A Ticking Time Bomb

I have a couple of feeds from the National Catholic Reporter, and read them regularly. One good little article today comes from Sr. Joan Chittister, and you can read it HERE.

Sr. Joan is talking about Canon 212, which gives laity "the right and the responsibility to make known to their pastors their needs." She tells of a couple who got very upset at a homily given by their pastor on the occasion of a new ordination in their diocese, and his advice to the newly ordained. “I told him to remember that his duty was to serve God,” the pastor said, “not the people.” The couple went home and "wrote a letter to the pastor in which they defined their own top 10 suggestions for newly-ordained priests."

Their suggestions:

1. Reread annually a summary of the second Vatican Council reforms.
2. Commit yourself to interfaith bridge building.
3. Be open to a changing position of the church on gays and women.
4. Learn more in the first four years of your priesthood than you did in the recent [seminary trainings].
5. Prepare your homilies with one hand on the Bible and the other on (with) the daily newspaper.
6. Work with people rather than imposing a top-down strategy.
7. Respect the role of the laity in an evolving Church.
8. Build upon personal spirituality by a growing concern for social justice.
9. Store your seminary notes in an inaccessible place.
10. Remember that an unquestioning “company man” in all professions, even the priesthood, sacrifices creative energy.

The pastor's advice wasn't really all that bad, but I did like theirs better. I think most of us assume it's very possible to serve God AND serve God's people. In fact, from the way I read the gospel, most of the time Jesus taught that the way to serve God was BY serving God's people.