A PRIEST PROMISES TO OBEY HIS BISHOP

 

A PRIEST PROMISES TO OBEY HIS BISHOP

A man is usually ordained a deacon six months to a year before ordination to the priesthood.  During the rite of ordination to the diaconate he makes three solemn promises before God and the bishop.  

The first promise: “In the presence of God and his Church, are you resolved, as a sign of your interior dedication to Christ, to remain celibate for the sake of the kingdom and in lifelong service to God and mankind?”

The second promise: “Are you resolved to maintain and deepen a spirit of prayer appropriate to your way of life and, in keeping with what is required of you, to celebrate faithfully the Liturgy of the Hours for the Church and for the whole world?”

The third promise: “Do you promise respect and obedience to me and my successors?”

Faithfulness to each of these promises is essential to the success of a man in holy orders.  However, only one of these promises is formally repeated in the rite of ordination to priesthood, which is respect and obedience to his bishop.  For some priests this is the most challenging of the three sacred promises.

If the bishop reads the official homily of the rite of ordination the ordinands will hear that they will be “united with the Bishop and subject to him.”  (In my ordination Cardinal Bevilacqua gave his own homily and then read the homily provided in the rite!)  After the homily the ordinands stand together in front of the bishop and are asked if they resolve to celebrate the sacraments “faithfully and reverently,” to “pray without ceasing,” and “to be united every day more closely to Christ the High Priest.”  Then each ordinand, one by one, kneels before the bishop and places his hands between the hands of the bishop.  The bishop asks him: “Do you promise respect and obedience to me and my successors?” and he must say, “I do.”  Throughout their priestly formation, and finally, in the Mass of ordination, the Church assures that those who seek to be priests understand that they are asked to surrender certain natural rights for the sake of the kingdom of God, including the right to choose where they will live and where they will serve.

One of the reasons why obedience is so important is that priests are representatives of the Church in the celebration of the sacraments and other capacities, but they are not successors of the apostles, as are the bishops.  Priests acts in the place of the bishop, as a secondary representative.  They can only do this legitimately if they are really in communion with their bishop and respect and obey him.

I write about the priests’ promise of obedience this week because Frank Pavone, director of Priests for Life, was recently dismissed from the priesthood because of his unwillingness to obey the assignment decisions of successive bishops, as well as other legitimate directives from them.  A lot of Catholics are upset over the decision and sympathize with Mr. Pavone’s repeated claims of being a martyr.  As a priest he did great work for the pro-life movement, which hierarchs in the Church recognized.  But he also had a long history of conflicts with almost every bishop who was his superior.  He became a cafeteria priest, choosing to fulfill some obligations of his priesthood but not all of them.  I regret that the decision to remove Mr. Pavone from the clerical state is permanent. The Vatican apparently felt there was no other option after years of trying to work things out.  Whatever the reasons for which Mr. Pavone refused obedience, his loss of the clerical state is the result of his own stubborn choice.  No one else should be blamed for it.    

The editor of Crisis Magazine has written a balanced article regarding the dismissal of Mr. Pavone from the priesthood.  Here is the link if you are interested in reading it  : https://www.crisismagazine.com/opinion/the-sad-case-of-frank-pavone