Description

This work provides an overview of the difficulties that Catholic priests have experienced in history as a background for offering a vision for the renewal of the priesthood in our own era.

The Catholic priesthood has faced many daunting challenges in every historical era. Archbishop Emeritus Hughes draws on the Church's past efforts to foster renewal in the priesthood to help with the renewal needed today. The author addresses directly the current issues arising from the clergy sex abuse scandal, COVID-19, the financial disruption, and racial unrest.

Most contemporary books on the ordained priesthood are either theological treatises on the nature of this priesthood, or exhortations to living priestly life and ministry more fully. This book traces the development of priestly discipleship and spirituality in the face of historical challenges, and draws on this history to spell out a vision for renewal, attuned to the contemporary era.

This book is intended to serve a double purpose. It can serve as a text for seminarians, used together with a reader drawn from the cited classics, or as a rich source of spiritual reading for priests and bishops.

About the Author

Archbishop Emeritus Alfred Hughes, a native of Boston,was ordained a priest in 1957. Having secured a doctorate in Spiritual Theology at the Gregorian University, he served in parish, seminary and administrative roles in Boston. Pope St. John Paul II appointed him Bishop of Baton Rouge in 1993 and Archbishop of New Orleans in 2002. As Emeritus, he now serves at Notre Dame Seminary.