This Is the Priesthood

I wrote over on my mothership, National Review Online, today about the ridiculous but important controversy — a warning bell — at George Washington University over a chaplain at the Catholic Newman Center there who is, as it turns out, Catholic! He strives to preach and counsel and live according to Church teaching. My impression is he operates aflame with the wisdom of the Father, the love of Christ, and the Holy Spirit. It’s a Trinitarian encounter over at GW if you seek it.

But these things clash with the mores of the times. And increasingly so if we continue down the path we’re on when it comes this presidential administration’s — secularism’s — posture toward real religion.

And I’ve only gotten to the first of these remarkable testimonies some students have put up in gratitude and support. One young woman talks about how Fr. Schaffer has helped make her life richer, as she has faced questions and heartache. She writes, in part: “I was broken, remade again, and found redemption in Christ’s love. My heart is a cathedral that Christ has filled with song.” She says that song was one “Fr. Greg helped open the doors of my heart” to.

And what’s remarkable, too, is Fr. Shaffer doesn’t have a celebrity or cult following. These kids get it. It is Christ who is his light. It is Christ their chaplain is bringing them to. It is Christ they are encountering through his fatherly guidance. The one student continues: “I now know what love really means because of Fr. Greg. Fr. Greg loves me as Christ loves me. Not for what I have done or what I will become, but he loves me for me. And, I will forever love him and be grateful for that.”

And that, my friends, is the priesthood. God bless priests. God protect our priests. Say thank you to a priest today.