My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

This issue of Catholic Times contains a list of official appointments transferring or assigning priests to new assignments. Some of these involve priests being given responsibilities at two or three parishes, while others have duties in the offices of our Catholic Pastoral Center or as chaplains at high schools, universities or prisons, in addition to parish responsibilities. I am very grateful to our priests for their generous willingness to accept these various pastoral ministries in response to the call they have received from me as their bishop.

When we were ordained deacons and priests, we clergy made a promise of respect and obedience to our bishop and his successors. In addition to the promise of obedience, diocesan priests also promise to be celibate and to pray the Liturgy of the Hours daily on behalf of the church. Priests who belong to religious orders (for example, Franciscans, Dominicans and Oblates) take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience to their religious superior as well as to the diocesan bishop. We take these promises and vows very seriously because there are integrally related to our ministries and apostolic works.

The purpose of obedience, for example, is not a matter of arbitrarily imposing authority or seeking to exercise control for its own sake, but flows rather out of a sense of mission. The word “mission” comes from the Latin word missio, which means to send or dispatch someone. Just as Jesus sent his Apostles and Disciples on the mission to preach the Good News of God’s Kingdom to all the nations, to baptize them and make them his disciples, clergy are sent by their bishop, who is a successor of the Apostles, to continue the mission of Jesus Christ. Just as Jesus was obedient to the Father for the sake of our salvation, we are called to be obedient to God’s will. Obedience is related to the mission of the church in that none of us is a solo practitioner or lone ranger doing his own thing. Obedience in service of the mission helps to assure that the various ministries in a diocese are not done in a haphazard way out of personal whim, but are coordinated in an organized manner for the mission of the church to be carried out in a coherent fashion.

The purpose of celibacy and chastity is not to encourage priests to be workaholics simply because they have more time to work since they do not have family responsibilities. Celibacy and chastity for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven first of all point to the reality of the eternal life to which we are all called beyond life in this world. Celibacy and chastity also make the priest more available to minister to the needs of his parish family without the responsibilities of a biological family which are the priority of those called to the vocation of marriage and family life in the sacrament of matrimony.

In this regard, it is important to keep in mind that priests are human like everyone else and therefore need time off to refresh and renew themselves. Recently a number of our priests have had to deal with some serious health issues, some of them life-threatening. It is hard to say whether these health issues have been related to stress or overwork, but I am a big proponent of physical fitness and healthy living, which includes not only getting vigorous exercise, eating nutritious foods and maintaining a regular prayer life, but also getting sufficient rest. According to the canon law of the church, pastors and parochial vicars are entitled to an annual vacation of one month, defined as 30 days, not counting the time spent on retreat. The month may be continuous or spread out in several periods during the year. Priests are also expected to make a retreat every year normally lasting at least five days. In our diocese, we also have convocations, study days and day of recollection for priests which are also important for building up a sense of fraternity in the priesthood, collegiality in pastoral service and collaboration with their bishop in the ministry of the diocese.

In addition, it is important for priests to take a weekly day off. Parishioners should not see priests as being selfish, uncaring or lazy if they actually take a day off, especially if the parishioner wants something that day. Having a healthy and rested priest is beneficial not only for the priest but for everyone in the parish. It will be in the parishioners’ own best interest to have a rested, healthy priest to serve them during the rest of the week instead of a stressed, exhausted priest pressured to do what parishioners want on the priest’s day off.

In this regard, I am reminded of the lyrics to the song by James Taylor entitled, You’ve Got a Friend. In it, he wrote, “Hey, ain’t it good to know that you’ve got a friend? People can be so cold. They’ll hurt you and desert you. Well, they’ll take your soul if you let them,

oh yeah, but don’t you let them.”

In other words, we priests sometimes need to claim our time off. When I became a pastor, I told people my day off was Thursday. Shortly after that, the principal of the parish grade school told me she had scheduled a School Board meeting on a Thursday night. I told her I hoped she would have a good meeting. She was appalled that I was not going to be there. I said, if she wanted me at a meeting, don’t ever schedule it on a Thursday night. That was the last time she ever scheduled a meeting on a Thursday night!

Even now, as Bishop, my “day off” is Thursday afternoon to Friday afternoon, during which I often go up to Chicago to see my mother, visit with other family members and friends, or play hockey! That is why you will rarely see me scheduled for any diocesan event on a Thursday night.

Our priests are very dedicated and work hard, so I pray that you will understand and support their need to take care of themselves so they can serve the church well with sound minds and souls in a sound body.

May God give us this grace. Amen.