, like wheat mowed down by a supernatural wind? Is it to defend a homeland like the last fighters of Mariupol? Will you suffer martyrdom tomorrow or surrender to the world?
Jesus came to earth precisely to answer this question.
He chose fragile apostles so that his work of redemption would last until the end of the world. All this you know by heart. “The Churchsaid Bossuet, it is Jesus Christ spread and communicated. » This formula, which echoes the French School of spirituality, expresses all that we owe to the sanctity of the priesthood.
But times have changed since the Grand Siècle. Enormously. This upheaval would be enough to scare your elders. In the prehistoric times when I discovered the Catholic Church, everything was simpler. There were still some remnants of Christianity which, like icebergs, refused to melt; there were two antagonistic blocks, the conservatives and the progressives.
Nowadays, there is something to be lost in this France where 99% of our compatriots no longer go to Sunday mass
The young people who remain readily call themselves “tradismatic”. Frankly, how not to be surprised by this new wave of orderliness that is tumbling in the middle of the drought? But what’s the use of rambling? For lack of quoting a Father of the Church, I plagiarize Oscar Wilde: “The new generation is terrible. I would so love to be part of it. »