{"id":2876,"date":"2015-06-03T19:28:01","date_gmt":"2015-06-03T23:28:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/66.147.242.160\/~stumbli4\/?p=2876"},"modified":"2015-06-03T19:34:02","modified_gmt":"2015-06-03T23:34:02","slug":"archbishop-cordileone-makes-priests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/?p=2876","title":{"rendered":"Archbishop Cordileone Makes Priests"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Bishop\"<\/a>

Bishop<\/p><\/div>\n

San Francisco’s Archbishop Cordileone is not resilient because he’s clever.\u00a0 He’s a good pastor because he’s loving.\u00a0 In other words he’s a bishop of the Church.<\/p>\n

One Mad Mom reports <\/a>on his recent talk to new seminarians about priesthood.<\/p>\n

On temptations to shirk:<\/p>\n

Of course, there is a valuable lesson of life here, especially for your future ministry as priests, God willing. Sometimes doing the right thing will be emotionally difficult. The temptation will be not to take decisive action in order not to create conflict and to keep relationships harmonious. Yes, often things can be worked out in less disruptive ways, and that is the course of action to take whenever possible. But other times you just have to bite the bullet, man up, and do the right thing regardless of how you feel about it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On being ideological or lazy…<\/p>\n

The ideologue simply imposes his own ideas on everyone else, regardless of how it will be received and without trying to understand the people who have been entrusted to his pastoral care.\u00a0 The lazy priest, on the other hand, simply lets people do and believe what they want; he avoids conflict at all cost, and builds everything around his personal life, his ministry included.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On the hard work of being pastoral…<\/p>\n

This is being pastoral: encountering the other, establishing a relationship with them, being lovingly present to them. A priest cannot possibly hope to help his people grow in holiness if he is not present to them. His loving, pastoral presence to them at those most critical moments of life \u2013 the loss of a loved one, the birth of a child, marriage, times of crisis \u2013 all of this prepares the ground for him to, when necessary, challenge them for their own ongoing conversion. So make no mistake: truly doing the \u201cpastoral thing\u201d will always be harder, it will always place demands on you, sometimes inconvenient and uncomfortable demands; it will require you to work hard.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On the liturgy and the sacraments….<\/p>\n

Now, some people might say that this is all fine and dandy, but it\u2019s irrelevant because it\u2019s not what\u2019s happening in our parishes. Well, if you see a discrepancy between what is in the pages of the Church\u2019s documents and what is going on in our parishes\u2019 liturgies, it\u2019s not because the documents are wrong!<\/p>\n

This is where the three approaches can be so easily illustrated. The ideologue will simply start mandating changes without talking to people, seeking to understand them, and, most importantly, teaching them. He\u2019s in charge, so he does what he wants, and even if what he wants is what the Church says we should be doing, he alienates people. The lazy priest simply lets things drift off on their own, and get further and further away from what the Church teaches about how we are to worship. This, too, will inevitably begin to affect how and what his people believe, and so weaken their faith. But the pastoral priest will educate his people about what the Church teaches, what the Council really had in mind for authentic liturgical reform; he will begin to introduce changes gradually, probably targeting one principal Sunday Mass to build it up as the one with special solemnity. He also will not take anything away from his people; he will keep the contemporary music at the other Masses, and teach the musicians how to do it well. In this way, he will facilitate liturgical renewal organically. And it can be done. I\u2019ve seen it done. I know pastors who inherited a parish in shambles (in one of them, the kids\u2019 swing set was in the pastor\u2019s back yard!), and, by approaching it precisely this way, they have completely transformed their parishes: the Masses are full, there are long lines for confessions, the full spectrum of ministries abound \u2013 even including the teaching of Natural Family Planning \u2013 and people are on fire for their faith.<\/p>\n

This won\u2019t happen with the ideologue or the slouch. When the ideologue discovers that the high school kid is having a great time banging away at the drums at Mass, he\u2019ll tell him to take a hike. Never mind that this was his one connection to the Church, and maybe even hope for keeping out of trouble. Of course, the slouch will just let it continue, maybe even encourage it, and pretend as if it\u2019s enjoyable. The true pastor will befriend the young man, guide him as to how he can use his instrument in a way that supports the singing rather than drown it out, and begin to sensitize the musicians to their proper role. When the young man graduates and leaves for college, there is an opportunity to make a subtle change of direction.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Finally from OMM to the Archbishop:<\/p>\n

We cannot thank you enough, Archbishop Cordileone!\u00a0\u00a0 We know you\u2019ve taken the harder road so many before you have failed to do.\u00a0 Despite the media spin and the efforts of the \u201c100 Prominent Catholics,\u201d your love for the people in your care shines through!\u00a0 You are the true shepherd that we need for our local area as well as for the whole country. May your efforts be blessed!<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

San Francisco’s Archbishop Cordileone is not resilient because he’s clever.\u00a0 He’s a good pastor because he’s loving.\u00a0 In other words he’s a bishop of the Church. One Mad Mom reports on his recent talk to new seminarians about priesthood. On temptations to shirk: Of course, there is a valuable lesson of life here, especially for …<\/span> Read More →<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2876"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2892,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2876\/revisions\/2892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}