Discouragement, love of church collide

Maryangela Layman Roman also reported in the November 10, 2005 Catholic Herald on Fr. Donald Cozzens' meeting with about 25 members of the Milwaukee Archdiocese Priest Alliance at St. Sebastian Church.

During their 90-minute discussion, participants raised concerns about the lack of men entering the priesthood, the ideological mindsets of today's seminarians, the role or lack of a role the church has in the modern world, and questioned the idea of bringing foreign priests into U.S. dioceses to address the vocations shortage.

So the MAPA members didn't make the priesthood seem attractive to young men in their parishes, and also object to priests coming here from elsewhere, and think it's the seminarians who have "ideological mindsets."

"We all know priests whose careers mean a lot to them and I'm not here to criticize them," he [Fr. Cozzens] said. "We certainly want to be respected by our brother priests and we certainly want the smile of our bishop, but if we don't preach the Gospel as we understand it, then our own integrity is being chipped away."

When a priest says "we" I have sometimes found it difficult to pin down to whom he's referring. Is Fr. Cozzens here saying that if a priest's understanding of the Gospel is different than the Church's, his integrity requires he preach his understanding? Is that what Voice Of The Faithful means by "priests of integrity"? Would his integrity not prevent him from still cashing his paycheck under these circumstances?

During the ensuing discussion, one priest said he was frustrated by the fact "we don't have anybody to replace us," while another feared the church "is on a headlong march into irrelevancy."

That there's no one to replace them might reflect more on the irrelevancy of their views than those of the Church.