A CATHOLIC bishop has described as "disturbing" survey findings that the first factor influencing the happiness of a priest was his relationship with his bishop.
The Bishop of Kilmore, Dr Leo O'Reilly, has also spoken of the shame bishops and priests will again feel when the report of the Dublin Archdiocese Commission of Investigation is published.
He was responding to American priest Msgr Stephen Rossetti who had disclosed findings of a survey conducted in the US, between 2003 and 2005, into what makes a priest happy. It found that 90.2 per cent of those surveyed were happy as priests.
Researching what contributed most to their happiness he found that top of the list was "satisfaction with one's bishop and Church leadership". Next was "relationship to God and spiritual life", then "relationship with other priests."
Msgr Rossetti said "having a solid relationship with one's bishop, or religious superior, is part of the lifeblood of the priest". It "transcends a secular business relationship. It is an integral part of our vocation and the quality of this relationship profoundly affects our wellbeing".
He continued: "The pope has asked the bishops to work at nurturing this relationship more intently in the wake of the crisis; we priests should do the same. A relationship is a two-way street."
He also advised: "Do not judge your bishops too harshly. They are frail human beings just like yourselves."
Bishop O'Reilly said it was "rather disturbing" to hear that the first factor influencing the happiness of a priest was his relationship with his bishop and with church authority. It was "certainly a challenge to us bishops".
Revelations about clerical sex abuse had "certainly put a strain on the relationship between priest and bishop. The bishop finds himself caught between the need to be fair to his priest whom he has known for years and a complainant whom he may never have met before, but who also has the right to be heard and to be treated justly and fairly," he said.
He said the priest was bound to his bishop by a special sacramental bond. "But in the eyes of secular society, talk about the sacramental bond, or about the brotherhood between priest and bishop, is seen as special pleading to justify cover-ups and exploitation. Despite that there is a special bond and it must be maintained."
Referring generally to the clerical abuse crisis, he said that "all of us felt anger and shame when cases of abuse by priests were paraded in the pages of our newspapers . . . we will feel that shame again when the report of the Dublin inquiry comes out . . . but we must not allow these things to overwhelm us, to paralyse us or make us bitter."
Both Msgr Rossetti's talk and Bishop O'Reilly's response are published in the current edition of the Furrow. They were delivered at a symposium in St Patrick's College Drumcondra, Dublin, last June.