The priests’ senate can and must be an effective organization in a diocese according to Father Richard Kieran. The ideals of the senate must be mutual support and charity among the priests. Father Kieran spoke to the region IV bishops’ meeting on April 23. This is the text of his talk:

The first concern of the senate must be to unite the presbyterate. It must work to bring together all priests and the bishop as, in the words of St. Paul, “ a unity in the work of service, building up the body of Christ.” (Eph. 4:12) What must bind them together is their service in building up the People of God.

There can be such a unity only if priests and bishop have a common goal for their ministry, as suggested by the Second Vatican Council:

“The purpose, therefore, which priests pursue by their ministry and life is the glory of God the Father as it is achieved in Christ. That glory consists in this: that men knowingly, freely and gratefully accept what God has achieved perfectly through Christ and manifest in their lives.”

This goal of bringing men to saving faith may not be presumed. It must be articulated. It must be obvious that, under the leadership of the bishop, the energies of the presbyterate are directed primarily to achieving it.

I believe that senates will continue to be largely ineffective until they make it their first concern to foster enthusiasm and effectiveness among their priests for the ministry of calling men to “conversion and holiness.”

This brings me to a second important consideration. I believe that many priests are ineffective in their ministry because nobody ministers the saving Word to them. As great numbers of men become disillusioned and dissatisfied with their priesthood, should we not wonder about their faith commitment? Do they know the peace and joy of living in close personal union with Jesus Christ? Do they experience the power of the Spirit of Jesus in their lives?

The Second Vatican Council speaks of priests’ “duty of sharing the gospel truth in which they themselves rejoice in the Lord.” What if they have never experienced this joy? How can they be united in proclaiming it enthusiastically?

There is a great need to minister to our priests. They are being lost because of spiritual starvation. There is no more urgent necessity in the Church today than to rekindle an apostolic spirit among our priests. Young men will not be attracted to priesthood, we will continue to lose the men we have, the life of the Church will continue to decline until there is a spiritual renewal in the priesthood.

The bishop cannot take care of this alone in this diocese. Yet it is one of his most urgent responsibilities. I suggest he turn to the senate of priests and work in partnership with it for the spiritual renewal of his priests. This will involve many hours of prayer and study with the senate. It will involve delegating much responsibility for ministering to their brother priests to the senate.

Senates of priests offer great hope for the future. But only if they can work together with their bishops for the spiritual renewal of the priesthood can the most important level of communication ever be reached – the joyful sharing of our life in union with God and our ministry of it to others.

Bishops and senates of priests should adopt the goals of the current Holy Year as their special goals. They should take the words of our Holy Father as directed especially to them:

“We need above all to reestablish a genuine, vital and happy relationship with God, to be reconciled with Him in humility and love so that from this first basic harmony the world of our experience may express a need and acquire a virtue of reconciliation in charity and in justice with men, to whom we immediately give the new title of brothers.” (General Audience, May 9, 1973)

Our basic difficulty is that we have created senates as structures which are contrary to the very nature of the Church they are supposed to serve. If we believe with the Second Vatican Council that the Church is essentially the community of believers in Jesus, we must develop the senate as a faith community, which seeks to build such community among the priests of a diocese. Instead we have substituted Roberts Rules of Order for the charity of I Corinthians 13. In pursuit of many secondary concerns, senates have lost sight of their true goal.

I pray that the senates of the future be composed of men of faith – men whose priorities are those of Jesus, men who will make the Kingdom their first concern and believe that God will provide for the needs of the presbyterates:

“Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these other things will be given to you as well.” (Matt. 6:33)