“Do
you promise filial respect and obedience to me and my successors?”
(Pontificale Romanum. De Ordinatione
Episcopi, presbyterorum et diaconorum,
Edition typica (Typis Polyglotis Vaticanis
1990))
From the Vatican, 18th November 2009
Dear Brothers in the Priesthood,
Even
if they are not bound by a Solemn Vow of obedience, ordinands profess a
“promise” of “filial respect and obedience” to their own Ordinary and his
Successors. If the theological standing of a Vow and a promise is different,
the total and definitive moral obligation is identical, and likewise identical
is the offering of one’s will to the will of Another: to the Divine will,
mediated through the Church.
In
a time such as ours, marked as it is by relativism and democraticism, by various
forms of autonomous individualism and libertinism, such a promise of obedience
appears ever more incomprehensible to the prevailing mindset. It is not rare
for it to be conceived as a diminution of dignity and human freedom, as a
perseverance in obsolete forms, typical of a society incapable of authentic
emancipation.
We
who live authentic obedience know well that this is not the case. Obedience in
the Church is never contrary to the dignity and respect of the person, nor must
it ever be understood as an abandonment of responsibility or as a surrender.
The Rite utilises a fundamental adjective for the right understanding of such a promise; it defines obedience only
after mentioning “respect”, and this with the adjective “filial”. Now the term
“son”, in every language, is a relative name, which implies, specifically, the
relationship of a father and a son. It is in this context that the obedience we
have promised must be understood. It is a context in which the father is called
to truly be a father, and the son to recognise his own sonship and the beauty
of the fatherhood that has been given to him. As happens in the law of nature,
no one chooses his own father, nor does one choose one’s own sons. Therefore,
we are all called, fathers and sons, to have a supernatural regard for one
another, one of great reciprocal clemency and respect, that is to say the
capacity to look at the other keeping always in mind the good Teacher who has
brought him into being, and who always, ultimately, moulds him. Respect is, by definition, simply this: to
look at someone while keeping Another in mind!
It
is only in the context of “filial respect” that an authentic obedience is
possible, one which is not only formal, a mere execution of orders, but one
which is ardent, complete, attentive, which can really bring forth the fruits
of conversion and of “new life” in him who lives it.
The
promise is to the Ordinary at the time of ordination and to his “Successors”,
since the Church always draws back from an excessive personalism: She has at
heart the person, but not the subjectivism that detracts from the power and the
beauty, both historical and theological, which characterise the Institution of
obedience. The Spirit resides also in the Institution, since it is of divine origin.
The Institution is charismatic, of its very nature, and thus to be freely bound
by it in time (the Successors) means to “remain in the truth”, to persevere in
Him, present and operative in his living body, the Church, in the beauty of the
continuity of time, of ages, which joins us enduringly to Christ and to his
Apostles.
Let us ask of the Handmaid of the
Lord, the obedient one par excellence, of her who, even in weariness, sang her
“Behold, do with me according to your Word”, the grace of a filial obedience,
entire, joyful, and ready; an obedience which frees us from being the
protagonists of our own selves and which can show the world that it is truly
possible to give all to Christ and to be men fully real and authentic.
XMauro Piacenza
Titular Archbishop
of Vittoriana
Secretary