R“On July 19, 2009, Pope Benedict began in the Catholic Church, “Year of
the Priest”. Here is a ‘thank you’ from the editors of the National Catholic
Register. — Father Bruce (Part 1 of 3)

NATIONAL CATHOLIC REGISTER
OPINION (Part One)
Thank You, Father

BY The Editors June 14-20, 2009 Issue

As the Year of the Priest begins, we lay editors of the Register want to take a moment to thank
priests.
We want to thank not only the priests who have been our friends, but also those we barely knew,
who did more for us than our friends ever could.
We want to thank not only the priests who inspire us with their words, but also those who moved us
more deeply with the daily work of their priesthood than they ever could with words.
We want to thank not only those men who gave up their retirement, and their well-deserved rest, to
enter the priesthood as late vocations, but also — especially — those who as young men saw their
whole life ahead of them and handed all of it to Christ.
We want to assure them that the attacks on the priesthood will not prevail, because Christ doesn’t
take their kind of generosity lightly.
We know that there have been terrible, scandalous priests. This has been true from the beginning —
from the original Twelve Apostles through the early Christian heresies, from the scandals before the
Reformation to the scandals of the 20th Century.
But we also know that the priesthood is under attack. Priests know it, too.
Whenever someone looks at them suspiciously, whenever a mother hurries her children away from
them, whenever they read an antagonistic article about how the life of a priest makes them prone to
become monsters, they know it.
The noble, loving sacrifice is so often made to look ugly and twisted — the opposite of what it is.
The whole group is too often defined by the exceptions in a way few of us ever have to deal with.
But the priesthood will survive, and grow stronger. In fact, it is already growing stronger. There are
more new priests than we have seen in a long time, and the new generation of priests is more
committed to the Church’s mission than any in memory.
We want to tell the faithful priests who unjustly suffer from these attacks that we’re on their side
and, more importantly, remind them what Christ said: Rejoice and be glad on this day, for your
name is great in heaven.
Sincerely yours,
Reverend Bruce J. Powers