Young and restless - older and sedate

Some priests of my generation seem to have forgotten that they were once young, snot-nosed, arrogant seminarians. I count myself among these. Where I differ with some of them, however, is that I remember being such. Yet some priests of my generation accuse many of today’s seminarians of such arrogance and seem to have forgotten their own. To my mind these priests have just gotten old and curmudgeonly.

Recently a pastor told me about a young man of high school age in his parish who showed interest in becoming a priest. This pastor told me he was not encouraged by this young man because, among other things, the young man would flagrantly wear imitation clerical shirts with collars in certain settings. This pastor wanted as little to do with the young man as possible.

I was told of another pastor who refused another young man’s request that the priest become his spiritual director. This young man too was also considering the priesthood. But because this young man had very conservative leanings, the priest refused the request.

Having served in a college seminary these past three years, I am frequently reminded that I too once became fascinated by the thought of a vocation. I also recall my fears and those of my peers’ that we would be ordained and live under the kind of backward pastoral leadership that would inhibit us at the least or thwart us at the worst. We weren’t going to be like those pre-Vatican II clergy. We were “the new breed” as Andrew Greeley described us and we weren’t going to be fashioned from any other mold.

Well, I have news for priests of my generation. We’ve become the very thing we swore we would not be. We’ve become the backward pastoral leaders that are now angry and confused by the seminarians that present themselves to us today. One reason for a lack of vocations is a lack of interest on the part of some current pastoral leadership. Is this really anything new though? There were numerous priests when I was younger who didn’t give two hoots about encouraging vocations. And many of those priests feared us and didn’t know what to make of us.

Seminarians today are really not much different than they ever were. But seminarians today encounter the Church in a way we did not. I am not always encouraged by the attitudes of some seminarians today. But I admire their energy, their enthusiasm, their desire for holiness. Yes, they still have much to study and to learn. They will mature over time. There are priests, however, who won’t give them the opportunity to mature. They condemn them outright. They expect them to be finished products at age 18. And they expect them to think as they do.

Some of it, I believe, is because some clergy have established their own “kingdoms” (a word that we new breeders despised in the clergy ahead of us) and are quite comfortable in them. Younger clergy challenge older clergy to get out of their comfortability. We had energy and enthusiasm too. But I do not ever remember holiness being suggested to us as something to aspire to.

There are new challenges in the Church. It is unfortunate that some older clergy have to be one of the challenges seminarians encounter. That hasn’t changed in the 43 years I’ve been ordained. We have some wisdom to offer younger clergy and seminarians. Many are disinclined to offer it.