Diocesan priests talk about spiritual growth, unity

IC photo by Christine Young

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Father Ronald Knott leads the Clergy Convocation and speaks to the diocesan priests about working as a team.

PARK CITY — Father Ronald Knott of the Archdiocese of Louisville and founding director of the Institute for Priests and Presbyterates at Saint Meinrad Seminary School of Theology in Indiana, led the Clergy Convocation in Park City Oct. 5-8. He spoke to the priests about spiritual leadership, spiritual growth and building unity.

“I will have been a priest for 40 years next spring,” said Fr. Knott. “I am also a chaplain at Bellermine University in Louisville, and a weekly columnist in the diocesan newspaper The Record. I travel all over the country doing ongoing formation of individual priests, but also ongoing formation of all priests of various dioceses trying to build unity.

“This is the 65th diocese that I have been to for a week- long program, and I have another 15 to go on my calendar throughout the United States. After Park City, I will go to Portland, Maine. I have also begun to get invitations internationally. I am going to Ireland. I have been to England, Wales and Winnipeg. I have turned down invitations to Singapore and India simply because I am too busy. So there seems to be a great interest now with priests working more together as a team with the bishop,” said Fr. Knott.

“The people we serve are at different levels of spiritual growth,” said Fr. Knott. “And we talked about the different levels and how we as leaders might lead them to deeper spirituality.”

Then Fr. Knott talked about how spiritual growth happens. “You get an opportunity to grow and change and you set out an excitement, then that is followed by a disappointment. Then one is tempted to back out, but one should keep going forward. Then one finally reaches a level of integration, whether that is being diagnosed with cancer, or served with divorce papers, an accident, or anything like that. It is like winning the lottery, the birth of a baby, retirement, all of which are events that start you on a growth spurt.”

Fr. Knott said it is like the story of Exodus in Egypt, when the people got a chance to leave and were led out into the desert. Some people wanted to go back.

“But as spiritual leaders, we should know what is going on in people’s lives, where they are, and how we can keep talking them into growing and going forward through all these different things,” said Fr. Knott. “I encouraged the priests to get know the people in their parishes because there is no reason for priesthood except service of others.

“We are called from the people, to live with the people, so as to empower the people,” said Fr. Knott. “Diocesan priests do not live in monasteries and withdraw; they live with the people, and it helps them grow in the holiness.

“Then we talked about how sometimes we were trained to be focused on our own spiritual growth, but we were not given a lot of training on how to lead other people or how to lead a community to deeper discipleship,” said Fr. Knott. “We have to be good and good at what we do. It is not just enough to be a good person; a priest has to be good at leading people.”

In 2007 Father Knott completed the monograph “Spiritual Leadership of a Parish Priest: On Being Good and Good at It” and a workbook to accompany “Intentional Presbyterates,” both published by Sophronismos Press.

“We also talked about what would happen if all of these spiritual leaders in Salt Lake City really worked together as a team with the bishop,” said Fr. Knott. “How powerful it would be if they supported each other, worked together, helped each other, and were all on the same page, and how that would help the people in this diocese if the spiritual leaders became a ministry team.

“I also talked about what changes individual priests need to make in their own hearts to make all this happen,” said Fr. Knott. “What are those attitudes the priests have personally that keeps them from working together and serving people really well? Are there selfish attitudes: jealousy, rivalry? Are they attached to their own preferences and points of view, and how do they let go of all of that for the sake of a more coherent and unified ministry to God’s people?”

Fr. Knott concluded with what the bishop can do, what the diocese can do, what seminaries can do and what other groups can do to make this happen. The whole bottom line is for the priests to get their act together so that they can give people they serve a better quality spiritual leadership.

“The priest is not focusing on himself, he is focusing on the people he serves,” said Fr. Knott. “The bottom line is the people in the pews, and making sure they get the best spiritual leadership a priest can possibly give them.

“I use the image of the Olympic volleyball team,” said Fr. Knott. “If you are going to win, and winning for us is giving good service, then you have to set each other up on the front line, use your best talent, listen to your coach, the bishop, instead of everybody doing his own thing and working against each other and trying to outshine each other. Everybody needs to cooperate and not backbite, which is counter-productive.”

Fr. Knott was a vocation director before he started doing ongoing formation, and began watching newly ordained priests come out of the seminary, be ordained, and then start working. The other priests were not doing a very good job of welcoming them, and supporting them.

“They were smaller in numbers, only one or two ordained a year,” said Fr. Knott. “So 10 to 15 percent of them nationally were leaving the priesthood in their first five years because of loneliness and lack of support. So I wrote a book called ‘Intentional Presbyterate: Claiming Our Common Sense of Purpose as Diocesan Priests’ (Sophronsimos Press, 2003), and I sent out a free copy to every bishop in the country. Little by little I started being invited to dioceses. So we printed 10,000 more copies. I came up with the idea at a time when priests were ready to move.

“I also run a program for seminarians who are making the transition out of the seminary to prepare them for the practical things they will be going through in their first year. I also run a program for young priests who are gearing up to be a pastor and getting a parish for the first time. In the future, we hope to add programs in the later years and for those who are retiring or are already retired. That way we will have a program for priests from the seminary through retirement, throughout their whole lives.

“I guess what is behind all of this is the fact we don’t have the number of priests we need, so we are going to have to pay more attention to keeping those we have healthy and engaged as long as possible,” said Fr. Knott. “If you don’t have great numbers, you have to work as a team, especially in Utah and Kentucky where a lot of the priests are in remote areas by themselves. So unity is a way of creating a support system for those who live by themselves.”