**WWCMD?**

WWCMD?

Rev. Jerry J. Pokorsky

As a priest, I’m holier than you. I’m set apart from you by ordination and office. My prayers are heard more readily because of my priestly office. My office is a participation in the high priesthood of Jesus Christ and it is a truly great office. But whether I live up to the graces of the priestly office is another matter.

In the Gospel, two apostles, James and John, later to be recognized as pillars of the church, aspire to greatness on their own terms: "Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory." (Mark 10:37) They aspired for the rank of high office as a matter of personal privilege alone. This is a useful working definition of clericalism.

Recently, a priest friend of mine was essentially accused of clericalism. In October he gave a run-of-the-mill “Respect Life Sunday” rights-of-the-unborn-babies sermon at his parish. Within a week he received a well-written angry letter suggesting he overreached his authority as a priest. He called me for my thoughts.

I rebuked him. I told him that he needs to adjust his sermons to the demands of the modern world. He needs to affirm his people as they follow their dreams. Who is he to judge?

I offered a few tips. Recognize that the people in the pews are all very holy. Insist they are nice people and they don’t need Confession. (This saves priests a lot of time, too.) Encourage them to come late to Mass and to leave early according to their luncheon schedules. Never taunt them as “LIFO Catholics” – last in, first out. That’s hurtful. Remind them that, according to pollsters, a “practicing Catholic” attends Mass at least once a month. Never suggest attending Mass every Sunday is an obligation under pain of mortal sin, as long as contributions remain strong.

It is rude to suggest that it’s possible many people are receiving Communion in the state of sin. That would also be another example of irredeemable clericalism. Never judge any contemporary lifestyle. Ever. Come Election Day, tell them to always vote their pocketbooks. There is no need to think of the rights of unborn babies because abortion is only a “single issue.” If unborn babies don’t vote, they only have themselves to blame.

I told my priest friend when the laity affirm us we have a right to feel good about ourselves. Our job is “accompaniment” and “bridge building.” If we accompany everyone with a non-judgmental smile, our people will like us, and that’s the ultimate measure of a good priest.

Come to think of it, why don’t we encourage priests to practice what they don’t preach? A survey several years ago revealed that only half of the priests pray the breviary. Half the priests and bishops can’t be wrong and in the state of habitual mortal sin! We must not be Pharisees in priestly morality. How can an ancient promise on the day of ordination bind priests when there is so much plastic in the oceans? Haven’t priests – like the people -- grown beyond the rigid tenets of the Ten Commandments?

And now friends, as I take the tongue out of my cheek, you understand why we’re in the mess we are today. In the name of progress and tolerance by the clergy and laity alike, abortion, gay marriage, pornography, “test tube babies,” and cohabitation have become normative. So in 50 years, our culture has been transformed from the days of “Leave It to Beaver” to “Sex in the City” -- and sex throughout the hierarchy.

Let’s face it. We of the hierarchy have been negligent with the truth of Christ. We want to be liked in pathological ways and we want our comforts. Clericalism is the abuse of authority for personal purposes. But the truth is our people are often complicit in our clericalism, rewarding priests with adulation for avoiding the hard truths of the Gospel.

So the laity is part of the problem, too. The laity to a large extent also wants its comforts, coexisting in peace with evil. In the 1980s, my Lutheran mother played cards with friends who were mostly Catholic. As the Catholic ladies shuffled the cards, they shamelessly spoke of the types of contraception their children used. Without guile, mom asked them why they felt so comfortable with their children violating Church teaching.

Need a more unnerving example? How many weddings of Catholics have you attended that took place outside of the Catholic Church? How many times, in the name of family unity, have you enshrined the fornication or adultery of relatives or friends with congratulatory smiles? And how many priests agreed it was good to do so to avoid family divisions? If you need affirmation, consult a higher authority: WWCMD? What would Cardinal McCarrick do?

We may try to make peace with evil, but evil will not make peace with us until we are devoured by it.

St. Gregory says, “…negligent religious leaders are often afraid to speak freely and say what needs to be said — for fear of losing favor with the people.” And in another place, he says, “We are called bishops [and priests] but enjoy this honor in name only and not in practice. For the people entrusted to our care are abandoning God and we remain silent. They have fallen into wicked ways and we did not utter a word of reproach.” (Homily 17 on John’s Gospel)

Priests need not be heartless legalistic Pharisees. But neither should they allow clericalism – holding office for personal privilege -- to mute their witness to the Gospel.

As a priest, I have a healthy self-interest: my salvation. By office, I am objectively holier than you. I am set apart to proclaim God’s word with integrity, to administer the Sacraments with diligence, and to govern my Parish with justice. And depending upon how I cooperate with God’s grace, I will be a priest forever, in heaven -- or in hell.