Church News
By Silas Isenjia
For a priest, taking time to rest is not a “luxury,” the secretary of the Vatican Dicastery for Evangelization said, urging priests to embrace healthy periods away from work to sustain their physical and mental health.
In his address during the launch of a six-week formation program that seeks to explore priestly life in Nigeria, Archbishop Fortunatus Nwachukwu reflected on cases of mental health struggles among the members of the Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life (ICLSAL), noting that priests should embrace rest just as Jesus himself did during his ministry.
“Rest, then, is not a luxury in priestly life; it is necessary for physical and mental health,” the archbishop said, noting that the recent news of the resignation of German Bishop Karl-Heinz Wiesemann after a period of serious psychological strain is “a timely reminder that priests and bishops are not immune to exhaustion, depression, or burnout.”
“We need proper rest, healthy boundaries, supportive relationships, and, when necessary, professional help. Caring for oneself is not stepping away from ministry; it helps us remain well enough to serve,” the Nigerian-born Vatican official emphasized during the launch, which was held virtually on Aug. 26.
Organizers of the program seek to explore priestly life, starting with Nigeria, amid mounting mental health concerns among Catholic priests.
According to organizers, participants in the program will look at “the quality of life, service, joy, aspirations, fears, and anxieties” that they say are “gradually pervading the cycle of a priestʼs life and ministry.”
Guided by the theme “Fully Alive in Christ: Caring for the Self — The Priest as a Living Gift,” the program also seeks to explore priestly self-care, spiritual renewal, emotional well-being, burnout, healthy relationships, and living out the Church’s mission with confidence and joy.
Participants in the formation will have access to training materials and will also receive a certificate of participation.
In his presentation, Nwachukwu recalled the situation in the Diocese of Aba, where he said the age at which many priests have died points to the need for greater attention to the well-being of clergy.
“Each time I visit the priests’ cemetery of the Diocese of Aba, close to the cathedral, I am struck and left sad by the age bracket of the colleagues whose remains are already lying there,” said the Vatican official, who also serves as the representative of the Holy See to the United Nations and Specialized Institutions in Geneva following his December 2021 appointment.
Many of the priests, he added, died before reaching the age of 50. “Only very few crossed the bars of 60 and 70 years,” he said.
Beyond the premature deaths of priests, Nwachukwu noted the growing number of young priests experiencing mental health challenges, raising the question of what can be done to address the situation.
He said the concern was not about questioning God’s will but about examining how seriously the Church takes Jesus’ teachings and example regarding the self-care of those entrusted with ministry.
Nwachukwu reflected on Mark 6:31-32 as a guiding text for understanding the importance of rest in priestly ministry. In the passage, Jesus tells his disciples: “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.”
The Nigerian Church leader explained that Jesus invited his disciples to take a pause from their ministry and join him in a period of rest. He noted that Jesus himself demonstrated the importance of taking a break — particularly after receiving news of the death of his cousin, John the Baptist.
The archbishop said the Gospel accounts show that Jesus’ decision to withdraw was connected both to grief and to the demands of ministry.
He said St. Matthew presents the withdrawal after Jesus receives news of John the Baptist’s death, while Mark and Luke place the invitation to rest after the disciples returned from a successful missionary assignment.
The disciples had been so occupied with their mission that “many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat,” he noted, adding that their missionary work had included casting out demons as well as anointing the sick with oil and healing them.
Nwachukwu said the experience offers an important lesson for priests who devote themselves intensely to ministry.
“God-given energy needs God-given direction,” he said, explaining that strength, passion, and drive must be directed toward one’s vocation and mission. Otherwise, he warned, such energy can easily be spent elsewhere.
He said this spiritual energy, when properly directed, can lead a person to Christ and enable him or her to bring others to Christ.
He recalled Pope Benedict XVI’s homily at his episcopal ordination on Jan. 6, 2013, in which the late pontiff described the spiritual restlessness of the Magi as the force that led them from the East in search of the newborn Jesus.
According to Nwachukwu, such restlessness finds its fulfillment in Christ.
The archbishop also reflected on Jesus’ invitation in Matthew 11:28: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
He cautioned that rest detached from Christ can be harmful to priests, emphasizing that the rest Jesus offers is not simply an escape from work but a source of renewal.
He explained that the Greek expression used in the passage, “kagō anapausō humas,” means “and I will give you rest.” The verb “anapauō,” he noted, conveys the idea of an elevating or renewing rest.
For priests, Nwachukwu said, this kind of rest should include periods of detachment from routine activities to allow for physical renewal and to strengthen relationships with God, fellow priests, family members, and the faithful.
He added that physical refreshment should include ordinary needs such as taking adequate time to eat and drink, while mental and spiritual renewal should involve learning how to direct one’s energies toward Christ through prayer and genuine charity.
