The missing fourth vow

We start with a conversation between Mary, chairwoman of the Association of St Anne; James, a member of the Parish Pastoral Council; and Patricia, formerly a religious sister.
Mary: I was very angry with Fr Vincent this morning.
James: Why?
Mary: We had our monthly meeting today, and Father is supposed to make a spiritual input. First, he was very late and arrived when we were on the last item. We were very busy discussing the issue when he came in and stood there like a statue no apologies. And then comes the thunderbolt: Mary, haven’t you and your members forgotten something? What, Father? I ask. Listen to me everybody! he shouts. When Father comes in, stop whatever you are doing, stand up like good Catholics and say clearly, respectfully and in unison: Good morning Father! You must respect your parish priest, not because he is Fr Vincent, but because he represents Christ. Clear?

James: You should see what happens at Parish Council meetings. Firstly, the members are handpicked. Secondly, the parish priest dominates the discussion on every item. He loves to hear his voice. No one else’s opinion matters, but his.

Patricia: Why do you think I left the convent? I couldn’t take the dictatorship anymore. Mother Superior was some kind of demi-god. Every time you tried to question something, the vow of obedience was hurled at you!

Mary: But is that how they are supposed to behave? Did Jesus not preach servant leadership? Was it not Jesus who said: Even the Son of Man came, not to be served, but to serve?

The names are fictitious and the conversation is fictitious and perhaps uncharitable but the issues raised are real.

The question I ask is this: If Fr Vincent and Mother Superior are lording it over their subordinates, is it entirely their fault? And is it true that such cases are not isolated, but common occurrences? One has even heard a priest boasting that the Church is not a democratic institution meaning that we have no right to question our leaders.

If there is some truth in all this, it is an indication that there is something missing in the training of our priests and women religious leaders.
It is the Nigerian poet Chinua Achebe who advises that if we realise that we are doing something wrong, we must stop and ask the question: Where did the rain begin to beat us? In other words, where did we go wrong?

There are possibly several reasons for the behaviour of the likes of Fr Vincent and Mother Superior, but I will give only two.
The first is that our priests and women religious are not given proper training in the principles and practice of Christian leadership. I stand corrected, but it is my conviction that the young priests, pastors and women religious who go through our seminaries, convents and other training institutions come out of these institutions without a clear understanding of what it means to be a leader and what distinguishes Christian Leadership from other types of leadership.

I stand corrected, but it is my conviction that the young priests, pastors and women religious who go through our seminaries, convents and other training institutions come out of these institutions without a clear understanding of what it means to be a leader and what distinguishes Christian Leadership from other types of leadership.

The second reason I shall cite is what I call the missing vow. The three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience that many religious take are an important part of the spirituality of the Christian Church the Catholic Church in particular. I am however convinced that the Church would have been richer if there was a fourth vow: the vow of Servant Leadership.

The Church correctly teaches us that on the night of the Last Supper Christ instituted the sacrament of the Eucharist and the sacrament of Holy Orders. What in my view has not been given sufficient emphasis over the centuries is that on the same night Christ solemnly instituted the practice of Servant Leadership.

It is my view that this oversight has resulted in many of our religious leaders practising the leadership of domination at the expense of servant leadership.
Mother Superior is probably quite right in citing the vow of obedience, but if she had taken the vow of servant leadership she would most probably have remembered that she is supposed to exercise her powers of leadership as Jesus would have done.
But what did Jesus teach about leadership?