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This month, the world is captivated by the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. More than a billion people viewed the opening ceremonies. It is amazing the skills these athletes have mastered and the discipline they must exercise.

These games reminded me of the challenges facing our priests and the demands placed upon them, especially given the growing secularization in our society and the declining number of people of all religious denominations practicing their faith.

For example, only about 25 percent of Catholics in our Diocese and nationwide are attending the Eucharist weekly. Recently, Bishop David O'Connell, the former president of the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, and newly-installed Bishop of Trenton, New Jersey, commissioned a survey which asked Catholics why they left the Church or weren't participating in the Eucharist regularly.

The answers weren't all that surprising: tepid liturgies, uninspiring homilies, unwelcoming parishes...the refusal of priests to celebrate the sacrament of marriage with couples who have strayed from the practice of their faith, or to baptize their children...dissatisfaction with the Church's stance on divorce, human sexuality and exclusion of women from ordained ministry.

One disaffected Catholic complained: "Ask a priest a question and you get a rule; you don't get a 'let's sit down and talk about it' response."

This "exit survey," if you will, suggests five qualities priests must bring to their ministry if they are to be as successful as the Olympians are in exercising their skills in London.

1 First, they must be humble and approachable servants and ambassadors of Christ. Serving means not only doing what one likes doing best; it also means taking on the Lord's yoke, the Lord's burden. It means not being swayed by one's own preferences or priorities, but being driven by the needs of God's people.

Servanthood also requires humility - not seeking praise; not seeking to be noticed; not attracting attention to oneself, but being selflessly available to do the work of Christ among those one is privileged to serve.

2 Second, priests must find time for study: to be aware of cultural trends and social realities; to keep abreast of new insights in psychology, science, technology, philosophy, Scripture and theology, so that when the priest breaks open the Word of God in a homily, it does not seem remote, strange or ethereal, but highly contemporary - responsive to the experience, needs, hopes, desires and expectations of his hearers, yet faithful to the time-tested and track-proven teaching and traditions of the Church.

3Third, priests must be collaborators. There must be an appreciation that priests and laity together constitute one priestly people. Yes, priests are custodians of the sacraments and interpreters of God's Word. But they must also be listeners and learners, tapping into the wisdom, experience and insights of the laity, respecting their baptismal call to holiness and ministry and working with them not in an authoritarian, dictatorial or condescending fashion, but in a true collegial spirit to build up the Body of Christ in our midst by enriching it with the gifts and talents of all God's people.

4Fourth, priests must be committed to the call of Pope Benedict; of his predecessor, Blessed Pope John Paul II; and, I am convinced, to that of the Holy Spirit, for the new evangelization. The survey I cited, conducted by Bishop O'Connell, underscores why this new evangelization is so desperately needed.

However, to be effective promoters of this new evangelization will require that priests must accept people where they are. For all intents and purposes, many Catholics today are uncatechized - and they are products of the individualism, moral relativism, secularism, consumerism and scientism which pervade our culture.

Also, many, especially among the young (Catholic and non-Catholic alike) are what sociologists are now calling "the spirituals:" people searching for meaning and transcendence in their lives, but not adhering to any particular religious tradition.

As Rev. Drew Christiansen, the editor of America magazine, notes: "Their standard for belonging is not adherence to the religious authority of any church as the repository of revelation, but rather, the satisfaction of their own inarticulate searching."

This subjective, unaffiliated character of their searching does not necessarily mean they are shallow. Many live disciplined spiritual lives characterized by daily meditation, fasting, spiritual reading and serving at soup kitchens, food pantries and so on.

What they reject is conformity in a rules-bound institution. They don't understand why they need to be married in a church building rather than under the vault of heaven or why they can't have a "destination wedding."

They resist the reinforcement of ritual distinctions between the ordinary faithful and the ordained. Further, they seek a synthesis of insights from all the world religions.

Father Christiansen observes: "They are not 'low-hanging' fruit for proselytizing, nor erring sheep eager to be brought back to the fold," but they are open to dialogue and for people of faith to befriend them.

Hence, to connect with them, priests must understand they do not have the same background and appreciation for our Catholic Christian tradition as one who is the product of in-depth seminary formation. Priests must be willing, then, to enter into their world, to understand their perspective, to be patient, and above all to be kind.

Not that priests should water down the message of the Gospel or sugarcoat the responsibilities of Christian discipleship, but - like Jesus, who dealt gently and sensitively with the Samaritan woman at the well - priests must seek to lead those who are not practicing our Catholic faith, the unchurched or those searching for a spiritual home from where they are to where our loving and inviting God is calling them to be.

In particular, it is important that priests offer them a fresh explanation of the Eucharist, which is the core of our lives as Catholic Christians, through the welcoming atmosphere, the homilies and the music of our liturgies.

5Fifth, and finally, priests must be men of prayer. Pope Benedict says that, given all the unrealistic demands and expectations people have of priests, especially created by the current paucity of numbers, priests must avoid a well-intentioned activism whereby they forget that the source of their priesthood is being with Christ.

Pope Benedict underscores that prayer and meditation on God's Word are not time stolen from the care of others, but are the condition for priests to be truly in touch with the Lord and be able to speak of God to others from their own personal prayerful experience. In particular, priests must have a special devotion to Mary, the Mother of the Church and the Mother of priests.

I pray, then, that our priests will strive to be servants, listeners, collaborators, evangelists and men of prayer. If this be the case, then they will have achieved the gold standard and their priestly life and ministry will truly give honor and glory to God and bring hope, peace and betterment to God's people.[[In-content Ad]]

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