The Year for Priests: Why St. John Vianney?
The Year for Priests: June 19, 2009 – June 19, 2010 By Fr. Chris Heath
 Most priests know just enough about the Curé of Ars to consider him only a historical oddity. The patron saint of priests, some would say, was a holy man for his time, but not a model for the modern priesthood, especially here in the United States. But Pope Benedict XVI does not agree. In 2009, he chose a Year for Priests to coincide with the 150th anniversary of St. John Vianney's death. Benedict's choice was no accident. Calling the Church—and especially the clergy—to "interior renewal for the sake of a stronger and more incisive witness to the Gospel in today's world," he invited us during this special year to "learn for ourselves something of the pastoral plan of St. John Vianney." The Year for Priests, which began and ended on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus—also not a coincidence—gave the Church this challenge.
The great Curé first came to the French village of Ars a nobody, relegated to a lost parish in the middle of nowhere. This place—known for its fog, stagnant water and bad roads—had been abandoned for several years following the French Revolution and its ensuing spiritual and material devastation. For the first 10 years of his 40-year pastorate, St. John labored tirelessly for change, at great personal cost.
The church building sat dilapidated, the rectory showed itself a wreck, and for many years the parish was dirt poor. Fr. Vianney's flock numbered just 230 souls living in 60 households.
In his early years as pastor, St. John Vianney performed only a handful of weddings, funerals, baptisms and sick calls. Local townspeople were at best unimpressed with the new pastor. At worst, apathy and active resistance made his task even more daunting. St. John was accused of wrongdoing and even abuse. People whose livelihoods and lifestyles were threatened by his preaching complained to both civil and ecclesiastical authorities to have him removed. Other priests in the diocese thought he was a simpleton or downright dangerous to the Church. The Evil One, too, waged intense spiritual battles to discourage St. John and to frighten his parishioners away.
This situation would have disheartened most priests, but this pastor celebrated Mass prayerfully every day without fail. Slowly his consistency drew the attention of his parishioners, and over time, his small church became filled for daily Mass. St. John knew that his skills as a preacher were limited, but he took his responsibility seriously. He spent hours painstakingly handwriting his Sunday homilies. When preaching, his emotions often overtook him and he would cry as he described the horrors of sin and the dangers his people faced because of their poor choices. He spoke out against dancing, gambling, cursing, missing Sunday Mass and especially against drinking, the cause of much of the village's family discord and poverty. He called people to daily prayer. But the pastor of Ars did even more. He modeled it for them. As people began to see the error of their ways, they sought him out for confession.
Nothing was easy about St. John's pastoral assignment. For example, many village children were forced into manual labor and crime. He opened an orphanage and day school to keep them safe, to teach them the basics of reading and writing, and to teach them the catechism. Often this pastor had little to offer the children for daily meals, but somehow just enough donated food or money would find its way into his hands so that he could provide for their needs one more day. Fr. Vianney named his orphanage "Providence" because he knew it was only by God's hand that he was able to care for so many with so little.
For 10 long years, St. John persevered in his often-thankless pastoral work and prayer. But eventually he converted the desolate and disconsolate place into a hub of Catholic life. By then, most of his parish had returned to the faith, and now people from other towns came to Ars to attend his Masses, and to wait in ever-growing lines for a few moments with him in confession. Even the French railway changed its booking procedures to accommodate the thousands of people who flocked to see Fr. Vianney year after year. Near the end, St. John was spending 18 hours a day in the confessional. In the last year of his life, some 120,000 people came to Ars to see a man who was ordained initially without the faculties to preach or hear confessions, a man whom the educated and well-placed had written-off as a "half-wit." To disregard his witness to faith, hope, and love—then or now—is to miss the Gospel itself.
Standing in the breach: An unwitting example and point of reference
In his time, Fr. Vianney was horrified when people gave him honors. What would he think today about a Pope linking him with "a pastoral plan" for the world's priests? Regardless, St. John offers the Church a "point of reference" for dealing with the weakness of her ministers. If only priests and people were aware of the immense gift of this vocation to the Church!
 Priest awaits the presentation of the gifts
Photo: Ginger Mortensen, International Theological Institute, Austria
For the People of God, this Year for Priests was meant to be a time to pray for priests, to sustain and help them in their ministry, and to rediscover, in the midst of scandal and weakness, the world's absolute need for a purified priesthood to represent the love of God, and the active presence of Jesus Christ in the service of charity and in the Eucharist. Pope Benedict even went so far as to state that the world would be lost without the Real Presence of Christ, and it is the priest who mediates this Real Presence.
When people esteem the priesthood, priests are more conscious of the responsibility they have to model Christ, to strive for spiritual perfection, and to identify themselves more personally with Christ, "to harmonize his life as a minister with the holiness of the ministry he has received." St. John Vianney trembled from a conviction of his personal inadequacy. Three times he ran away from his parish "to weep over his poor life," and each time his parishioners carried him back to the church. His people were ready to support him even when he was overwhelmed by his own weakness. Perhaps it was called "Year ‘for' Priests" and not "Year ‘of' Priests" precisely to call attention to what the Catholic priesthood needs to thrive in the Church and in the world: a renewed appreciation for the priesthood even as her ministers struggle to live up to its demands and ideals. The Year was "for" priests to benefit them personally, and as they grow the Church will benefit as well.
 Newly ordained priest gives his first priestly blessing to his mother
Photo: Ginger Mortensen, International Theological Institute, Austria
Peoples Prayer for Priests
Dear Lord,
we pray that the Blessed Mother
wrap her mantle around your priests
and through her intercession
strengthen them for their ministry.
We pray that Mary will guide your priests
to follow her own words,
"Do whatever He tells you" (Jn 2:5)
May your priests have the heart of St. Joseph,
Mary's most chaste spouse.
May the Blessed Mother's own pierced heart
inspire them to embrace
all who suffer at the foot of the cross.
May your priests be holy,
filled with the fire of your love
seeking nothing but your greater glory
and the salvation of souls.
Amen.
Saint John Vianney, pray for us.
From USCCB for The Year for the Priests
St. John Vianney said that "the priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus." Jesus is the perfect and incarnate representation of the Father. His heart, full of love and pierced for all on the Cross, needs to be seen and experienced in the world in every generation. And priests are ordained precisely for this ministry: to show that love personally and sacramentally. Pope Benedict could have pointed to any one of hundreds of priest-saints of the past, or even some who have lived in our lifetime, but he chose the Curé of Ars. He has pointed to his life as a simple parish priest and said our lives should be more like his: personally engaging, completely invested, "enthralled by Christ," not just a functionary but consciously and intentionally striving be a "sign and presence of God's infinite mercy," or to use the traditional concept, an alter Christus. The Sacred Heart of Jesus, then, is the perfect symbol for this Year, the most appropriate beginning and ending to the Year for Priests.
Whether priests take their cue from St. John Vianney remains to be seen. Various theological and ecclesiological concepts about the priesthood compete for attention in the Church today. Scandals within the Church force us to look at many facets of priests' lives and psyches and could easily distract our attention away from an element that is foundational to Benedict's main objective: the priest as image of Christ—a sacramental and supernatural reality that St. John, with all his limitations, figured out how to live. Hopefully many will take up the task to study St. John's pastoral activity and unpack it for a new age of the Church. At this tempestuous point in the third millennium, the Curé of Ars could not be more relevant.
Fr. Chris Heath is a priest of the Diocese of Orange in California, and Parochial Vicar of St. Edward the Confessor in Dana Point, California. He has held several parish assignments, most recently as Pastor of La Purisima Church in Orange where he oversaw the building of a new church and parish facilities. He is a law enforcement chaplain, and Chaplain of Catholics at Work OC, the local chapter of a nation-wide business club.
References used in article: Francis Trochu, The Curé d'Ars (Tan Books, 1977); Pope Benedict XVI, Letter Proclaiming a Year for Priests, June 16, 2009; Pope Benedict XVI, Homily on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart and Opening of the Year for Priests, June 19, 2009; Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience, June 24, 2009; Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience, August 5, 2009.
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