The collaboration of priests and laity" means that we are all in it together," Auxiliary Bishop John Boissonneau of Toronto, Ontario, said in an address on priests of the third millennium to this summer’s Serra International convention, held in Toronto. The Canadian bishop said: "Diocesan priests almost by definition have always enjoyed and encouraged good relationships with the parishioners. In the past three decades this relationship has developed under the influence of Vatican II into a real sense also of collaboration. The spirit that supports collaborative ministry... is a spirit of partnership. Partnership has a powerful theological base..."

Successful priests in the future will be "those who believe that their role in our society is to be countercultural," said Boissoneau. "In a society that has a real focus upon competition, materialism, violence and sexuality," he said, "they see their roles as offering an alternative way to live as a man in our society...

Effective priests of the future will place a premium on being authentic, on being honest, on not just going through the motions," said Boissonneau. He added that they will "want to tell it straight to their people, to themselves and even to their superiors." The bishop said: "For them, being authentic also demands from them account-ability. This accountability is a corollary of collaborative ministry. The successful priests of this new millennium will need to engage laity in many aspects of their lives and of the life of the parishes. This will not be an easy transition and has its own human, theological and pastoral significances that need to be explored..."

The future priest will seek to avoid being isolated and attempt to deal constructively with loneliness," Boissonneau continued. He said: "Reduced numbers, increased workload and some backlash from the present problems will make the priest vulnerable to isolation. This means having close relationships in their families and building a strong supporting network of all kinds of friends." The future priest, said the bishop, will be "far more open to living in common with other diocesan priests than his predecessors..."

Effective priests in the future "will draw life from the people that they serve, and that in turn will inspire them to serve those people better," Boissonneau said. He called this "a synergistic relationship, with the priests drawing inspiration from the example that lay people set in their own lives," and he said that future priests will be "awed by their role in people’s lives at the key moments of birth, marriage, death, sickness and suffering..."

‘Listen first’ is the motto of future priests as the means to help them to serve others, to preach to others, and to make decisions in their own lives," Boissonneau concluded. He said that "because they will draw life from the people and because they have learned to listen to them, these priests are particularly sensitive to people’s needs. Priesthood and their personal talents are not for them but for others."

Franciscan Father Canice Connors, CMSM president, told the assembly that there are abusive priests who "are hard of heart" and resist change. But Connors also asked, "Don’t we believe that anyone can through graced intervention reflect on the confessed past, interpret it correctly for what it was and is, and then effect a change that upon continuing reflection and interpretation yields a new self?" Connors said, "Yes, through fear of losing public respect ... we tolerated and purchased silence, and colluded in secrecy about the crimes of our brothers. In so doing, we now know that we ... in effect reabused the victim." Connors said strict policies and "independent monitoring of their applications" are needed. He called for pastoral programs that "attend to both victim and abuser, guided by principles of justice and reconciliation."