Here is another one of the papers accumulated on my desk, a “Decalogue” that indicates the style of life befitting a priest according to the thought of Don Primo Mazzolari. The ten invitations are in fact taken from Don Primo’s writings.
THE DECALOGUE OF THE PRIEST ACCORDING TO DON MAZZOLARI
First. The priest must be a gentleman, that is, possess the human virtues of sincerity, loyalty, and frankness. Two opposite defects: we neglect the nature of the formation of the candidate for the priesthood, or, on the contrary, we give too much importance to natural means. Grace does not kill nature; it transforms it, uses it, making more fruitful, and with a higher fruitfulness, those very natural gifts, which are incipient graces. The example comes from Jesus. He is the Son of God, but also the Son of Man. Jesus prayed, worked, ate, suffered, rested: these were human actions that showed how Our Lord was truly man: I would dare say that no one has been as much man as he was, because his human nature was of incomparable perfection (Primo Mazzolari, Preti così, pp. 123-124).
The supernatural level cannot be built if the first is lacking.
Second. The priest must be cheerful and sunny, because in the Mass he represents Christ not only crucified, but risen. It has been written that Don Mazzolari always spoke as though he had “a lump in his throat and bore upon himself the hardships of poor people, who, besides feeling the pangs of hunger, often do not even have the impulses of the supernatural to help them endure their Calvary” (R. Esposito). Every time he celebrates the Eucharist, the priest stretches himself out on the cross with Christ. But Don Primo did not go around with a funeral face. The convivial, fraternal, jovial dimension was alive in him. When a priest in difficulty arrived at his presbytery, he would give him the whole morning and then keep him for lunch, setting aside for him a bottle of the good stuff. At table with him people were cheerful, but they certainly did not feel like telling racy jokes or risqué stories.
Third. The priest must be infinitely merciful toward the greatest sinners, without ever betraying principles. The Church militant can never be accommodating, much less dormant. “Humanity has been given to Christ. Incorporation into Christ goes beyond the Church. We readily make categories: the good, the bad, our own, those who are not our own… The worst must be the most our own. Christ thirsts for these” (Ibidem, p. 35).
Fourth. The priest must study not so much the dusty, yawning books of learned theologians, but above all he must read the continent of the poor. A broom-maker from Cicognara said to me: “You priests are good people, but you do not know what hunger means”. Don Mazzolari specifies: “There are priests who strip themselves bare for the poor: and they are the holiest priests. Better one altar fewer, but more charity. Charity is still one of the most accepted testimonies to the divinity of the Church. Know this: no one will stop communism except the Church, by overcoming with a great heart selfishness of every color. I say this to you in the name of Christ and of the luminous sign of human suffering” (Ibidem, p. 107).
Fifth. The priest must not be discouraged by his own mistakes. “The saints are not those who never make mistakes, but those in whom mistakes do not outweigh the good. If you never want to make a mistake, have yourself shut up between four boards and carried to the cemetery”. (Ibidem, p. 105).
Sixth. The priest must be stripped of every wealth. A layman said to a religious: “Your vow of poverty is a vow of security because you never lack bread on the table”. Don Primo comments: “The priest of today eats at such-and-such an hour, recites the Divine Office at such-and-such another, keeps the upholstered chair of such-and-such a color in such-and-such a place. People are afraid to enter a rectory that is too beautiful; they fear dirtying it, bringing disorder” (Ibidem, pp. 104-105).
Seventh. If the priest goes up into the pulpit, he must not mount the winged horse of learned and incomprehensible eloquence! When the preacher shouts, waves his arms, strains eloquence to the breaking point, uses theological language, people yawn and say: “That fellow speaks very well…”. But the language does not get through. People are capable of turning their backs halfway through the sermon. Let us keep in mind that out of a hundred words we say, people will understand five” (Ibidem, p. 87). Don Mazzolari would gladly have endorsed the lapidary phrase of that other great priest, Don Milani: “Whoever speaks in a difficult way is an enemy of the people”. And Hans Kung is sometimes wrong, but he is certainly right when he states: “Whoever writes in a difficult way is outside the Gospel”.
Eighth. The priest must be tolerant, never quenching the smoldering wick nor breaking the bruised reed. “Jesus never called anyone an enemy, not even Judas: ‘Friend, do what you have come for.'”. Perhaps in our vocabulary we have made too much use of warlike terms. Saint Paul, who had a bellicose temperament, becomes amiably maternal with others. The right attitude is the Eucharistic one: the reality that does not appear. How did Christ come? He hid his divinity. In the Eucharist he presents himself in hiddenness, in the most absolute amiability” (Ibidem, pp. 75-76). The method of freedom is unsurpassable. “Do not act like dogcatchers. In charity, in freedom, souls are converted” (Ibidem, p. 79).
Ninth. The priest is the servant of all. “Ministry is service. It is absurd for the master to bend to the whims of his servants. God is the master and he is in our people. And do you want, then, our people, who are the master, to adapt themselves to us? … When the priest suffers and the people are well, then the happy era begins” (Ibidem, p. 102, 104).
Tenth. “Everyone takes it out on the priest. The fascists, the Germans, the communists, the partisans shot more than three hundred of them. No parish priest picked up from the ground stones or bullets in order to throw them back at the enemies. To all the fiercest enemies the priest gives an appointment on the mountain of Calvary” (P. Mazzolari, I preti sanno morire, passim).