Confraternity for Catholic Clergy ‘faithful in every way'

Archbishop José H. Gomez celebrated a July 15 liturgy for participants in the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy conference at San Fernando Cathedral. Thomas McKenna | Today’s Catholic

SAN ANTONIO • The Confraternity of Catholic Clergy (CCC), a support and education organization for U.S. Catholic clergy, held their annual conference and meeting July 14-17 at the Drury Hotel Riverwalk. About two dozen priests and deacons hailing from dioceses from California to Pennsylvania attended. Some were from San Antonio parishes, and Archbishop José H. Gomez was the first day’s keynote speaker.

Asked about his history with the conferences, Deacon Russ Swin of the Diocese of Peoria, Ill., responded that he has been to many of them, including the 2008 conference in Baltimore, during the bicentennial celebration for the “home cathedral” of the United States.

“It’s good to be with fellow clergy who are faithful in every way to the church,” he said. “I always learn something here.”

Deacon Joseph Gorini, who is serving with CCC President Father John Trigilio in Marysville, Pa., praised the conference as an opportunity to associate with Catholic clergy committed to orthodoxy.

Archbishop Gomez welcomed the attendees to San Antonio, and gave a brief background of the 300 year history of the local church.

“The Catholic faith,” he noted, “was present here a year before the birth of the first American President, George Washington.”

Archbishop Gomez held up for the clerics’ consideration the example of St. Rafael Guízar y Valencia, (1877-1938) the first canonized bishop born on the American continent. Bishop Valencia exhibited heroic virtue during the great persecution of Catholics in Mexico that began in 1911. He told the attendees that the bishop, in exile, preached several missions in San Antonio. He quoted the saint: “The church’s persecutors will soon be gone, but the church will endure.” He said that bishop Valencia won over the people of San Antonio with his modesty, simplicity and love of the human person. That, he said, is a model behavior for priests.

In conclusion, the archbishop reflected that the reason the laity thinks of priests either as great saints or as the opposite is that there is little understanding of the priestly vocation. He said that the newly-begun “Year of the Priest” offers an opportunity for frequent consideration of the vocation, and preaching on the calling to the priesthood. He asked the priests to talk about that vocation so that the laity understands the challenges and joys of the priesthood.

A lively question-answer session with the clergy attendees ended the session. One priest asked about preaching at funerals. The archbishop said that “even calling the funeral Mass ‘Mass of Resurrection’” may lead to problems with the survivors hearing good things about the deceased but no acknowledgment “of the presence of sin in everyone’s life. The only perfect one is Christ.” He encouraged the priests to find ways to incorporate this understanding in the funeral homily.

The archbishop told the clerics that underlying most sin is the fundamental “sin of pride.” “Western society,” he said, “creates a sense that man is a god. We are able to do anything. We even hold the power over life and death.” He said that the increasing prevalence of sexual sin, especially since the “so-called sexual revolution,” is derived from this sin of pride.

He also exhorted the priests to “be merciful as Jesus was.” He suggested that in confession, the priests suggest to penitents “small goals of virtue” to practice so they can overcome habits of sin. He told them that many of the ideas clerics grew up with are hidden from the faithful, and encouraged them to promote the daily examination of conscience, and the habit of saying a prayer whenever tempted to sin. He said that people need to avoid occasions of sin: “If computer pornography is the problem, tell the penitent, ‘Don’t turn on the computer at 4 a.m. when you are alone.’”

Membership in the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy is open to bishops, priests and deacons and seminarians and deacon candidates. Information is available at http://ccc.catholicexchange.com/.

Their 2010 meeting, in conjunction with the Australian Confraternity of Catholic Clergy, will be held in Rome next January.