In the days leading up to Holy Week, priests and deacons gathered with Father Patrick Hyde, OP, for an open discussion on the clergy, the Church and her people. “Remain faithful to your vocations, to your promises, to Christ and his Church,” he encouraged.
“It is a difficult time in the Church,” Father Hyde said, citing obstacles including isolation, loneliness, moral shifts, radical individualism and the sexual abuse crisis. “I want to affirm to you, however, that Jesus Christ has a plan.”
Father Hyde, a National Eucharistic Revival preacher, and pastor and campus ministry director at the St. Paul Catholic Center at Indiana University, addressed more than 100 clergy from across the Diocese on March 23 for a Lenten Day of Reflection at Saint Anthony Church, Saint Mary of Mount Carmel Parish, Hammonton.
“We know God often speaks to us in our most uncertain and difficult times. When we are most confused, ashamed, feeling most wounded,” Father Hyde said, explaining how personal and societal crises can be opportunities for growth and renewal in the Church.
It is known that there are Catholics – practicing and non-practicing alike – who don’t believe in the True Presence of the Eucharist, he said. In addition, there is an increasing practice of moralistic therapeutic deism, particularly among young people, the beliefs of which are that 1) there is a God or higher power; 2) God wants people to be good; 3) the center of life is to be happy and feel good about oneself, a therapeutic value; 4) God does not need to be involved in one’s life except to fix a problem, and 5) good people go to heaven when they die.
“This is also confounded by radical individualism, ‘That my particular, unique human experience is the only authoritative way anyone or anything can come to be known or understood,’” Father Hyde said. “With all of this comes death of the objective and the search for truth, because now, ‘Truth only goes as far as my experience.’”
What all this leads to, he said, is isolation. “Souls are thirsty and hungry. People are afraid to be part of something bigger than themselves. They are much more willing to interact on a screen than sit down and ask, ‘How was your day?’”
“There is a real epidemic of loneliness … and none of us are exempt from this,” he said, gesturing to the priests and deacons. “There is an increased risk of burnout because of loneliness,” he said, encouraging the clergy to build strong relationships with their counterparts, bishop and parishioners.
He admitted that this can be a difficult task in light of the sexual abuse crisis. “We, especially as priests, live in fear of being falsely accused. … But we are made for communion – for relationship with God and each other. To put our hearts on the line. To step on the Cross of Christ with joy and with hope.”
He continued, “The reality is every single person in our pews has had their relationship with the Church either challenged or changed because of the sexual abuse scandals … and so our response can be equally cold or distant … to say, ‘I can’t be near you.’ But that’s not our response to Jesus.”
Father Hyde encouraged the clergy to be courageous, loving and vulnerable so that those they serve might do the same.
“How well does your staff know you – your heart, struggles, wounds?” he asked. “If not well, what can you do to build that relationship? And how well do you know your people? Do you know their hearts, their stories, what’s going on in their lives?”
“We become priests because we desire to be close to Jesus. … We serve the people because we desire to love as Jesus loves. We are called to build meaningful relationships,” he said.
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