By Fr. John Adamski

A recent survey taken among seminarians says some important things about priesthood and our expectations regarding what kind of men priests should be. The report was issued by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA). It compiles the results of questionnaires completed by 388 seminarians in some 52 seminaries throughout the country.

The survey shows that seminarians feel that the most important characteristic of a seminary spiritual director is “personal holiness.” Men preparing for the priesthood want spiritual directors “who are sympathetic, without being mere yes men.” And educated without becoming a mere degree-earner devoid of admirable personal qualities. The report indicated that a seminarian wants as his director “a priest who has solved the problem of his own identity and who consequently is happy as a priest and secure in his vocational commitment to the priesthood and the Church.” One seminarian expressed it this way, “This man needs not be able to ‘walk on water,’ but he must exemplify in a manly way that he is in close contact with Jesus through faith and prayer and thus witness to the Gospel.” Most seminarians indicated that they choose as their director “a priest who is honest and courageous enough to ‘tell it like it is’ – a man who will tell me when I am wrong and help me to do something about it.”

I wanted to share some findings of this report with you because I think that it says a great deal about what we really expect from our priests. I think that most of us agree with the seminarians in that we want a priest to be a man of personal holiness, someone who genuinely tries to keep in touch with the Lord especially through his own life of prayer. A priest may have many talents and capabilities but none of these things will ring true unless he is first, and foremost, a man of faith. I think that all of us are able to overlook many personal shortcomings of a priest if we have confidence and trust in our awareness of his effort to be a believing person. If a priest leads us in any area, we certainly expect that he will be our leader and guide us through the challenges and ways of faith.

None of these things happen just by chance in a person who wants to be a priest. Parents play a very important role in the growth of their children. If parents are willing to share something of their faith and believing with their children, then they are providing them with the necessary foundation for their own personal commitment to Christ. Personal holiness doesn’t begin with the ceremony of ordination, holiness begins with one’s birth –the very start of life. Being holy means that each moment of our life takes its starting point from the fact that God is our loving Father who wants us to live as his people. In our early years we learn what that means in practical terms from the way people around us live, especially our parents. Hopefully we learn well enough so that when we reach the point of making our own decisions, we already have some experience of what God can mean in our lives.