POPE LEO MAKES CLEAR THAT THE PRIESTHOOD’S SPECIFIC ROLE IS DIRECTED TO THE ALTAR AND THE HOLY SACRIFICE OF THE MASS; ALL ELSE FLOWS FROM THAT…

Priestly identity begins always with Christ and His One Sacrifice of the Cross!

After Vatican II, there was a great deal of confusion about the role and identity of the priest. 

Because of the ideology of social justice warriors in the Church, the priesthood was configured not to the Sacrifice of the Altar, Christ’s One Sacrifice on the Cross, but to doing social work, protesting, political involvement, feeding the hungry, housing the homeless and all the other corporal works of mercy. 

None of that, of course, is wrong and in fact has an important place in the Church, but those who are not priests are the ones called to be the “boots on the ground” in this regard of social justice and being warriors for it.  It is the domain of religious orders of men and women who are not priests, but also and specifically of the laity who live in the world. 

Social Justice Warriors applied to priests in the 1960’s and then recovered once again under Pope Francis’ nostalgia for the 1960’s and 70’s prior to the papacies of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, reduces the priest to a coordinator of social justice needs of the people of God, something that can and should be accomplished by others in the Church and certainly in an ecumenical and interfaith way.

For Pope Leo XIV, and quoting St. Pope John XXIII prior to the Second Vatican Council, recovers in continuity with the pre-Vatican II Church what the life, ministry and prayer of the priest should be and it is directed toward the Celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

This is the money quote from Pope Leo’s splendid letter to seminarians in Peru:

The spiritual and intellectual life are indispensable, but both are oriented towards the altar, the place where priestly identity is built and reveals itself in its fullness (cf. Saint John XXIII, Encyclical Letter (Pope John’s 1959 encyclical on the priesthood and St. John Vianney is great reading!)Sacerdotii Nostri Primordia, II). There, in the Holy Sacrifice, the priest learns how to offer his life, like Christ on the cross. By nourishing himself with the Eucharist, he discovers the unity between ministry and sacrifice (cf. Saint Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Mysterium Fidei, 4), and understands that his vocation consists in being a sacrifice together with Christ (cf. Rom 12:1).