By Fr. John Adamski

During the past three weeks we’ve been discussing the reactions of young people to our vocation program and to the whole question of priesthood today. The confusion which they expressed doesn’t seem to be just an isolated phenomenon which is peculiar to teen-agers in Atlanta. Two weeks ago Fr. Andrew Greeley, a prominent priest-sociologist, made public his report to a bishops’ committee studying priesthood today. During the past couple of years Fr. Greeley had been involved in a sociological study of priesthood in this country. This study was authorized by our American bishops. Fr. Greeley’s recent report represents his findings and his recommendations to the bishops committee. He maintains that “the most basic problem of the American church and the American priesthood is that ours is a time of confusion, disorientation and chaos.” I doubt that our young people realize how well their questions fit into the findings of Fr. Greeley’s survey.

Priesthood has been an increasingly popular topic for discussion during the past few years. Vatican II focused the attention of the world on many religious issues and the whole topic of ministry did not escape scrutiny and comment. Nor has the discussion ended since the Council, as the authorization of our bishops for a study on priesthood indicates. What is the meaning, then, of all this “confusion, disorientation and chaos”? How does this sort of atmosphere affect the lives of those of us who are priests and the thinking of those who might be considering priesthood as a possibility for their lives?

Fr. Greeley offers an interesting conclusion when he maintains that, despite all the current confusion, there is no morale crisis among priests today. By this he means that, as a group, priests are just as happy as their counterparts in other professions.

It’s a bit hard, at first, to understand how this can be when all of us are so keenly conscious of the problems and questions about priesthood today. Nevertheless, my own experience of the past several months, and even through all my years in the seminary, is that a vast majority of the priests I’ve known are basically happy men. This indicates to me that they must be finding some satisfaction and meaning in their work of serving God’s people. Perhaps we’ve become so concerned with the news-making headlines of disenchantment and departure that we’ve forgotten to look beyond the headlines for the rest of the story.

We’re groping today to find ways of being even more effective in ministry, but the reality of that ministry –the Good News of Jesus Christ – is still the source and center of every Christian life. As people of God we seek to share that Good News with others by the way that we live. Priests are dedicated to making this the full-time effort of their lives. If the good news really is good, then it must include elements of happiness and peace. Priests are men who have made a commitment of belief in this message and most of them seem to find that their belief is justified and brings them a healthy measure of happiness and joy.

We have to face some difficult and even painful questions about priestly life today. As a priest, I will always have to work through my own personal problems and frustrations just as any other man. But the reassuring fact in all of his for me is that my work – celebrating the love of God in worship, preaching, teaching, visiting, counselling, meeting and planning for every sort of human issue and need – this work has helped me to be a happy man today.