{"id":14330,"date":"2012-04-28T12:21:09","date_gmt":"2012-04-28T18:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=14330"},"modified":"2012-04-28T13:10:57","modified_gmt":"2012-04-28T19:10:57","slug":"a-time-of-testing-for-pastoral-ministers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2012\/04\/28\/a-time-of-testing-for-pastoral-ministers\/","title":{"rendered":"A &#8220;Time of Testing&#8221; for Pastoral Ministers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Various crises in the church are a<strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"> time of testing<\/span><\/strong> for the church\u2019s pastoral ministers, according to Catholic pastoral psychologist Wunibald M\u00fcller. He is leader of the<span style=\"color: #000000;\"> \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.abtei-muensterschwarzach.de\/ams\/recohaus\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">House of Recollection<\/span><\/a>\u201d at the Benedictine abbey of <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/M%C3%BCnsterschwarzach_Abbey\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">M\u00fcnsterschwarzach<\/span><\/a> in Germany. He spoke last week at the third annual \u201cTheology Day\u201d of the theology department of the University of Graz, Austria.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>M\u00fcller spoke of a growing chasm between personal convictions and what is expected by church employers, between personal dialogue and a \u201cclericalist manner,\u201d between personal lifestyles and the church\u2019s moral teachings. Many pastoral works suffer from being overburdened, oftentimes along with health problems such as burn-out.<\/p>\n<p>Increasingly M\u00fcller encounters church ministers who lament that they \u201cwent into ministry <strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">under completely different conditions<\/span><\/strong>, with <strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">completely different expectations<\/span><\/strong>.\u201d Church workers report with ever greater frequency that they strive to be loyal to the church, but this makes them feel \u201c<strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">disloyal to their own soul<\/span><\/strong>.\u201d They \u201cthink and feel differently,\u201d no longer standing \u201cwithin the fundamental identity of the church.\u201d <span style=\"color: #000000;\">Personal crisis<\/span> is the consequence.<\/p>\n<p>Experiences in the work place are marked by growing \u201cclericalism,\u201d which leads to less dialogue and a less personal manner of relating. Ordination brings people into a particular situation and position which frequently goes along with problematic attitudes about dialogue. Church workers expend much of their energy \u201c<strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">maintaining the external facade and hiding what they really think and live<\/span><\/strong>.\u201d This is true, e.g. of priests who have difficulties with celibacy.<\/p>\n<p>For remaining healthy \u201cin soul and spirit,\u201d M\u00fcller recommends a two-fold strategy. First, one should attend to a healthy self-concept and find space free of work, obligation, and objectives in daily life. Second, the psychologist recommends discovery of one\u2019s \u201c<strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">crisis energy<\/span><\/strong>.\u201d This is the \u201c<strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">prophetic side<\/span><\/strong>\u201d from which \u2013 similar to the Old Testament prophets \u2013 opposition to grievances can be generated.<\/p>\n<p>Church ministers today need these qualities in particular: ability to cope with conflict, and resilience. \u201cIf we as church coworkers do not wish to become resigned, we must be ready to take up the balancing act of dealing with the concrete situation in the church on the one hand, <strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">without selling our heart and soul<\/span><\/strong> on the other hand.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kathweb.at\/site\/nachrichten\/database\/46385.html\" target=\"_blank\">Katholische Presseagentur \u00d6sterreich<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Increasingly church ministers lament that they \u201cwent into ministry under completely different conditions, with completely different expectations.\u201d Church workers report with ever greater frequency that they strive to be loyal to the church, but this makes them feel \u201cdisloyal to their own soul.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,285],"tags":[271,388,1980,1978,1979,1982,1981],"class_list":["post-14330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ordained-ministry","category-pastoral-theology","tag-austria","tag-germany","tag-graz","tag-lay-ministry-2","tag-lem","tag-munsterschwarzach","tag-wunibald-muller"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A &quot;Time of Testing&quot; 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