Why Are Young Priests Becoming So Traditional Today? (Guest: Fr Cristino)

"Are Young Priests More Traditional? Surprising Survey Reveals the Future of the Priesthood. Join Fr. Cristino and me as we dive into what this means!"

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welcome back father Christina thank you I I noticed that you're wearing your cassic today oh well I guess that means I'm just a conservative priest well let's talk about that okay let's the New York Times came out with an article relatively recently speaking about uh the young Priests of I believe America who are bold conservative Orthodox according to a survey I believe of 3500 priests so large that's a significant sample of priests and their results were kind of interesting so I thought maybe what I'll do is I'll read part of the article and then I'll get your reaction sure it states more than 80% of the priests ordained since 2020 described themselves as theologically conservative Orthodox or very conser conservative Orthodox according to a nationally representative survey of 3,500 priests published by the Catholic project at the Catholic University of America so your reaction to this I find it the thing that stands out to me about the formulation of those statements uh is the dynamic of conservative SL Orthodox and when I saw that my first question was uh who put it that way uh was it the survey Creator who saw that they needed to find an expanded way of describing what they are trying to get at by calling someone a conservative person or an orthodox person I've always personally just bristled at those categories because I don't think they're helpful particularly for we and a kind of British parliamentary American Canadian context conservative and Progressive or liberal those categories they just mean something strictly political and it's better that they be left there uh because I think the people that they're talking about in this survey the priests who are identifying themselves maybe because they're forced to because that's what the survey question asks as conservative don't mean by that what a political category means as conservative and so the qualifier of Orthodox I think is trying to capture more of the essence which is I love and fully embrace all of the teachings of the church I don't I don't have any objections to what the church teaches I try my best to convey what the church teaches I love the fullness of our tradition uh but I don't necessarily call myself a traditionalist I think that's a lot of what people mean in this context when they use a word like conservative yes but it can quickly turn into being associated with right-wing politics uh and therefore if your politics are objectionable on some fronts well then you can be more easily dismissed and I think that that's just uh counterproductive to what we need to be doing if we're going to be building up the body of Christ which is what the mission of the priest is the category though of asking one young priest Orthodox Orthodoxy like as opposed to well the the survey got into the difference he says it says but still not a single surveyed priest who was ordained after 2020 descri described himself as very Progressive mhm so these categories are not necessarily they say something right so what does it say what does it say about the young man who's been ordained well all of the young men who have been ordained since 2020 according to this survey that don't describe themselves as Progressive I interesting to know what you think that means and then they would assumingly set aside the conservative political part of it consider themselves Orthodox or very Orthodox what does that what does that say about the young man so I think it's okay well I first I should identify myself as a vocation director in my dicese the role that I have uh in addition to being a parish priest is to accompany and oversee the formation of the young men who are training to become priests for our dicese uh so this is my world this is my wheelhouse and I spend a lot of time with with these guys spent a lot of time with discerners uh and the whole idea that uh our seminarians are becoming too traditional or that they're traditionally minded my first question for that would be uh what's the alternative if that's true okay fine I'll grant that what is it that that means they're missing what is it that you think that means that they should be more open to or that should be different about them and I don't know what the answer to that is I don't know that anyone knows what they think the guy who is traditional is missing if what they think he's missing is openness to other things I would want to know what those things are because these guys I think are very open to many things but are they open to the possibility that the church's teaching should be changed on something no they're not and what does that mean does that mean they're rigid no rigidity comes from the unwillingness to be flexible on things that can bend some things can't bend some things are just true and they don't require flexibility they require patience in application they require understanding they require sensitivity but it's not bending the thing to make it work work for you it's bending maybe my approach to how I convey this to you so that I can convey it as effectively as possible to you and I see our traditional young men in the Seminary who do want to be that way and who are open to correction specifically for me when I can point out to them ways in which I think they're not or ways in which I I worry that they might not be as effective in their Ministry down the road if they don't address this way that they think or this way that they speak or the jokes that they make or the the things that they wish were different mhm they're open to that they receive that if that's not flexibility then I don't know what is but it certainly isn't rigidity if they were that rigid they would tell me to take a hike and that I'm some flaming liberal and they can't trust me and so they're leaving our dicese and going to join whatever other thing they're going to join right so careful not to name a dicese there yes exactly what do you think it is meant by a progressive priest I think well the word Progressive means seeking ongoing change that's what progress is allegedly supposed to be that that we're always always ready to move in a New Direction always ready to take things up in a different way uh and I just don't think that ever should apply to Doctrine and our teaching Doctrine can develop that doesn't mean that it's changing uh but what can change is the manner in which we try to proclaim the gospel and I wish that people could see that maybe adjusting the way in which we are seeking to proclaim the gospel at this moment in history which happens to look like something we would associate with the past or traditionalism maybe just maybe that's being Progressive maybe it's saying we are going to try a different way we are going to take a new approach to sharing the truths of the faith so what if it happens to resemble how something might have been done many years ago if it hasn't been done for a long time it's as new now as it would be if we were inventing something from scratch MH and so I think that if we're going to uh see progressivism as being something positive it has to be rooted in the capacity to see doing things in a traditional manner as also being Progressive and if it can't be then I don't I don't accept your definition of progressive well I think the the the I I think my assumption of the survey is that a progressive is one who wants some of the church's teachings changed in some way or moved or I think that's what it's at I think that's fair it's probably what they're getting at I assume so yeah so why why do you think that young men are not attracted to that as opposed to attracted to the Orthodoxy of the faith want wanting it all wanting the tradition wanting wanting not to change the teachings like why does a young man want that now as opposed to maybe back in 60s 70s it was a little different because there was the the air was filled they said with with change yes and in some respects there was a lot of change that was happening um so why are young men not attracted to that because they're exhausted from the instability that constant change produces and that translates into going in search of something constant and stable and predictable tried tested and true that they can really sink their teeth into that they can that they can have as an anchor because the young men of this generation have grown up in a time where everything was up for grabs you can't stay caught up with anything your technology is constantly developing you just got a subscription to this streaming service but here's a better one you just started playing this video game but here's a newer model everything they've ever tried to do was already obsolete before they even figured out how to use it or got good at it and it's produced as I refer to it an instability a feeling like you're constantly on shifting sand and that's exhausting if if you you can't walk on a tight rope forever because it's exhausting it'll it'll you'll you'll fall or if you manage to stay on eventually your body just can't take what it what is required of it to stay on top of that you need something firm that you can set your feet down on and not wonder if it's about to get pulled out from underneath you and so they go looking and they find the 2,000 year history and tradition of the church's teaching and liturgy and her beauty and they say yes I can set my feet down on this I don't want it to change I don't want it to shake I don't want to know what's the next thing that's going to be different they're grateful that they have something sturdy to set their feet on and I actually think that that's that's for most Catholics I I'll go even one step more General and say that's just for young people right now and young people are entering the church at an alarming rate uh I I work not only in vocations but in University and young adult chapy every year it's not necessarily gotten to the point where it's doubling year by year but the the number of young people who are entering the church every Easter in our young adult chapy alone we had 31 people baptized and confirmed it's beautiful uh who I would say the average age probably somewhere around 24 they're looking for something that can provide some stability in their life uh and if the church becomes one of the things that's just like everything else around them that's constantly changing and growing and re-examining itself to see how it can be better we're going to lose them because that's what they're fleeing from right but doesn't the church lose its relevance when it does that it it becomes like everything else I think that that's what those who are agitating for it to be that way don't realize because they grew up in everything being like that and if they notice that the church isn't then that's what they react to oh I'm part of the one thing that can't stay caught up with everything else as opposed to realizing that it's a blessing that I'm part of the one thing that just Remains the Same that is stable and firm and predictable people don't appreciate how much they're drawn to that until they've lived an entire life without ever having it we also have this interesting I would some might call it a phenomenon but I think it's a Grace special Grace of these celebrity conversions and I think it's wonderful it's wonderful high-profile people in the Public's eye who might have a social media platform or a Candace comes to mind um wh why do you think it's these high-profile people all of a sudden are it seems like there's a momentum all of a sudden well they live in the in the in the eye of the storm of this instability where their career is is is hanging by a thread you say one wrong thing you get cancelled yeah you appear in at one wrong place at one wrong time you get cancelled uh your social media post that you put on imprudently it doesn't get taken down fast enough you're cancelled and 5 million people are watching because you're a celebrity uh I think they live under that that burden and then when they discover that there's a thing that says this is how we deal with people who make mistakes you go to confession you have a prayer Pray over you that's thousands of years old with the authority of almighty God setting you free from that mistake I think they must breathe a sigh of relief to realize that that's a thing and so then they want it uh I believe that's where they're coming from the context but then there are also many people who I would call maybe celebrities because they're public intellectuals because they do a lot of thinking and talking out loud in in a public manner who then are confronted by the intellectual tradition of the Catholic faith and it overpowers them I think of the the recently named vice presidential candidate of of Donald Trump uh JD Vance uh he has very publicly acknowledged the the intellectual battle that he went on in Pursuit Of The Truth uh only to be uh overpowered by St Augustine and now is a as a confirmed and practicing Catholic uh and to his credit president or the former president Trump doesn't see that as a liability right whereas nowadays in politics if you're a Catholic it's automatically assumed that you're not going to serve the best interests of your people because you're just going to do whatever the church tells you you have to do an intellectual like JD Vance would say what if the church tells us what we have to do is because it's right and that is actually for the good of all people if we just did it I I think he would have the boldness to make a comment like that and then take the heat that would come pouring down on him from every direction for his anti-progressive way uh and he would just be disregarded as another mindless conservative who just wants to uh Reserve in the present the relics of the past or however they might put it but I think actually what's happening there is someone saying no we need to be humble enough to admit that as time goes by some things don't change some things remain always true and it might have to be applied differently than it is now or than it was before compared to how it must be now but that is not the same as subscribing to NeverEnding progress uh and that exhaustion from having to live in that I think it's interesting you make that comparison these celebrity conversions I think it's it's something quite similar to what we're seeing with the nature of the priests that we are seeing emerge from our seminaries and houses of formation at this time uh they just want something to stand on and then they'll be willing to die for it I think Chesterton said something to the effect of that the mind we can't be so open-minded that our brains fall out right that they need to be closed upon something and that something is truth MH how does the Catholic tradition propose thinking differently than an atheist and how they think do you think there is a difference in of the how the Catholic mind thinks as opposed to one who does not acknowledge that there is a God absolutely there has to be a difference and I think the difference is the starting point of the intellectual project in Catholicism the starting point is God the objective reality outside of ourselves however you want to call it and it is my attempt at trying to ascend towards that the atheist starting point by definition has to be me and what I observe and then I pull everything down into where I'm starting from so in the Catholic intellectual tradition we are saying where I am is not where I am meant to be and we allow oursel to be lifted up by greater minds and greater discoveries than ourselves and if God is so gracious in blessing us with the ability to do so he will make it such that we become part of those who have made a contribution that will impact those who come behind the the atheistic uh tradition if we want to call it that is grasping at those things and then trying to force them down into their way of seeing it and now it's a battle of wills I have to convince you that what I'm saying is right as opposed to allowing myself to be overwhelmed by what is right because it is right those are those are drastically different starting points so if there's a young man that's watching this right now and he's considering the priesthood in an Ever shifting world and the Sands are shifting underneath them what would you say to him about Catholicism in the priesthood I would say that the Catholic priesthood is an indescribably beautiful gift from Christ to his church which is the guarantee of his promise that he made at the end of Matthew's gospel I Am With You Always until the end of the age uh it is the priest who enters into every imaginable circumstance of people's lives to be Christ to them in that moment because in every moment of need it is only Christ who we're looking for and so to get to be that stability to someone who in a moment of Crisis or in a moment of desperation or even in a moment of joy is just looking for that stability to know that I can participate in being for that person what Christ is for all people that's the stability that I have set my feet on when I have embarked upon the pursuit of the Catholic priesthood uh it's not to serve me it's not so that I I said earlier that know young men are exhausted by the instability of the culture around them and so they're just looking for something stable they're not looking for that stable thing so that they can just lay down and take a nap on it they're looking for that stable thing so that they can be stable so that they can be a firm planted anchor that the rest of this unstable world can turn to and look to and cling to and only then discover that they have actually found Christ himself so don't be afraid to pursue the Catholic priesthood thanks for your thoughts[Music]