Chicago priest calls for priests with 'wisdom and intelligence'

Published: 2006-10-23

SCHAUMBURG, Ill. (CNS) -- The church needs priests with "wisdom and intelligence" to preach the faith effectively amid the challenges of today's culture, Father Louis Cameli told the National Catholic Educational Association's annual seminary convocation in Schaumburg, a Chicago suburb. Father Cameli, a pastor in Norridge and former Chicago archdiocesan director of ongoing formation for priests, suggested that the two main models of priesthood often discussed in U.S. church circles over the past four decades have not put enough emphasis on the intellectual demands of the priesthood. "It seems that the intellectual capacity of priests is of lesser importance than it was in years past," he said. "It also seems that the exercise of intellect in the course of ministry is not so prominent as it might have been previously." Father Cameli received the NCEA's John Paul II Seminary Leadership Award during the convocation. He was chief editor of the fifth edition of the U.S. bishops' Program of Priestly Formation, which was published this summer after receiving Vatican approval, and of the National Plan for the Ongoing Formation of Priests adopted by the U.S. bishops in 2000.

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