What do you look for in a priest?

At first glance, this may seem a presumptuous question. What right has anyone to try and determine the outstanding qualities that one looks for in a parish priest.

                                     Don Camillo comes pretty close to the ideal in my book

Unfortunately, the ravages of liberalism have brought a lower calibre to many who have received the sacrament of Holy Orders.

There is now a free for all in terms of clerical dress (or non clerical dress), liturgical ad libbing, improvised practices on the sanctuary, disregard for home visits and a definite no-no on all blessings of the home, the sacrament of Penance reduced to a cosy chat in a sacristy ante room under the banner of Reconciliation (was there ever a more PC word?) and.......a suspected lack of belief in the Real Presence.

I say suspected because, I cannot prove anything in this respect, other then a long litany of examples of disrespect and even sacrilege towards the Blessed Sacrament - I do have a hazy recollection of some research carried out c. 1985 ish where parish priests were asked to fill in an anonymous questionnaire with their views on this and other topics.

I do distinctly recall the main statistic as being 48% of priests actually not believing that the bread and wine becomes the Body and Blood of Christ.

But, we are blessed today with a resurgence (albeit limited) of the faith amongst the priesthood - so, without naming any and causing embarrassment I thought it would be interesting to draw up a 'hit list' of the most desired qualities that you would wish to find in a priest.
I am leaving aside the reverence factor per se, as, presumably, we would all wish for our PP to be deeply spiritual and holy in all respects.

Here is my attempt at defining the desired qualities; I have included what the dating agencies call a GSOH. The advertising agency, Saatchi and Saatchi used to place humour at the top of their employee specification list and I like that. You need humour in this life, especially if you are called to be a servant of God.

The list is not exhaustive, feel free to add any facets that you see as being vital:-

1. Orthodox - meaning a knowledge of and love of all things regarding Church doctrine and moral and social
    teaching.

2. Ability to communicate clearly and simply - using all of the technologies available.

3. Power of oratory - no referring to notes, ability to project the voice, hold a thread and complete in less
    than 6 minutes

4. Love of God by which I mean, among many things, the desire to spend at least one hour each day
    kneeling before a crucifix.

5. A strong sense of humour - I learnt long ago that you can say what you like to people but, for your
    message to have impact, you need to smile, even when on the phone.

6. Gravitas. A priest needs to know when to call a halt to a conversation or when a meeting takes the wrong
    route. He must tread the line that cuts between teacher and friend.

7. An overwhelming desire to save souls. That should be the prime goal of all priests.

8. A lack of fear with regard to giving evidence to the external aspects of the Faith (wearing black and white
    clerical garb, saying grace before meals in public and speaking out at public meetings where moral issues
    are debated).

9. Obedience to the Holy Father first, and the bishop second.

10. An awareness and love of tradition in terms of liturgy, vestments and procedures - no guitar Masses, no
     Frank Sinatra songs at funerals, no call me "Jim" tacks and definitely no standing to receive the Eucharist
     by hand.

And, if I was looking for a number eleven, I might choose aversion to a certain magazine as fitting the bill.

How to prepare young men for the priesthood

Much has been written recently about the qualities and characteristics of seminary training. This much I know. What is being dished out today is a watery gruel compared with the programme of fifty years ago. We do know, do we not? That any candidates that show any sign of having any form of spiritual rigour about them are ditched at interview stage. Any vestiges of depth or orthodoxy are sniffed out and the hapless candidate sent off with a flea in his ear.
This is, of course, a complete reversal of how it used to be. We know the great priests that are among us but, in numbers they are few. In my youth just about every priest was a hero, and that's not mawdling nostalgia, it's a fact.

Life in a West London parish kept a priest very busy; he, among many other things, had a watching brief over the following:-
Choir, Legion of Mary, St Stephen's Guild, Knights of St Columbus, Squires of St Columbus, Scouts, Cubs, Guides and Brownies, Union of Catholic Mothers,
Sunday School, Benediction, Secondary School, Convent, Hospital, House visits (2 per year), Confessions, plus, of course, daily Masses with four on a Sunday.


There were, undoubtedly, more duties that I cannot recall. But all of those clubs and societies were intensely active; it was not a case of putting in an appearance once or twice a year, it was more like every other meeting and most meetings were weekly.
The seminary grounding obviously prepared them well for such an ordeal and it's interesting to see a sample programme from a Junior Seminary. This programme was in existence up until 1967 (what happened then?) and it served to provide both Brothers and Priests for the White Fathers - another order that went into decline after Vatican II.

 
"The Priory, Bishop’s Waltham, Hampshire, served the Missionaries of Africa, called 'White Fathers’ because of their Arab-styled habit, as a junior seminary from 1912 to 1967. Some 1,000 boys passed through it in that time, of whom 163 became White Father priests or brothers, three of them bishops in Africa. Another 36 became priests or brothers elsewhere, of whom Abboy Cuthbert Johnson, a Benedictine from Bede’s home town of Jarrow, is a world authority on the Church's liturgy and Michael Fitzgerald became Archbishop. A front-bench Labour MP, England’s first doctor in Adult Religious education,  and many professional men among the old boys, indicates that the school provided a good secondary education, especially in the years when this could not have been guaranteed to every boy".

Ends/...........

Now, I am no academic but I do appreciate that this is not the greatest of educational timetables but it is one that is rigorous with a very heavy bias on the spiritual life. That is what 14 year old boys who aspired to a vocation needed then. A more adult version is what young seminarians of 21 or so require today!
There are no social care elements, no weaving the web type theology just good, solid prayer, manual labour and Maths, English and Latin.
The end result for those boys that went on to Senior Seminary and eventually became brothers or priests were men that could hack life in Senegal, Mozambique, Angola and the rest. They could also, by default, manage British parishes very well and with a great deal of holiness and humour.




Teaching staff from a White Father's Seminary in Ireland