Here's an article I wrote, originally in Japanese, for our parish bulletin last May 2010. I hope this can be one way for me to contribute on the value of the priesthood in a more concrete and practical way.

The FEW Priests and Religious

(Assistant Parish Priest) Fr. Bob Zarate

The Year for Priests of the Catholic Church will end with an International Gathering of Priests. Yes, we are still in the “Year for Priests”. It is perceived that priests are invited to renew their own identity this year, but it is also the time when each and every Catholic is called to reflect on the vocation and mission of the person called “priest”. What should be done to promote priestly and religious vocations? For me, I would like to recommend the following. These are just my personal opinions, but if you have more concrete suggestions, please do not hesitate to give them.

“The Priest, the Religious are different from the Lay”

When I was a child, my eldest brother, who already entered the Minor Seminary (for boys around the age of 12-17), would show to the rest of us at home something mysterious about seminary life. Boys of his age would go around the house without t-shirts on a hot summer day in the Philippines, but my brother always wore one. He woke up early in the morning to go to the parish church for daily mass. He prayed the rosary. I am sure he also prayed in those moments he was kneeling beside his bed. His words and actions were different from usual teenage boys. Personally, I thought, “There’s something different about him.” I began to be interested in the life and education that my brother -- who was different from the usual boys of that time -- was receiving. Impressed by his educated, gentleman ways, I longed to live how he lived and I started thinking of entering the Minor Seminary as well.

I longed to live the same life because it was different. It was not the usual thing, so I thought it was really good.

If, for example, I am just a usual teenager today, perhaps I would not want to become a priest. Perhaps I would be thinking like this, “That priest has more expensive clothes than I do! He even has an earring! He even dyes his hair! He drinks a lot of alcohol just like my dad! He smokes endlessly just like my uncle. He does the same things any middle aged man does. Even if I become a priest, I can just do the same things ordinary men do, so I think it would be better to just pursue a career that can earn a lot of money! Yeah, to become a priest may be cool, but it just doesn’t have any appeal for me!”

Dear friends, as a priest, I would like to ask you to do the following things:

1. If I already do what usual men do, please warn me.
2. If I walk and live like a spoiled celebrity, please admonish me.
3. If I show my own bedroom to people besides my parents or siblings, or if I let other people just use things or rooms I regularly use in private, never hesitate to tell me.
4. If I spend more time out of church, please remind me that my first job is to fulfill my priestly duties.
5. If I look sloppy and dirty, please remind me that I am also an educator even through my appearance.
6. If I do not look like a priest simply because I always wear casual clothes, it is OK to tell me.
7. If my sermon is hard to understand, or I do not even move solemnly in the Holy Mass, please, do not hesitate to tell me.
8. If you see me praying, please do not just think it’s what I always have to do. (To set aside time to pray requires effort on my part!)
9. If I fulfill my priestly duties even if I am sick, your little words of consolation and encouragement mean so much to me.
10. If it seems that I do not take care of myself, tell me... tell me, please.

And please do pray that the young -- who are searching for a lot of meaning in life -- will be attracted to the life of priests and religious who faithfully show that they are different from ordinary men and women.