(ZENIT News / Rome, July 24, 2025). – The news of a recent study on the psychological health of priests in France, with its worrying indicators of stress, once again confirms a malaise we have long felt.
It is a finding that moves us deeply, especially in light of painful events such as the death of Father Matteo Balzano (1). It is not a matter exclusively for experts, but a question that challenges all of us, called to take seriously the fate of those who serve the Church.
This is a reminder for which I am particularly grateful.
A Proposal for the Priestly Crisis
Yes, the French study is alarming, but perhaps not surprising. More than one in three priests shows symptoms of burnout, insomnia, and chronic anxiety. These figures reveal a real, widespread, and pervasive malaise.
But more than the statistics, it is the silences that speak: the empty Rectories, the meals spent alone, the days full of commitments but without authentic faces. And then, sometimes, the extreme gesture that leaves us silent and unprepared, as happened with Father Matteo Balzano.
It is precisely from the strength of this question and the weakness of so many inadequate answers that this reflection emerges. It is not intended as a conclusion, but rather as an invitation to open a profound dialogue. Because the challenge is not simply to remedy a problem, but to reimagine a way of priestly life more in tune with the truth of humanity, the very nature of the ministry, and the logic of the Gospel.
The Community Life of Priests and Saint Philip Neri
Here, a fruitful space opens up for rethinking priestly fraternity, not as a simple spiritual sentiment but as a true structure of life. Viewed more closely, it wouldn’t even be a reform, but rather a return to the origins.
It was in the middle of the 16th century that Saint Philip Neri, with his extraordinary intuition, understood an essential truth for the secular clergy: the need to live together to remain steadfast in the faith. Thus, he founded the Oratory. His vision was clear: not a new Religious Order with vows and enclosures, but a dynamic community of priests. Here, each one maintained his own freedom, united to the others by a strong bond of prayer and apostolic commitment.
A true secular fraternity, inspired by the Gospel and embedded in daily life. Over time, this form evolved into Societies of Apostolic Life, entities created specifically so that priests could live together without necessarily belonging to a Religious Institute.
My Institute also belongs to this spiritual family: we are not united by vows, but by commitments; what unites us is not a legal norm, but charity, which, lived, is a bond stronger than any law. Our original Constitutions consider living together as the source of evangelization: sharing life in order to share the mission.
For us, community living is not an accessory or a mere discipline, but the place where the priesthood remains vital.
In Community Life: Priests and Vocations Flourish
The priest, by his very nature, does not belong to himself: he has received a gift to be a gift, and this requires relationships, others, and fraternity. Priestly identity is preserved through personal responsibility, but it is nourished by daily sharing. And if this is true in an Apostolic Society, it is even more so for those diocesan priests who have no affiliation other than that of the presbyterate.
With the new Code of 1983, the Societies of Apostolic Life were partially assimilated into Religious Institutes, perhaps in an attempt to protect them, but at the risk of losing their originality. A priestly fraternity, which is not «religion» but rather a «shared mission,» today runs the risk of not finding a clear canonical space. But precisely for this reason, it must be rediscovered. Not to regress, but to deepen: because in the Church, what is born of the Spirit is not extinguished, even if it does not find immediate legal recognition.
Fraternity is not a refuge for priests in crisis, but a normal condition for living out the ministry without distorting it.
Celibacy, when sustained by relationships of friendship, communion, and prayer, flourishes. However, when isolated in an empty Rectory, it becomes a debilitating burden. It is not only a psychological issue, but a theological one. The priest is configured to Christ the Head, but he was not designed to act alone. He is a member of a presbytery, a brother among brothers, never an absolute individual.
In some situations, this model of life is already lived with evident results. There is no need to name them or point them out as examples to be uncritically imitated. But it is undeniable that where priests live together, vocations multiply, sacramental life is strengthened, charity becomes visible, and holiness is no longer a solitary possibility, but a shared path.
A New Face of the Priesthood: Less Heroic, More Human
All this can happen even without entering an institution: it would be enough for three priests in a diocese to ask to live under the same roof, each with his own parish, but with a shared schedule for prayer, a shared meal, and time for dialogue. Nothing complicated. Nothing ideological, but all profoundly evangelical.
Of course, someone might object: where do you find three priests willing to live together? But the real question is: who said that a priest must live alone? When and why was this unwritten rule established, according to which each Rectory must be inhabited by a single man, called to manage everything alone? Could this not be the very root of many of our struggles, our weariness, our internal shipwrecks?
Today, after Father Matteo, we can no longer afford to postpone this issue. This is not an emergency that must be addressed, but a fundamental ecclesial decision. Dioceses can no longer limit themselves to multiplying formation meetings or Spiritual Retreats. They must offer places, homes, and stable opportunities for community life. The Bishop is not only the guarantor of the Church, but also the father of the presbytery: and like any father, he must ensure that his children do not grow up alone.
We don’t need complex structural reforms or synodal decrees. All it takes is a little courage, a little humility, and perhaps even a little mercy among us priests. Let us stop thinking of ourselves as rivals or monads, and begin to recognize ourselves as brothers called to walk together. Perhaps not with all, but at least with some.
This is where a new face of the priesthood may emerge: less effective, but more human; less solitary, but more credible; less heroic, but more evangelical. Perhaps then, in a home where we pray together, eat together, cry and laugh together, a weary young priest will no longer think that the only way out is the end.
But he will find someone at his side who will simply say: «You are not alone. Let us stay here, together.»
Notes:
- Father Matteo Balzano committed suicide.
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*Father Mario Proietti [Author of this article] is Director of the Abbey of San Felice (Giano dell’Umbria)
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