Reflections on Priestly Power
The current anthropological and theological crisis at the root of the clerical abuse of power and the sexual abuse of minors by ordained ministers bears on at least these three fronts: the nature of power; the meaning of love as gift of self to others; and the bodily extension of God’s redemptive love in history. Given that Christ is both man’s archetype (Rom 5:14) and the eternal high priest (Heb 7:23–27), these three dimensions of priestly existence find their meaning only in Christ. In him, we discover that they express the filial, nuptial, and paternal dimensions of love.
