“The priest is not a soloist of goodness”

People “capable of entering the nights” of their travel companions without being victims of darkness and getting lost; of welcoming and “touching” the wounds of the travellers without being disintegrated; of “accompanying” the stories of men and women always bearing in mind their limits and confiding in the help of grace. That of the priest is an identikit with purely relational traits. It was drawn by Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, CEI President, in the prolusion which on November 10 opened the 67th Assembly of Italian Bishops in Assisi. At the centre of the meeting figures the theme of life and of the formation of presbyters. In a culture that “speaks of relations but that rejects bonds”, the Italian bishops intends to “ideally sit around their home tables” to reflect on the definition of a “qualified formation” of the priest: “with realism, accepting the joys and limits that even the families are experiencing”. Cardinal Bagnasco spoke of the family in the initial and final part of his prolusion: “Weakening the family is irresponsible”, His Eminence said. There were also references to themes of topical relevance such as labour – with an ever greater number of those “who surrendered to the lack of employment” and to globalization that risks “enriching the wealthy and impoverishing the poor” – culture, and school. Finally, an appeal to “re-found politics” through a reconstruction project similar to the one carried out in post-war years: but at the time it was a question of rebuilding from material debris, while now we are facing “the debris of the human alphabet”. “It’s irresponsible to weaken the family”. “It is irresponsible to weaken the family, creating new figures – albeit with specious distinctions for the sole purpose of confusing people and acting as a sort of Trojan horse of classic remembrance – to undermine culturally and socially the central nucleus of the human person”. It is the initial reminder of card. Bagnasco, who said: “Love is not only a feeling, it is a decision; children are not objects to be produced, to claim or dispute, they are not at the service of desires of adults. They are the most vulnerable and delicate, and are entitled to a father and a mother”. It is therefore important to reverberate “the beauty and the inalienable importance of the Gospel of marriage and the family, the heritage and cell of humanity, consisting of a man and a woman in the total gift of themselves; Domestic Church, the womb of life, training ground of humanity and faith, cornerstone of social life”. “Nihilism announced over a century ago hovers over the West, it creates a climate and bends human minds”, warned the Cardinal quoting Nietzsche and the thinker’s radical questions on the meaning of existence. At the end of the prolusion His Eminence went back to speak of the family: “Sometimes we speak of Italian ‘familism’: while extremes are detrimental in all cases, the strong sense of the family should make us proud in Italy and abroad”. Priests against the tide. To draw an identikit of the priest, the cardinal used the words addressed by Pope Francis to the Brazilian bishops, during the World Youth Day in Rio. “What is needed is a solid human, cultural, effective, spiritual and doctrinal formation”, he continued, “to proclaim the Gospel in its entirety, even when it goes against the tide”. “”In the face of the present time we shall not indulge in the temptation to complain or to be pessimistic, nor to uncritical naivety”, he assured. The priest is the one who “takes each individual humanity with his stories and wounds, makes them known, evaluates and cures them with the help of grace, accompaniment, spiritual life, and of responsible fraternity”. “We are aware of the difficulties created by the decrease of the clergy or other painful situations, and we handle them with our responsibility as pastors”, said the cardinal. “But that does not obscure by no means the reality of our clergy dedicated to their own ministry close to the people with admirable generosity. The poor and needy, the families and the elderly, the world of children and young people are their family”.  “Surrendered to lack of employment”. “Unemployment shows no signs of reversal”, “every effort” is needed “to ensure that industrial and professional patrimony of unquestionable excellence may firmly remain anchored in our homeland”, while we should counter the phenomenon of those “who surrendered to unemployment”, who stopped seeking a job. “We are loosing a generation”, is the cry of alarm of Cardinal Bagnasco. “The poor and the needy – of yesterday and today – view a society that runs at high speed, that is ever-more distant from them, whose pace they cannot keep up with – with terrified eyes. Is globalization doomed to enrich the poor and impoverish the poor?” Reshaping politics. “The appreciation of and commitment for education and culture is commendable and crucial for society: and we hope it will continue with determination and effectiveness”. It is the part of the prolusion devoted to politics, in which Bagnasco depicted the school environment as “increasingly tempted by the siren of technology” and asked to “reshape politics” to exit the “wreckage of the human alphabet”.