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Friday, August 23, 2002
KINTANAR: Two Priests’ Congress resolutions
By June Kintanar
People, especially Roman Catholics, expected much from the Archdiocesan Priests’ Congress. They were happy that no less than 50 resolutions were passed. But only two resolutions caught their fancy: the one on the priests’ dress code and the other on priests’ monthly remuneration.
The first resolution actually concerns an old setup that gradually faded away. It is about how priests dressed then and how they do it now. Perhaps, the way priests dress up today is partly to blame for incidents of priests falling into temptation in the later years.
Actually, jeans and fancy shirts and t-shirts don’t directly deliver priests to the devil. It’s their being secure with the thought that they won’t be recognized as priests that make them throw all cautions to the wind. In their un-priestly getup, they do not hesitate to hold sexy “women,” surreptitiously enter a moviehouse, have a candlelight dinner and end up in God knows where.
On the other hand, women feel the same way. They lose their inhibition, confident in the thought that, anyway, their companions don’t look like priests. In fact, some young priests are smart dressers and look like heartthrobs in a school campus. This makes the resolution on the priests’ dress code not only relevant but also imperative.
I don’t know how priests eventually shed off their “sotana.” There was a time when priests were prohibited from roaming outside the convent without it.
Also, I‘m not sure whether the minor order of the “investiture” has already been abolished. But this has always been the most awaited moment in any seminarian’s life. The ritual used to take place after a seminarian finished his fifth year Latin in the minor seminary before entering his first year Philosophy.
In fact, this used to be an “affair to remember” not only for the seminarian himself but also for his family, relatives, neighbors and friends. From then on he would don the “sotana” until ordained priest and, well, until he died. Those were the years when priests got the respect they deserved. Those were the golden moments, in short, of a priest’s life.
The other “order” that should be revived is the order of the “tonsure,” wherein the hair on the middle portion of the head of the seminarian is cut and formed like a halo. He would wear it practically until he died. To a priest who really takes pride in being an alter-Christus, or another Christ, that white halo on the head symbolized not only priesthood but also a holy man of God.
Why was this abolished? Did vanity enter the heads even of church authorities? With the “tonsure” on the priest’s head, “women” would be ashamed to walk into a moviehouse with him. Thus, many sexual encounters involving priests would have been prevented.
The second resolution prescribed a fixed monthly remuneration for secular priests. This definitely is something new. Never have I known such a thing before. And, of course, being new, the resolution elicited varied reactions not only from priests but also from the Catholic laity.
Priests in small parishes naturally welcomed it like a farmer would welcome rain after a drought. But the feeling is not so with priests in big parishes like the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral, Santo Rosario, San Nicolas, Guadalupe, etc. Here, priests are “contented cows.” Their incomes are as satisfying as that of bank managers and corporate CEOs.
That’s why the resolution should be implemented judiciously.
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