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- Social wound: Recently, priests, as individuals, have been attacked. It is not that we want to play the victim, but it has recently reached the point where priests are suspected and attacked for the smallest things.
Once I was walking down the street and someone yelled “pedophiles” at me. Of course it really hurt, and it is true there have been mistakes made and people have suffered. But I believe that there are many more priests who, even today, live the gospel. They continue to teach the gospel by the way they live their lives. Many of us are still fighting today to be better Christians in the face of a divided and beaten world. Nowadays, people attack and point out even the smallest issues. There is no maturity in them to restore and retract the accusations. How many priests are falsely judged by people and their ideologies … or simply bad people? I dare to say they’re attacked even by people from the church. This causes lives to be destroyed with simple comments or even canonical tricks based on envy or a lack of empathy. - Institutional wound: This refers to that priest who knows that in every institution, there is a relationship limit. That is why priests emphasize being a “family church” since in the family, there are no relationship limits. Take a look at so many mothers who are lining up to visit their children in prison. But the Institution does set limits. It is enough for there to be a moment of pain and scandal for the Institution to distance itself or simply leave it aside. How many priests must face the pain of feeling forgotten or being let go ?
- Pastoral wound: Often, the priest is measured by his pastoral actions: by the success of how many people he brings into the parish or he is measured for whether his homilies are too short or too long.
This is when we take on a kind of religious marketing, where if the priest is already old, many will say: “He is already too old. Let the Bishop replace him.” I think of so many priests who did so much good, but when they no longer had the charisma or pastoral strength, they were forgotten; simply for not meeting expectations or no longer carrying out a successful pastoral effort. How many wounded priests do we have? How many priests are beaten down and humiliated even by their own brother priests? How many times do we see a certain ministerial dismissal, where one forgets that the priest is a person; he also suffers; he also has fears, and that there are things that hurt him and that he has feelings? Today I stopped to meditate on priestly vulnerability and I wanted to share it with you, so that you know we are not Superman or Batman. We are wounded men redeemed by Christ. We are men who accept his call to serve.
Please pray for us !
Something good is on the way!
