In inspiring priests to be faithful to their mission the Holy Father mentions the basis for this quest: all is grace. And he mentions St. Paul, St. Augustine a saint close to his heart and he mentions St.Thomas of Aquinas a saint he was a little aloft before.
For the candidate to the priesthood to love God and neighbor, which is “Caritas” he needs grace. For him to have the virtue of Hope as explained in “Spes Salvi,” he needs grace. And for the seminarian to have Faith, the virtue that brings him inside the Catholic Church he needs grace with the accompanying “Veritate” enlightened by “Caritas.”
For the future candidate to the priesthood to have the Theological Virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity he must have the proper disposition in mind and free will to receive these Virtues from God. This proper disposition is also a work of grace from God. Yes, all is grace.
We live in a world that is ignorant of the theology of grace. First: our whole environment, a product of the blossoming of the philosophy of the French Revolution that is entirely Pelagian and Semi-pelagian has indoctrinated the minds of men to reject the concept of grace as unscientific and an obstacle to the progress of men. The candidates for the priesthood are children of three generations of parents who were bombarded with this spirit of secularism and materialism. We have candidates to the seminaries who have no concept whatsoever of what is Catholic Doctrine, Cardinal Baum once mentioned in a Vocation address. And this ignorance is on the theology of grace. This makes the seminarians ignorant of the role grace plays in the studying of Catholic truths. And as Cardinal Ratzinger mentioned in his “New Evengelization” this defect is found both in the content and method in teaching and studying theology.
Since the correct way of studying Theology leads the student towards happiness and the development of virtue, ignorance of the correct way of studying leads to unhappiness and vices. It is this unhappiness in the service of God (which is unthinkable) and the plunging into a life of vices, that had haunted the priesthood, is the natural consequence of this grave error.
This situation had been described by Cardinal Ratzinger in his “Ratzinger Report.” He said that the problem of the priesthood is ‘restlessness.’ Let us sit down and analyze that statement. Ascetical Theology enumerates 7 vices. Vices prevent us from reaching Faith, Hope and Charity. In short, vices prevent us from being Catholics.
The vices are the sources of sins. From one vice can come numerous sins. When a soul has the first vice, namely gluttony, it becomes easy for him to slide down to the second vice….. lust, etc. etc…If a soul has the fifth vice it means that he has all the other four previous vices. With 5 vices we cannot imagine how many sins can come from these sources. Let’s say 50 different sins could come out of those five vices.
‘Restlessness’ is enumerated among the last vice; 6th or 7th. That means some priest have all the vices and it is difficult to imagine how many sins he is exposed to or is committing already. This easily explains the problem of the priesthood that is even more recently exposed in Ireland. And sadly, the solution is easy. It is difficult to understand why the Church could not easily solve it. It seems the men of the Church are ignorant both of the reason for the crisis and the solution.
But when we say ignorance we simply mean that the mind or intellect does not know what it could easily learn. Everything could be learned from the Theology of Grace, the very foundation of Catholic Theology.
Ignorance of the Theology of grace and therefore the lack of these necessary graces placed the seminarian in the absurd situation where he finds himself in a graceless natural state and trying to learn divine supernatural truths which were too much over and above the capabilities of his natural mind.
But these seminarians frequent the Sacraments! Ignorance of the theology of grace would make them receive the sacraments sacrilegiously. How many times have Pope Benedict reminded us on how to receive Holy Communion worthily. That word “worthily” demands a knowledge of the workings of grace. How many times have the Holy Father mentioned the strange phenomenon of many receiving Holy Communion and few going to confession. This shows ignorance of the importance of grace.
Indeed, if we can restore the way seminarians are trained as they used to train them during the times of the Fathers of the Church we would not need a Year of the Priest.