Michael Mulvey

“This is what we need: communion.”

“Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus” (Phil 2:5).

In view of the difficult situations of the Church in my country these words led me to embrace suffering as a presence of Jesus and to live every difficulty with his disposition.

In the past five years we have had scandals in the United States linked to the abuse of boys on the part of some priests. Apart from the suffering of the victims and their families, the priests experienced embarrassment, and many of them, a sense of doubt about their identity. Questions on celibacy, married clergy and women priests, led to painful debates both among priests and among lay people.

In line with the bishops’ project to face the situation, independent groups are now coming to each diocese to verify how the Episcopal directives are being implemented. On the occasion of the first of these visits in our diocese, I was interviewed because of my responsibility for the permanent formation of the clergy.

When they asked me how I was carrying out the bishops’ directives, I told them that I fostered programs that create and encourage fraternity among the priests and that create an atmosphere of communion in the presbytery. When I mentioned communion, one of them exclaimed: “This is what we need. If this had existed before, the Church would not be in this situation.” I learned later that this auditor was a formed FBI agent in the federal government.