Today we celebrate this feast, this Holy Thursday, the institution of the Holy Eucharist and the Priesthood with Joy and thanksgiving.

However, at the same time I cannot help but think of the many scandals that we have all faced during the past weeks and months. Scandals that are actually shocking the Church. And I want you all to know, that not only are you scandalized, but we your Priests, gathered here with you today are scandalized, and all good Priests are scandalized.

If you could only know how we feel; how saddened and disturbed we are by what’s happening and what has happened to the victims; these young children who should have no one hurt them. And at the same time we feel hurt, betrayed, sick, disgusted and repulsed that someone who has consecrated hands would do something so despicable.

To think that a Priest should do something so evil is even beyond our thoughts. And in the midst of it, our very life, our vocation as Priests is being attacked by the very few who have done these things.

We all know that people generalize. They say, “Well, there’s one bad Priest, so all Priests are bad.” “They're all no good.” I know a very good Priest, a vocation director from the Diocese of Providence who went to dinner with a few Priest friends in Boston and someone saw him and said, “Priests, I hate Priests.” To think how that pierces our hearts.

But I’d like to tell you some statistics today. That even with Jesus - He didn’t have perfect Priests. We know that one, as we heard in today’s Gospel, that “Satan entered into his heart”. And can you imagine turning over your Lord and Savior for a few silver coins? Jesus lost one out of His first twelve. And although there are roughly 45,000 Priests in the United States, only 1.8 % have either been accused or found guilty of this horrendous evil, this sin. And on the same hand, if you look at Christian marriage, 3 out of 4 end in divorce. Now let’s compare the two. 1.8 % of 45,000 Priests, that means 2,500. And if you take the percentage of divorced, that would say 45,000 were married, that 33,750 end in divorce. It says there’s a wider problem. It’s not the Priesthood! It’s not celibacy as some would have you believe, because we know marriage has it’s problems. Just look at society! We know where the problem lies, it is at the root of society. A society that hates God, that hates morality.

So what about the good Priests? What about the innocent Priests who have done nothing at all? The faithful, hardworking Priests who are discounted and written off just because they're Roman Catholic Priests. Notice I said Roman Catholic Priests! We're categorized in the media as gay, perverse, evil, disgutsing - not worthy of your trust. And the attack on celibacy - do you know the highest percentage of child abuse is by married white men? Did you know that? It’s terrible! It’s usually a father, an uncle or a grandfather!

But what they're attacking about the clergy, these few who have fallen - it’s not because they’ve fallen. You watch the media bias! I remember seeing an Episcopalian Bishop, a Jewish Rabbi, lawyers, doctors, it’s in the news for a split second and gone. So what is it they are after with the Catholic Priests? It’s because we are the true religion of Jesus Christ! There’s only one Church founded by Jesus Christ and that’s the Roman Catholic Church! Jesus couldn’t found two Churches; He would be deceiving us. But it’s people in our world - the rich, the powerful, the media who have control of everything that we hear - who want to destroy that morality that our Church teaches, because the true Church teaches the truth - in season, out of season - wether people like it, or not. Although we do it in love - we teach what Jesus teaches, we teach what the Gospels teach.

Now I believe and I hope that you know better - that all 45,000 Priests are not despicable, not evil. And I would have to believe that, because you are here tonight or you wouldn’t be here. Unless you want to hear what we’re going to say! But I’d ask you to do something. Think about all the good Priests in your lives, that you have known. You know Priests that I don’t know; I know Priest’s that you don’t know. And how many good Priests do we know? I’d like to mention one - Msgr. Tavares. That man was a peach! I remember when I came to this parish. In my former parish, they put in a new team and they didn’t know where to put me. So I was home on vacation, not knowing where I’m going, really nervous about it - “Where am I going?” And I came to the door, and I saw this little old man who I thought was the janitor. Because I never knew Monsignor before. He was dressed up in his secular outfit. And he embraced me and said, “It is so good to have you here.” A man who loved the Priesthood with all his heart. He loved Jesus, he loved the Holy Eucharist, the Sacraments. In fact, he used to bang his head when he heard about these things and say, “How can it be!”. Not only about the Priests, but about the laity and about marriage, he’d say, “What’s going on? How can this be?” We don’t love God enough! Think of the other Priests who have passed here! Many Priests have passed here, some have passed here two or three times - Fr. Diogo has been here before, Fr. Victor has been here before - who have served the Church faithfully! Fr. Rego, Fr. de Sousa - we could go on and on with the names and names of the good Priests. And if you put your list of the good Priests, how many bad Priests can you put on that list? We’d run out of paper with the good Priests, I’ll tell you that!

And I’ll assure you, the majority are good Priests or we would have left, we wouldn’t be here today. But I want to tell you and I don’t want to boast, we have four good Priest serving our Parish! The four of us faithfully pray every day, we pray the office. You need to know this. We pray the office - some Priests have given up the office. That’s why they get into trouble! We kneel before the Blessed Sacrament every day! We go to confession. We love the Church and God with all our hearts, mind, soul and strength. I’m not saying we’re perfect, we have our little foibles. Carol told me that she would name them all for us. some are pranksters. We’re Priests! We’re Priests! And we love the gift that Jesus has given to us. And these Priests here would never want to do anything to disgrace that gift. So give thanks to God for this gift!

I have to tell you though, all good Priests need your support! We need you to pray for us every day! We need you to be there for us every day! Remember the Gospel: John 6 - Jesus talked to the people about the Eucharist :“Unless you eat my body and drink my blood, you have no life in you.” Then people started to say, “He’s crazy!” They started leaving Jesus. Then finally, Jesus said to Peter “Are you going to leave also?’ and the Apostles. And Peter said, “Lord, to whom shall we go!” I have to say, is this scandal of the Church going to make us leave Jesus, to leave His Church, to leave the good Priests to be crucified, while we remain silent? You know, you hear something said about a good Priest - defend him. It’s easy for people to gossip now a days -they like to talk - to blame, to accuse, even if nothing’s been said. Why, it makes us feel good, cause we can look at ourselves and say, “Well, I’m better than that person I’m accusing.”

One bad president, bad lawyer, bad doctor, bad mother, bad father - does that make them all bad? it’s the same thing with the Priest. One fails, we don’t all fail! One sins, we don’t all sin! So today, this is a call to all of us, especially we Priests - to be sure we are striving for holiness of life.

That’s the first and primary vocation of every Baptized Christian - to become a saint. And that means this! If you’re good that’s not good enough, Jesus wants you to become holy. If you’re holy, that’s not good enough, Jesus wants you to become a saint. If you’re a saint, that’s not good enough, because Jesus wants you to become like the Father. To be like the Father. “Be holy as my Father is holy.”

And it’s an alert to all of us! Remember St. Peter said, and we Priests pray it in night prayer every week, “Remember the devil is lurking like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” If we don’t pray! If we don’t strive for holiness! He’s going to get us!

So to close my homily, I’d like to call all of us here to a commitment, a promise. (One) pray for your Priests every day. Pray for your Priests every day. Not only your Priests here, pray for all Priests, because all Priests are your Priests! (Two) don’t listen to idle gossip about Priests! “Oh, Father, so and so wouldn’t give me a sponsor certificate, he’s no good.” “He does this or he does that.” Don’t gossip! (Number three) support and love your Priests! Beause you know there’s a shortage. And if you don’t support us, if you don’t pray for us, maybe we’ll all become discouraged and leave. And then you have no Priests, you have no Jesus! God love you!

Fr. Jay Finelli
St. Francis Xavier Church
East Providence, RI
Holy Thursday
September 16, 2001

© 2002, Fr. Jay A. Finelli, may not be used without written permission!