Priestly differences

The Catholic Review reports that a new study shows the differences between younger and older priests. Older priests, it says, tend to go toward the "servant leader" model of priesthood, while younger priests lean toward what they call the "cultic" model. (I can't help but wonder what politics is behind that choice of terminology!)

The younger priests tend to have a higher morale and view celibacy as more important than the older priests do. Younger priests also see the priesthood as being more of a special calling. The article also said that because of their viewpoint, younger priests sometimes have a hard time dealing with lay leadership.

None of this is surprising to me. For 30 years or so we have had a great dearth of leadership in many parishes across the country and much of the laity has become used to deciding what constitutes Catholic spirituality and teaching for themselves. It must be horrifying to them to suddenly have a pastor younger than they are "telling them what to do."

I'm not surprised either, that younger priests view celebacy and the priesthood as important, special callings. Who in the world would give up what these young men are called to give up for the difficult job of running parishes or serving the poor unless they viewed it as a special calling? The previous generation has been, for the most part, unable to stop the flow of religious from their ranks by diluting the importance of their call and the teachings that go along with it.

I think it is perhaps, more of a brave thing these young men do, in today's secularized society than it was 40 or 50 years ago. There is by no means a guarantee of support or even respect for the choice of religious life, even, at times, among the priest's immediate family.

All in all, it is heartening that we are experiencing a renewal of the serious committment required for religious life among the young.