We exist in the slow movement out of Christendom, in which pastoring has still sustains certain expectations within the broader culture, at the same time that the authority of the pastoral office becomes lessened. This is the background of the profound problems that various European priests addressed to Benedict. The first spoke about experience that they have. Hauerwas and Willimon echo in the background: "We priests are fully integrated into this Church and experience all the relative problems and complexities. Young and old, we all feel inadequate. This is firstly because we are so few in comparison with the many needs and we come from different backgrounds . . . We try to patch things up here and there and are often forced to attend only to emergencies, without any precise projects. Seeing how much there is to do, we are tempted to give priority to "doing" and to neglect "being"; this is inevitably reflected in our spiritual life, our conversation with God, our prayer and our charity (love) for our brethren, especially those who are far away." The second response is initiated by the same problems given in a different language: " It is worth remembering at least the fact that many of us priests are still bound to a certain not particularly mission-oriented pastoral practice which seemed to have been consolidated; it was so closely bound to a context, as people call it, "of Christianity." On the other hand, many of the requests of a large number of the faithful themselves presume the parish to be a "supermarket" of sacred services." While the office of priesthood holds more authority than that of the evangelical pastor, the dynamics are similar. The evangelical will have to be more personally therapeutic, while the Roman Catholic will have to be "official" in the precise descriptions.

But the real issue is, in such a cultural dynamic, how does one focus the pastoral work for the good of the church, a good that has to enfold within it the good of the life of the elders. Where Benedict turns to resource this updated ministry by returning to the central sources of the life of the church through the ages -- a sacramental guidance for pastoral work found within the very nature of the church itself.

Benedict states, "you have explained that there is, shall we say, the "classic" level of work in the parish for the faithful who have stayed on -- and who perhaps are also increasing -- and give life to our parish. This is "classic" pastoral care and it is always important. I usually make a distinction between continuous evangelization -- because faith continues, the parish survives -- and the new evangelization that seeks to be missionary, to supersede the limits of those who are already "faithful" and live in the parish or who, perhaps with a "reduced" faith, make use of parish services." He then adds " it seems to me that we have three fundamental commitments that stem from the essence of the Church and the priestly ministry." They will sound familiar, hopefully, to members of Mid-City and to this blog.

(1) "The first is sacramental service." Benedict enumerates the core of the pastoral work in baptism, confirmation, the Eucharist, and rightly, preparation for marriage, as a means of "continuous and new evangelization."

(2) "The second section is the proclamation of the Word with the two essential elements: homily and catechesis." This is the weakest,most undeveloped part of his response -- how does one undertake such catechesis amidst the busy-ness of the world in which market formation expects pastors to respond to needs in the world that are pressuring for pastoral response rather than having a new agenda thrust upon them.

(3) "Lastly, the third section: "caritas," "diakonia." We are always responsible for the suffering, the sick, the marginalized, the poor." We need to hear Benedict in the difference from contemporary Protestant practice which expects pastors to pay first attention to the leading laity of the congregation to meet their needs. This is the 80% - 20% rule taught by people like John Maxwell. According to this business based rationale for pastoring, the pastor is to spend 80% of time with the congregational leaders in order to keep them on board and cultivate smooth relationships for the programming of the church. Yet seen from the perspective of the works of mercy, pastoral priority must always go to the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. This shifts responsibility of those with resources in the congregation to network for the meeting of their needs, even as they have their needs relativized through immersion themselves in the works of mercy.

It is here that informal, rather than formal networks within a congregation must understand themselves to be engaged in the pastoral care of the congregation. Benedict writes, "The parish priest cannot do it all! It is impossible! He cannot be a "soloist"; he cannot do everything but needs other pastoral workers. It seems to me that today, both in the movements and in Catholic Action, in the new communities that exist, we have agents who must be collaborators in the parish if we are to have "integrated" pastoral care. . . . The parish priest must not only "do," but also "delegate." The others must learn to be really integrated in their joint work for the parish and, of course, also in the self-transcendence of the parish in a double sense: self-transcendence in the sense that parishes collaborate within the diocese because the bishop is their common pastor and helps coordinate their commitments; and self-transcendence in the sense that they work for all the people of this time and seek to reach out with the message to agnostics and to people who are searching."

In the first interview the Pope recognizes the limitations of any pastor given the needs around us. He states that a pastor "must recognize that only in collaboration with everyone, in dialogue, in common cooperation, in faith as "cooperatores veritatis" -- of the Truth that is a Person, Jesus -- can we carry out our service together, each one doing his share. This means that my answers will not be exhaustive but piecemeal. Yet, let us agree that actually it is only in unison that we can piece together the "mosaic" of a pastoral work that responds to the immense challenges."

Benedict recognizes that we cannot minister as functional atheists, but "what is necessary for all of us is to recognize our own limitations, to humbly recognize that we have to leave most things to the Lord. . . . we must likewise do our utmost to be wise and prudent and to trust in the goodness of our "Master," the Lord, for in the end it is he himself who must take the helm of his Church. We fit into her with our small gift and do the best we can, especially those things that are always necessary: celebrating the sacraments, preaching the Word, giving signs of our charity and our love."

The pastoral office of the church then comes back to the three essential signs of the true nature of the church: the Word proclaimed and taught; the Sacraments, faith-fully practiced; and the oversight of the works of mercy of the congregation. The nature of the pastorate must draw from the depths of the life of the church over time to find its deepest relevance to the enduring needs of the congregation and the world.

Obviously Hauerwas and Willimon wrote in a bit of a different cultural context (North American mainline Protestants) and twenty-years earlier than Benedict. The commonality in analysis and response tells me that there is something significant and enduring in what they say.