Marking the sixtieth anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s decrees on priestly training and on priestly life and ministry, Pope Leo XIV’s new Apostolic Letter aims at a deeper understanding of the ministry and role of priests.
By Antonella Palermo and Christopher Wells
Fidelity expressed in humble service to every person, in constant dialogue with God and His People through ongoing formation, in the context of fraternity among priests and with the whole Church, in the missionary and synodal spirit that transcends any temptation to self-celebration: these are some of the priorities that Leo XIV wishes to see intensified in priestly life, contained in the Apostolic Letter Una fedeltà che genera future (“A fidelity that generates the future”) signed on the feast of the Immaculate Conception and released today, 22 December.
The Letter was occasioned by the sixtieth anniversary of the conciliar decrees Optatam totius and Presbyterorum ordinis: documents the Pope said, “that constitute a milestone in theological reflection on the nature and mission of pastoral ministry and preparation for it,” and that retain their “great newness and relevance.”
“We must therefore keep this memory [of the Council’s intentions] alive by embracing the mandate these Decrees have given to the whole Church,” the Pope says. This involves reinvigorating the priestly ministry every day, drawing strength from its root, which is the bond between Christ and the Church.”
Priestly formation to combat abuse and abandonment of ministry
According to Pope Leo, doing so means, first and foremost, drawing on the voice of the Spirit that originally nourished the desire for this pastoral calling, which is always “a free and gratuitous gift from God.”
The Pope invites the Church to promote initiatives for the ongoing formation of priests, such as the conference held in February last year, which brought together more than 800 participants from some 80 countries.
He goes on to say that seminaries are meant to be training grounds “to help a seminarian attend to his own heart.” “Only priests and consecrated eprsons who are humanly mature and spiritually solid,” the Pope says, “can take on the commitment of celibacy and credibly proclaim the Gospel of the Risen One.”
In particular, the Pope does not ignore the open wounds that continue to afflict the Church:
10. In recent decades, the crisis of trust in the Church caused by abuses committed by members of the clergy has filled us with shame and called us to humility. It has made us even more aware of the urgent need for a comprehensive formation that ensures the personal growth and maturity of candidates for the priesthood, together with a rich and solid spiritual life.
11. The issue of formation is also central to addressing the phenomenon of those who, after a few years or even decades, leave the priestly ministry. This painful reality should not be interpreted solely in legal terms, but requires us to look carefully and compassionately at the history of these brothers and the many reasons that may have led them to such a decision. The appropriate response is, first and foremost, a renewed commitment to formation, whose objective is “a journey of growth in intimacy with the Lord.
‘No pastor exists on his own!’
Pope Leo warns against the temptation to self-referentiality, which must be avoided because the priestly vocation is always relational: “No shepherd exists alone!” A vocation, he said,
is never a purely individual path but commits us to caring for one another. This dynamic is always a work of grace that embraces our fragile humanity, healing it from narcissism and selfishness. With faith, hope and charity, we are called to follow Christ every day, placing all our trust in the Lord. Communion, synodality and mission cannot be achieved if, in the hearts of priests, the temptation to self-referentiality does not yield to the mindset of listening and service.
Presbyteral fraternity, the text continues, is not just an ideal or a slogan, but must be considered “a constitutive element of the identity of ministers… an aspect to be pursued with renewed vigour.”
In this regard, the Pontiff says, although much has already been done to implement the recommendations of Presbyterorum ordinis, more remains to be done. He goes into detail on some issues, including “economic equalisation between those who serve poor parishes and those who carry out their ministry in wealthy communities” and health and old-age care, which in some dioceses or countries is not yet guaranteed.
“Mutual care, especially attention to our most lonely and isolated brothers, as well as those who are sick and elderly,” Pope Leo says, “cannot be considered less important than the care given to the people entrusted to us.”
Promoting forms of community life
The Pope then refers to one of the “dangers” that can affect priestly life, namely, loneliness, “which dampens their apostolic zeal and can lead to a sad withdrawal into themselves.”
For this reason too, the Pope says,
following the instructions of my Predecessors, I hope that in all local Churches a renewed commitment may arise to investing in and promoting possible forms of community life, “in order to enable priests to find mutual help in cultivating the intellectual and spiritual life, to promote better cooperation among them in the ministry, to safeguard them from possible dangers arising from loneliness.”
The Pope goes on to highlight the ministry of the permanent diaconate:
In a time of great fragility, all ordained ministers are called to live communion by returning to the essentials and drawing close to people, in order to preserve the hope that takes shape in humble and concrete service. In this horizon, the ministry of the permanent deacon, configured to Christ the Servant, is a living sign of a love that does not remain on the surface, but bends down, listens and gives itself. The beauty of a Church made up of priests and deacons who collaborate, united by the same passion for the Gospel and attentive to the poorest, becomes a luminous witness of communion.
Valuing the diaconate and the lay faithful
The diaconate, “a discreet but essential service” “especially when lived in communion with one’s family, is a gift to be understood, valued, and supported, Pope Leo says.
Similarly, he continues in his Letter, the role of the lay faithful must be valued in a fully synodal perspective. In this regard, he calls for “appropriate initiatives” to be undertaken “in all the particular Churches… so that priests can familiarize themselves with the guiding principles” of the Final Document of the Synod.
Pope Leo goes on to make concrete recommendations:
In order to implement an ecclesiology of communion ever more effectively, the ministry of the priest must move beyond the model of exclusive leadership, which leads to the centralization of pastoral activities and the burden of all responsibilities entrusted to him alone. Instead, the ministry should move toward an increasingly collegial leadership, with cooperation between priests, deacons and the entire People of God resulting in mutual enrichment that is the fruit of the various charisms bestowed by the Holy Spirit. As Evangelii Gaudium reminds us, the ministerial priesthood and configuration to Christ the Bridegroom must not lead us to equate sacramental authority with power…
The temptations of that undermine fidelity to the mission
The priestly vocation unfolds, Pope Leo concludes, in the joy of serving one’s brothers and sisters.
However, observing some of common trends in contemporary societies, notably hyper-connectivity, the Pope warns against a twofold temptation that might undermine priestly ministry: efficiency for its own sake – which often goes hand in hand with excessive media exposure – and “a kind of quietism”.
Evangelization is not measured by the number of projects carried out, explains the Pope, nor by the number of services offered. On the other hand, a “lazy and defeatist” approach is equally inappropriate. “In all situations, priests are called to respond effectively to the great hunger for authentic and sincere relationships that is found in contemporary society through the witness of a modest and chaste life.”
Harmony between contemplation and action is to be sought not through the frantic adoption of operational plans or through a simple balancing of activities, but by putting the Paschal dimension at the center of ministry. Giving oneself unreservedly, however, cannot and must not mean giving up prayer, study or priestly fraternity. On the contrary, prayer becomes the horizon in which everything is included to the extent that it is oriented toward the Lord Jesus, who died and rose again for the salvation of the world.
