FR. TIM’S MESSAGE FOR THE DAY OF PRAYER FOR THE SANCTIFICATION OF PRIESTS
June 11, 2021
Today’s Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, an annual observance on the Friday following the Feast of the Body and Blood of the Lord, has been designated for several years as a “Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests”. Here at St. Michael’s we have had occasion recently to focus on the gift of the ordained priesthood among us: on May 27 our former pastor, Father William O’Brien, observed the 60th anniversary of his ordination; and on May 29 former Deacon Moris Montoya was ordained to the priesthood after serving us through this pandemic year. Now “Father Moris”, he celebrated a Mass of Thanksgiving here last Sunday, the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, highlighting the essential connection between the Sacraments of Eucharist and Holy Orders. Father Sebastian and I are deeply grateful for the expressions of prayerful support from our parishioners as we marked our own ordination anniversaries. It is a great privilege to serve you as your parish priests, and we do earnestly ask for your continued prayers as we seek to fulfill the obligations of our priestly commitment.
The context of this Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests must, of course, acknowledge the current realities that shadow the Church’s life and compromise the efforts of her priests to live as effective servants of Christ and His People. Especially given the Church’s recent sad experience of the exposure of incidents of sexual abuse of minors and others by priests, we have a compelling case for such a Day of Prayer, to invoke God’s grace for the strengthening of the commitment of all priests to the highest ideals of priestly ministry, modeled on the Priestly Heart of Jesus Himself. Surely that Heart is pained by the evidence of moral failures on the part of those consecrated to serve at His Altar – pained especially by the terrible hurt done to victims, and by the incalculable damage done to the Church by such violations. The welfare of victims must be foremost in the Church’s response to these horrific incidents: the failure to make this a priority has also caused lasting harm to the life of the Church, and leaders of the Church will long grapple with setting things right.
In the last week, an example of this effort to deal with what Pope Francis himself has called a “catastrophe” for the Church, has been the resignation offered by Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Archbishop of Munich and Freising in Germany, from that post as a way of publicly accepting responsibility for the failures of the Church in response to the sexual abuse crisis in Germany. Cardinal Marx has been a leading figure in German Catholic affairs and is a member of the group of Cardinals who serve as a special source of consultation for Pope Francis. Because of his prominence, the Cardinal’s offer to resign attracted international attention. Cardinal Marx has not been personally accused of any misbehavior, but in his letter to the Pope he recognized his responsibility as a bishop to contribute to the healing of the Church that has been so wounded by the mistakes, inaction or cover-up on the part of the Church’s hierarchy.
On June 10, Pope Francis released a letter he wrote to Cardinal Marx, declining his offer of resignation, but noting his respect for the Cardinal’s courage and for his conscientious desire as a bishop to accept personally a measure of accountability for the failures of the Church, both in protecting youth from sexual abuse by clergy and in ignoring or mishandling reports of immoral and criminal actions on the part of priests and other Church personnel. The Holy Father acknowledged the importance for the Church and its ministers of accepting responsibility for its institutional failures, adding that consistent action to address the crisis is also required. Any healing must be preceded by honest sorrow for sins and misdeeds, in humble recognition of our human weakness and our need for God’s help. The Pope affirmed Cardinal Marx in his position in Munich, saying that his pastoral mission there must be directed to leading that local Church to an authentic integration of admitting sin, submitting to contrition and seeking reconciliation. In a heartfelt word of support for Cardinal Marx, Pope Francis – “your brother who loves you” – cited the example of 
St. Peter who, when asking Jesus to “depart from me, for I am a sinner”, was nonetheless told by Jesus to “shepherd my sheep.” The Pope’s letter is worth reading in its entirety. Click here to read it on the Vatican’s website.
We priests know that, in praying ‘for the sanctification of priests’, our people do so with great generosity of spirit, frankly aware of our faults and imperfections, but recognizing our desire to renew, each day, the promise we made at our ordination, to seek to conform ourselves to the image of Christ, our great High Priest. For that – God bless you!
Msgr. Tim Shugrue
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READ ABOUT CATHOLIC CHURCH NEWS FROM OFFICIAL CHURCH SOURCES
Do not think that every website that references the Catholic Church is giving you an official Catholic Church message. Please read the Church’s new agencies articles on the Church’s news story. Many news agencies and websites that are not official Catholic Church agencies or websites provide their own take on Church news items. It is best to read the reports from the official Catholic news agencies which are www.vatican.va and www.vaticannews.va and the U.S. Bishop Conference’s www.catholicnews.com.
These Catholic agencies’ items on the above story are:
Vatican’s website report: Cardinal Marx: ‘I am moved by the Pope’s words, I accept his decision’
Vatican’s website report: Pope Francis rejects Cardinal Marx’ resignation
Pope Francis’ actual response
Vatican’s website report: Cardinal Marx submits resignation to Pope (This letter was written in Spanish. If an English translation is not available from this website, click here for an unofficial English Translation.)
USCCB’s report of Cardinal Marx resignation letter: Citing ‘systemic failures’ in handling abuse, cardinal offers resignation