Duszpasterstwo prezbiterów. Formy i kierunki rozwoju

Abstract

Many presbyters claim that the priest makes himself sacred by engaging in his everyday pastoral activities, and especially by officiating “sacred services” Hence many of them do not consider it necessary to carry on a special kind of pastorate giving aid to them. A deep crisis considering the priest’s identity and the role he should play in the contemporary Church and in the world, often involving also his spiritual-moral condition, which was revealed in the West after the Council, also occurs in the Church in Poland. This situation cannot be treated as a reason to despair but it makes one conclude that also the priest is not fully self-sufficient in his way to salvation and he needs a pastorate that would be adequate to his position in the Church and in the society. It is not just the many-sided permanent formation that is meant here, but it is a pastorate in the full sense of the word. Pastorate of presbyters may be defined as a particular form of category or group pastorate carried out by the Church in order to sanctify and redeem diocesan priests. It has its theological foundation in the fact that priests belong to God’s People. Within the range of its tasks it deals with priests as people, as Christians and as ones engaged in pastoral work. It strives after securing aid for the priest not only in his personal sanctification but also in accomplishing his mission in the world. It also aims at building a fraternal community of priests - a presbytery - around the diocesan bishop. The subject of the pastoral work aimed at priests is the whole Church, and the greatest responsibility for it must be assumed by the diocesan bishop. The article first shows the historical development of the Church’s concern for presbyters. Next it presents the theological foundations of the diocesan priests pastorate. They follow first of all from contemporary ecclesiology and from the post-Council theology of priesthood. Then the subject and object of the Church’s redeeming activity are described. Finally, the article presents various suggestions concerning the forms and means of pastoral care for priests as well as its present state and perspectives for its development.