Monday, January 18, 2010

From a priest's perspective

This book could not be more timely.

It arrives at a moment when once again the Canadian Roman Catholic Church is reeling from another scandal.

This time it involves the former Bishop of Antigonish, Raymond Lahey.

The controversy surrounding his arrest and charges ensures that the aftershocks of the Lahey affair continue for some time to come.

Author Msgr. Dennis Murphy is a seasoned communicator, educator (he holds a doctorate in education), sometime ecclesiastical bureaucrat, founder of ICE (Institute of Catholic Education - an Ontario think-tank), retreat master, teacher and diocesan priest.

He has been in more than a few trenches in his life. He has the admirable characteristics of being forthright and not skirting an issue.

Both qualities are in evidence in A View from the Trenches, although a dollop of prelatical timidity can be on occasion detected.

Murphy notes at the outset: "One of the great paradoxes in the Catholic Church these days is that while survey results tell us that priests are still among the most satisfied and happy men in the land, most of the priests I know often feel somewhat battered and beleaguered in the exercise of their ministry.

"Media coverage of and the stigma attached to priests' sexual misconduct, stories of physical, emotional and sexual abuse in Canada's Native residential schools, and tales of financial malfeasance in parish administration cast a shadow over the lives of all the ordained, even though the great majority are innocent of any wrongdoing. Some priests feel that their collective integrity has been undermined by a few of their brothers. Those ordained a number of years have come a long way down from our formerly lofty position in the Church and society where we were much admired for virtue and competency that were presumed by most. Today, even the most virtuous, dedicated and accomplished priest often lives under a cloud of suspicion if not downright mistrust."

How did this change in public perception occur? What are the historical trends and developments that altered the image of the Roman Catholic priest in Canada, perhaps irreversibly?

Murphy explores several shifts in understanding and identifies many of the internal and external pressures facing the Catholic presbyterate. He grounds his analysis in a theological and biblical perspective that refuses to abandon hope and vigorously argues for an enlightened sympathy for the current travails besetting the contemporary priesthood.

The foreword to A View from the Trenches is written by the professional theologian and new Bishop of Charlottetown, Richard Grecco, who neatly lists the various media portrayals of priests - Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald in The Bells of Saint Mary's and Going My Way, Karl Malden in On the Waterfront and The West Wing, the priests in Ballykissangel, M*A*S*H*, Bless Me, Father and Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino - as examples of the many-sided treatment of priests in popular culture.

Absent from his list are perhaps two of the more iconoclastic portraits - the BBC film Priest and the deliciously irreverent Irish send-up Father Ted.

The point both Grecco and Murphy are making, of course, is that the media image - whether the stuff of hagiography or parody - captures only something of the complex, contorted and yet rich reality that makes up the life of the contemporary priest.

Murphy wants his readers to know that the Catholic priesthood still has meaning, relevance and a future.

He also wants them to know that such a future will in great part depend upon various factors - demographic, ecclesiological, anthropological, spiritual, social and psychological - and he alights on all of them in the course of his book.

Naturally, in a work of such size his analysis is not substantive. His recommendations for serious reform are only tentatively broached. His prose, in sharp contrast to his personality, suffers from a straightened caution.

Murphy knows that there must be change if the critical role of the priest as both a sacramental or cultic figure and as a guide/teacher are to survive, if not flourish.

Although Murphy identifies the neuralgic issues - mandatory celibacy for the parochial or secular clergy, women in ministry, clericalism, the preservation of a priestly caste against the needs for a vibrant Eucharistic community, episcopal power-sharing, et cetera - he chooses to only mention them fearing that a detailed discussion of even one of them will deflect him from his primary purpose in writing this book: to provide a perspective from the trenches, invite dialogue, raise consciousness and inspire the battle-weary sacerdotal troops.

Murphy meets the admittedly limited horizon of his study/memoir. His inspirational and non-judgmental tone guarantee a respectful treatment of a sensitive and fraught subject. It is only at the end, the last paragraph before the epilogue, when he allows himself the freedom for a cri de coeur.

He calls on individual bishops and episcopal conferences to "speak of the meaning and ministry of priesthood today."

He warns them that simply filling holes left by retirements and deaths will not do. He is right, of course, but as someone who knows only too well the operations and limitations of episcopal conferences and the long shadow cast by Rome, the likelihood of significant and creative change depends on a robust and forward-looking leadership.

In the end, everything depends on that.
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SIC: TJ