Álvaro del Portillo: «What the man of today expects is that the priest speaks to him about God».»

It was enough to look at the media of Vatican II to know that one of the personalities who dedicated the best of his efforts to drafting the documents of the Great Assembly was Don Alvaro del Portillo, secretary of the Conciliar Commission in charge of preparing the Decree «De Presbyteris».

John XXIII had appointed Dr. Del Portillo president of the Antepreparatory Commission on the Laity and, later, secretary of the Conciliar Commission on the Discipline of the Clergy, in charge, as I said before, of the schema «De presbyterorum ministerio et vita». Both positions are like a symbol of the life of this illustrious Spanish priest. Don Álvaro del Portillo holds a doctorate in Philosophy and Letters and a doctorate in Civil Engineering. A member of Opus Dei since the beginnings of this Association, he worked intensely as an engineer. Ordained a priest in 1944, he holds a doctorate in Canon Law and has always been in responsible service to the Church, with exemplary effort and fidelity. He resides in Rome and is the Secretary General of Opus Dei.

This is roughly the man I was looking for to explain to the readers of PALABRA the figure of the priest who was outlining the Council. Few points of greater interest - and by such an authoritative person - could indeed be raised in a priestly magazine. The enormous task that weighed on the Commission From Presbyteris - The work day and night made it practically impossible to approach Don Álvaro. I sent him a questionnaire. The Council ended. Three days later I had the answers in my possession.

-As you well know, the definitive vote on the Decree «Presbyterorum Ordinis» and its promulgation by the Holy Father took place on December 7, the eve of the solemn closing of the Ecumenical Council. If before those dates I did not want to accept the interview, it was for reasons that are easy to understand, which basically boil down to one: being the secretary of the same Conciliar Commission that prepared the Decree, it did not seem delicate to me to give my opinion publicly on problems that were still under study. And even less so in the case of a problem - the ministry and life of priests - on which recent literature has placed so much passionate polemical emphasis....

–«L'Osservatore Romano», echoing the opinion of the Council Fathers, has described the Decree «Presbyterorum Ordinis» as one of the best and most complete documents of the Second Vatican Council. Do you think that this teaching of the Council will make up the ends of the controversy to which you alluded before?

-I think so. And not only because of the moral force of its authority, since it is a document of the solemn Magisterium, but also because of the doctrinal structure of its content. The different conceptions and particular opinions on the forms in which the life and apostolic task of priests should be manifested today can only be easily reconciled by placing the problem on a plane that is not exclusively disciplinary, nor only pastoral, nor only moral or ascetical. It was precisely the one-sidedness of points of view that led to the diversity of conclusions, sometimes strongly and polemically opposed. The Ecumenical Council, on the other hand, considered and studied the problem in a global way, starting from the theology of the priesthood and then progressively descending to the common pastoral, ascetical and disciplinary consequences that the particular consecration and the specific mission they have received have on the ministry and life of priests.

–This is the first time in the history of the Church that a conciliar document has dealt specifically with the presbyterate. What were the reasons that made this advisable?

-In the face of the considerable development of the doctrine on the episcopate and on the common priesthood of the faithful, many priests were rightly asking themselves about the exact value and meaning of their priesthood, of their own apostolic task within the unique mission of the Church. On the other hand, in a world in continuous social and cultural evolution, it was necessary to specify the fundamental terms of the necessary accommodation of the ministry and priestly life. But above all, how could one think of a missionary renewal of the Church that did not have as its main foundation the holiness of life and the pastoral solicitude of its priests?

–What do you consider to be the main notes that delineate the theological figure of the presbyter?

-Consecration and mission. The double reality signified in the well-known passage of the Epistle to the Hebrews, chapter five, verse one, where it is said that the priest «ex hominibus assumptus, pro hominibus constituitur”. Chosen from among the members of the Priestly People of God, the priest participates, by a new and special consecration, in the ministerial priesthood of Christ himself. A greater elevation of the creature, a greater intimacy with God in his redemptive work, is inconceivable. Human weakness is taken up, assumed, not only to cooperate with Christ, but to represent him before men, to act in his very name and person. Because, as a consequence of this participation in the ministerial priesthood of Christ, the priest is destined to the mission of evangelizing, sanctifying and governing, in hierarchical communion with the bishops, the People of God. Therein is contained all the mysterious greatness of priestly life: a special consecration (added to the baptismal consecration) that separates man from other men and a mission that destines this same man to the pastoral service of his brothers. Two dimensions - one vertical, of adoration; the other horizontal, of service - of the same life, both consecrated and sent; a life «in dialogue» at the same time with God and with men.

–In today's world, given the new social and cultural circumstances to which you alluded earlier, how should priests orient this dialogue with the world and with people? What fundamental characteristics should the missionary and pastoral task of priests - bishops and priests - have in order for it to be truly a ministry, a service?

-I think that the concrete forms will vary with the different environments and cultural levels. But in any case, it is evident that the man in the street - in the university, in the office, in the country - is only willing to listen to the priest, the «priest», who knows how to address him with simplicity of human treatment (as a man, I would say, «within reach») and at the same time with a sincere and profound supernatural sense (as a man of God). Simplicity of human treatment - the eximia humanitas necessary for the conversatio cum hominibus, as it says in the Decree - means, in the first place, the exercise of a series of qualities or basic natural virtues (sincerity, loyalty, love of justice, hardiness, capacity for understanding, respect for the just freedom and autonomy of the laity in temporal matters, etc.). Then, it also means the capacity to esteem and properly value all noble human realities: professional work (like Christ in Nazareth), human love (like Christ in Cana or Naim), friendship (like Christ in Bethany), and so on. It is in this way that people discover in the priest the availability and understanding that facilitates dialogue, and with dialogue, teaching. This is how they become accustomed to consider the priest as a close, familiar, friendly figure, and not as a distant, singular and strange being.

–In other words, it is required of us ecclesiastics a way of being - if you will pardon the expression - less clerical than at other times, a less clerical How should we behave in civil society and in dealing with the laity?

-If you write your article with clerical in italics, I answer yes. Less clerical and more priestly. Because those manners and that clerical mentality to which you refer - frequent in not a few clerics of past times - were the fruit of a false concept of power (which put the accent more on coercion than on moral authority) and of a false «supernaturalism», not very supernatural. I think that many of the people who declared themselves or declare themselves «anticlerical», as it is often said, did so in reaction to those manners and to that mentality, which certainly has nothing to do - as the example of many other magnificent priests has never ceased to testify - with a sincerely priestly soul, nor with the true demands of the pastoral ministry. But you see that it is a problem of «mentality», of interior context and, therefore, of intellectual formation, of doctrinal and ascetic deepening. In other words, it is something that cannot be addressed with superficial and external solutions, which, besides being simplistic, would be unfortunately counterproductive. For example, the abolition of the priestly garb (cassock, clergyman or habit), the indiscriminate and foolish admiration of everything «lay», the «temporalization» of the priestly ministry, reducing it to the sole tasks of social or economic assistance, etcetera.

It is precisely for this reason that the Decree. «Presbyterorum Ordinis» insists that the priest's exalted humanitas must always be closely accompanied by a deep supernatural sense of earthly realities, of his own priestly condition and of his own duty of state. Nothing, in fact, would make dialogue with the men and women of our time more difficult than a kind of «naturalistic» attitude on the part of the priest.

–For what reasons exactly?

-Because - and this is one of the great moral and cultural values of our time - people today passionately love the authenticity of attitudes, the sincerity of persons, and automatically reject anything that tastes false, fake, false or lacking in responsibility: and a «naturalistic» attitude in the priest would be all this at the same time. But, above all, because what people want, what they expect - even if they often do not know or do not realize that they want and expect it - is that the priest, with his witness of life and with his word, speaks to them about God. And if the priest does not do so, if he does not seek them out, if he does not help them to listen, to discover or understand the religious dimension of their lives, then the priest lets them down, just as a fireman without water, a tavern keeper - forgive the simile - who dispenses milk, or a doctor who does not dare to diagnose and prescribe, would let them down. Today, people certainly demand to be spoken to in a very specific way-positive, vital, adhering to their concrete spiritual and human problems, encouraging and full of that Christian optimism called «Easter spirit»-but they want and expect to be spoken to about God, and to be spoken to openly, because there are already too many things in their social life that hide it. They realize that they need God. Even the most demanding person in the rush of their thousand daily occupations, even the most distant or the one who seems most indifferent: all, in one way or another, with greater or lesser awareness or lucidity, carry this existential problem of God on their shoulders. And the priest -homo fidei, Evangelii minister, educator in fide- has this as the first duty of his ministry: to awaken that light or to enliven it, to bring it to the plane of personal conscience.

In short, sincere humanity in form and a profound supernatural spirit in content. The same Conciliar Decree teaches that the Eucharist is the source and summit of the priestly ministry. And in the Eucharist Christ egregiously manifests at the same time the ineffable proximity to man of the Son of Man and the infinite saving love of the Son of God.

We realize-thinking about the presbyterate, the reaffirmation of ecclesiastical celibacy, the reform of incardination and benefices, etc.-that we have barely had time to outline some of the many questions we wanted to ask Don Alvaro del Portillo, one of the experts who contributed most to the laborious work of the Council.

As they say, there are many other topics that remain unresolved. Who knows if Don Alvaro's kindness will not allow us to resume this dialogue at a later date?