The priest I would like

What is a true priest? There is a text that has been doing the rounds for several years, attributed to Madeleine Delbrêl, which is quite evocative. It reads, “The greatest gift we can offer, the greatest charity we can give, is a priest who is a true priest [...] The absence of a true priest in one’s life is a misery without a name, it is the only misery”. Father Gilles François, the postulator for her cause of beatification, warns that it may not have been written by the great French mystic herself, who passed away 60 years ago this October 13, 1964. “It is not found in the archives. And even though certain expressions reflect her thinking and style, they include certain judgments that she typically did not make”. The postulator believes instead that “it is possible, though we do not have material proof, that this text resulted from an interview with Madeleine by Canon Boulard (author of the Map of Religious Practice in Rural France, 1947, ed.), and that it was actually written by the latter”.

In the Delbrêl/Boulard text:

“We also need the priest to live a divine life. The priest, while living among us, must remain elsewhere. What signs do we expect from this divine presence? 

- Prayer: there are priests we never see praying (yet, we still call them priests); 

- Joy: so many priests are busy and anxious! 

- Strength: the priest must be the one who holds firm. Sensitive, vibrant, but never broken; 

- Freedom: we want him free from every formula, free from every prejudice; 

- Disinterest: there are times we feel used by him, when instead he should help us fulfill our mission; 

- Discretion: he must be the one who remains silent (we lose trust in those who confide too much); 

- Truth: he should be the one who always speaks the truth; 

- Poverty: it is essential. Someone who is free from money, who feels as if drawn by a “law of gravity” towards the smallest, the poor; 

- The meaning of the Church: never speak of the Church lightly, as if from the outside! A child who permits himself to judge his mother is judged immediately... 

‘The Priest I Would Like’ is the theme we proposed to a group of believing women, diverse in origin, profession, culture, and experience. At the heart of all the responses is the idea that for them, the priest is not just a spiritual leader but a companion on the journey, grounded in reality, capable of understanding the challenges of modern life without judgment, but offering guidance and support. Some have met such a priest and recognize his fundamental importance”.

Edited by Vittoria Prisciandaro and Federica Re David.

Interventions

Valentina Alazraki
Rosy Bindi
Ilaria Buonriposi
Maria Elisabetta Gandolfi
Lourdes García Ureña
Emanuela Gitto
Martina Liebsch
Marcela Mazzini
Shalini Mulackal
Tracy McEwan
Mariachiara Piccinini
Mirella Soro