Pray or how do i understand and why are so many people leaving the church and dissatisfied with the faith . We have two priests of the archdiocese sit with us to share answers. In the will be a interesting discussion. After this brief break join me for ask a priest. Forse fo hello. Welcome to mosaic. My guests today are two priests of the archdiocese of San Francisco. Well talk about questions being submitted to the priests and see what the answers can be a. On my left is father kennedy. Thank you for being herent on his left is father Cameron Fowler. We have a young priest and a slightly older priest. Lets find out about their lively careers. I have been a priest for four years. Im entering my fifthier and im assigned as the vocation director of San Francisco as well as the priest secretary. Four years. You went to Saint Patricks seminary. I grew up in marin county in navado. Yes. Wonderful. Okay. Father kevin, you i know. I grew up in san mateo. Im a local product. Been a priest for over two decades. Yes. Your job . Im the pastor of my lady of fatima and help as associate at saint monica and st. Thomas apostle parishes as well. We have a set of questions coming in from people. I want to mix and match them. One of the major one was about the recent reputable organization. The real presence of christ in the uke wrist which is the central teaches of the sacred faith and 7d 0 of catholics say they dont believe in the real presence or not sure about at is something i would like you to respond to. Is this something you experience as priest who is preceding at the uke wrist . Yes. I would say those studies dont surprise me. When we look at the masses that we celebrate it is something we can see in peoples faces in terms of their believe or lack of believe bit then what do we need to do to address this. Actions speak louder than words and when you begin to act like you believe, you believe more. I think if we did a better job acting like we believe in the real presence as the way we talk about it, the way we are in front of it, it would generate a deeper faith with people. When i deal with 25 to 54th graders. Na believe. They have a believe but they dont always see that lived out in their masses e shesso i beli that begins ti we believe could be a start. The priests way to performing the litter gy . He is not an actor in performing he doesnt believe because you cant fool people. You have to be a priest who believes. And that christ is central to the priesthood. His mission is not to draw people so much to im him self but through himself with christ and if he believes what the church believes and teaches and the celebration, the offering of the u crist, he believes this is truly the mystery of christ present renewed offered to the en he express that thro reference, through love, you cant fake that. Unfortunately when a priest doesnt celebrate with reference, people pick up on that and they think heif he doesnt believe why should i . So priests are crucial in their focus on their dedication to this century mystery and especially their reference and the celebration of the mass. I guess the priest is way think of priests doing various tasks and jobs and they can be educators or teachers or they can be but is your central taste the saying of the mass . A priest, the very nature of priesthood is ng sacrifice riinfe all world religions. A priest offers sacrifice. That is his crucial de feigning role. Others can do Academic Work and social work, community organing, ministration. Alof and to so adtion gospel, his central role is to offer the sacrifice of the cross, the sacrificial love of the lord offered, renewed in the community and ston with great reverence and love so they see christ offering himself on be half of the father. I understand the teaching and youre pitting me in a special relationship with god himself in that moment. Now, i call that the big sacra. The the smaller of confession, it seems important in which you, the priest, put me in touch with god. We had a question bearing on that on a fear of going to confession. How do i overcome my fear of going to confession . What is the fear . One of the fears is the priest is going to judge me especially if i know that priest and they hear my voice or see my face, they will judge me differently. One of the things that helps limit that, as priests we know weir sinners. We know the sins of our past. We know the thingsway struggle within our own life and that gives us a level of compassion and empathy so were not there to judge. Ware there to stand in the place of christ to bring ultimately healing to the peoples lives. Our job is in a sense to get out of the way so christ can speak through us in a sense. So i would say that is a helpful piece of advice, just know were not there to judge. We know the state of our own souls and we know the sins of many people that come to us and so were not there to judge. On a practical level i might say sometimes it is easier for people if they plan to go to confession, to find maybe a priest that they dont know and go anonymously behind the screen so they dont feel on a human level that sense of crepitation but whatever circumstances the goal ishebrin of our baptism which should be a great, great joy. Amen to that. Well take another brief break and well talk more about questions from the priests. fo welcome back. Were talking with father Kevin Kennedy here and father Cameron Fowler about the life of a priest. We had a question come in. A pretty good one i think. What is success for a priest . We know what success for a baseball player is. What is success for a priest . And bate same token what is failure . How would a priest fail . We know how the plumber might fail. It is obvious. Way were talking this morning about one of my favorite films. It was on of my mothers favorites the keys of the kingdom and gregory peck plays a priest who is presumably a failure in his first two assignments so he is sent to be a mission fare in china. Yet, he ends up touching the hearts of many people, the lives of many people through nt enticity and embodiee he of Vincent D Paul and so many others who embod did the best of what it is to pattern their lives after the heart from the lord. Learn from me for i am gentle and humble of heart. If a person with that heart touches the soul of another human being, he is a success of a priest. He is a success in what matters to god. I have been thinking about what success means. I would say every single day is successful in that as the job of the priest is to offer the sacrifice to the mass and every single day i offer the sack face for the mass for the glorification of father and in a sense i can say every single day for a priest is successful. Now on another level, what does that mean away from that reality . It is bringing people closer to christ, to having people come to realize christ is the way the treat and the life willing to surrender themselves to that life. That would be a success to bringing people closer to christ. It does seem the case of jesus founded this priesthood he named his apostles to be followers and preachers. To bring people to him. I am the way of the trut the life. So h anit is an ancient traditi youre carrying out. Speaking of success and failure, the person to whom youtube bringing people, jesus christ, looks a lot like a mass of failure when he is up on the crucifix but we have it in the church to remind us of what . To remind us that failure and success is not what we think. It leads to success. That god will allow us to fail. That through our sufferings, it is actually where our successes or triumphs come so it is reverse on the wayway normally think of things in also about y priest, there mud must be joy and sorrows or difficulties. I was thinking bout if i have to hear sins day after day, year after year, i would get depressed. What is your reaction to flat . That is what many people think. If you have a humble and con troy heart, it doesnt matter the sins they are confessioning but if they come with a hum bum and con treat heart and they come to the grace of the sacrifice concession, that is the great joy of a priest i would say. Joy, difficulties, what stands out for you . E grtestjoy for me would be to see the young people who are coming to the churches where father cameron celebrates e where i sell brate, plane of whom after converts so they have had to struggle to find their faith in a very secular culture, they have had to sometimes evangelize, cat te kize themselves with the fathers of the church and participate in the litter gis. Their courage in finding and persevering in their faith, their hope against, you know, difficult odds, and that belief and that trust to make love, real love possible in their hearts, love for god and one another, they are my greatest joy because they are the fair of the future and a real fair. That is good to know. You mentioned young people converting or coming to the church. One of the questions was concerns many people have, so many people are leaving the catholic church. Can you address that . Is this a problem . A yes, i think we see it when we look out and dont see many Young People College age or High School Age and many people ask, what are we supposed to do . How do we handle nis . A lot of timesway think if we make it more entertaining, engaging, then the young people will come back but i deeply believe the young people are searching for good and if we can be a place where they found the trans sentence of god and they can be touched by the love of god, the more young people will be back. They are searching for it and i believe we can offer it, but not in the exact way witten ter take or things that try to captivate their interest right away. The archdiocese is trying to promote this sense of truth, beauty and of goodness right now. Yes. When you begin with the lit ra gy itself that the truth is being proclaimed in the goodness of the community formed by faith, by hope, bay love as i was just mentioning but through the beauty of sacred worship, the beauty of images of music, the reverence of the celebration itself, especially on the part of the priest, engaging hom malis, that this is centrally most important in the fure of our Christian Catholic communities. So you find joy in the young people that you see coming in. Yes, because they are being drawn to all of this. They are not finding this anywhere else in their lives. Their lives are really empty despite technology that is meant to facilitate communication. Often it leads to isolation so they are only going to find in believing in a worshipping community. Okay. I take that as gave vent well take a brief break and be back with one more session with our priests today. [piano playing slow tune] announcer dont wait. Communicate. Make your emergency plan today. Welcome back for our final segment of discussion with the priests. Youre both local fellows. Int asked you how you dis seven individually as a priest. Can i get that from you . I was in second grade the year that i made my first holy communion. My uncle was ordained a priest for another dao sees. He lived elsewhere but i was present in october of san diego 9 san. The family was present and i was thinking i would like to do that when i grow up. I had thought of other things but i thought this is a beautiful event and it was so not centered on the priest but on christ, bringing christ people, people to christ. You got that. Truth, beauty and goodness. That obviously as a second grader it was something i felt as a child at that age. That speed can be planted. Your experience . I grew up never wanting to be a priest. I lad know interest in it. I would have put priest at the bottom and it was my sentiment in high school. In the changed when i we france. My freshman year of college, after my freshman year. In a moment of prayer i had the realization that i never asked god what he wanted me to do with my life and i asked this and i had a deep inspiration and yoi to be a priest. Definitely a lot of fear but a lot of joy that this is how he is asking me to give. How old are you now . So let me ask this question. This program that were doing now i think will be broadcast on november masondixon. Youre the director for the archdiocese. Cor finding vocations to the priesthood among young man or where they are coming from or how does a young man think about a vocation . It is a great struggle. Everyone knows the numbers are not great. We dont have many inquiries or many men in the seminary. Other places of the country are doing a little better than i would say we are on the west coast but the fundamental dry sis is a basic crisis. There is a lack of people getting married. It is a realization that our life is a gift. That god gave us our life as a gift to our parents and the question is how am i being called to take this life of mine which is a gift and offer i think the more we n helppele meang of, the purpose of life, the they will be a vo orrto sthos life, some other type of special vo swayings. We have to ask that question first before we can get them on the path of potential priesthood vocation. You mentioned the marriage right down, ta. That is certainly a vocation. I can attest that im married and there are times when if it wanter my vocation and my calling, it would be difficult to fulfill it, but it continues because it is a sacred obligation and a gift, a regifting of myself to someone else. I think the key element is prayer. We pray for vocations because the lord little self asked us to do that. The harvest is a bun didnt but the laborers are few so pray to the lord of the harvest. This is going to be aired later, but were taping today which happens to be october san diego 5. She said prayer is a heart to heart conversation with god who we know loves us. Heart to heart conversation to pray for your priests, for their sangtive fication, to pray for future priests, are seminarience and for those searching for meaning, truth and value, for love within their lives that through that prayer, the grace of god might be communicated to them in a way that really touches them and changes them so they can become a priest like even though he is a fictional character that wonderful priest portrayed in the keys of the kingdom. His life is after the heart of the lord, gentle and humble and of Loving Service to others. Are there hero or model or mentor priests that you can recall in your life . One of the priests that has been a great model for me, he is saint isaac jobe and he grew up in france and is bringing the faith to the people in this land. The amount he sacrificed and loved his people that he was trying to communicate the faith to is deeply inspiring. I hope one day to visit his gravesite there in northern new york. We have thank you for coming and discussing with us. Always great to talk with you. Thank you. I have learned a lot about the vocation of the priest. Can we say in closing it is not the most difficult life of all . Or we dont want to scare people off. It is difficult but doable. It is joyful. It ld be joyful. It has. You bring joy too. Thank you for being here. For w mosaic. Live from the cbs bay area studios, this is kpix5 news. Well, the storm watch this morning. Rain and wind wreak havoc in the bay area in the race to get home before the weather intensifies. The driver on the wrong side of the tracks. The dramatic train crash in union city. A former oakland raider under arrest and a stab wound. The violent altercation with his girlfriend. It is december 1st, 2019. Thanks for joining us. Lets start with the weather. That is the big story today. Taking a live look at our high def doppler in real time. You can see just how much green there is out there. That is thanks to all of the rain we are going to continue to see, not just today, but all
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