Brother priests, Lives of service
The number 40 seems changeable. For example, the 40 days of Lent seem far longer on Ash Wednesday than on Easter Sunday. That is my experience as well on the 40th anniversary of ordination to the priesthood.
As a young man, newly ordained, 40 years of ministry were beyond my comprehension, had I thought about them. Looking back, however, these 40 years appear as a brief moment.
My ministry as a priest has been exercised within the context of my fundamental vocation to monastic life. I am a monk who is also a priest. My connections to Benedictine monastic life extend throughout my life.
I grew up in St. Benedict’s Parish, Richmond, Va., where the parish priests were the monks of Belmont Abbey stationed at St. Benedict’s Priory there. The influence of the Benedictine sisters and monks who were my teachers in elementary school and high school were clearly behind the attraction to a career as a teacher, which became increasingly clear and compelling for me.
The most significant Benedictine connection was my oldest brother, Father James Solari. He is now a priest of the Diocese of Charlotte, but was a monk of Belmont Abbey all through my life until after I entered the monastery. He was someone I always looked up and aspired to be like. He was a monk and a priest, and he caught my attention also when he earned a doctorate in theology during the time I was in high school. That path – monk, priest, doctorate in theology – has been mine as well.
The most profound impact my brother had on the development of my priesthood was when, after diaconate ordination, I was assigned to assist him when he was pastor of St. Michael Parish in Gastonia for my diaconate year and my first two years as a priest. I have come to appreciate more and more through the years how skillful a mentor he was for me in translating the learning I had received into pastoral care for the welfare of parishioners. I have never forgotten the seriousness with which he took his obligation to be present in the parish and engaged with the parish community.
Likewise, I am forever indebted to the parishioners at St. Michael’s who, by their acceptance and encouragement, played a significant part in forming me in ministry as a priest. I suspect that parishioners may not always realize how important they are in forming their priests. Those three years at St. Michael’s – my only experience in parish ministry – were very happy years.
As mentioned above, my ministry as a priest has been directed by my vocation to consecrated religious life – specifically, to monastic life according to the Rule of St. Benedict. It has thus taken a very different form from what is likely the more familiar ministry of a diocesan priest. I have never been a pastor with responsibility for leading a parish community. I live in community with other monks and with a prescribed daily schedule including set times of community prayer. My sacramental ministry has been primarily presiding at the Eucharist and hearing confessions, with some marriages, baptisms and, less frequently, anointing of the sick. I take my turn with the rest of the priests in the monastery in presiding at the community Mass, so I do not preach every day or every Sunday. This is all quite different from the life of a parish priest.
The ministry of a monk who is also a priest is conditioned in a special way by the vow of stability. St. Benedict considers the root cause of sin to be our self-will, by which he means our tendency to pursue our own choices rather than conform our choices to what God wills. In order to counter self-will, he prescribes a vow of stability.
Monks are to pray, live and work for a lifetime in the same monastic community in which we make our profession of vows. The purpose of a vow of stability is to provide a long-term support for the difficult process of conversion towards the goal of all Christian life – perfection in charity. It also keeps us from running away when the demands of conversion are difficult. Thus, for a monk who is a priest, his monastic community is both the most significant formative influence in his life as well as the primary beneficiary of his ministry.
My vow of stability has impacted my priesthood in multiple ways.
In the first place, it has rooted me in community with my confreres, the monks of Belmont Abbey. We are committed to living monastic life together according to the Rule of St. Benedict and to continuing the good works of the men who have gone before us in building up the Church in North Carolina.
Stability has also provided a long-term commitment in the Diocese of Charlotte. Although priests of other religious congregations are more directly involved in pastoral ministry in the diocese than I am, they are generally assigned here for a period of time, after which they move to another assignment elsewhere. Although Belmont Abbey is not a ministry of the diocese, the monks of Belmont Abbey are always in the diocese because of our stability. I have had the privilege of serving as a priest under all four of the Bishops of Charlotte, and of forming long-term relationships and friendships with many of the diocese’s priests over the years.
Finally, stability has directed my ministry in a special way to Belmont Abbey College students. It has been a source of profound joy to accompany generations of students from their first steps towards independence through graduation and the transition into life on their own. Although generations change and fashions change, the students and their issues remain largely the same. Each new class brings the exciting prospect that some of them may prove to be life-long friends. It is profoundly gratifying to have alumni, whom one first met as late adolescents, come back with their own families and established in their careers.
When thinking over 40 years of ministry as a priest, the following promise of Jesus comes to mind: “Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come” (Mark 10:29-30).
This promise has been fulfilled more than I ever could have imagined. You can bet your life on it!
Benedictine Abbot Placid Solari is the current abbot of Belmont Abbey and also serves as chancellor of Belmont Abbey College.
Pictured: Benedictine Abbot Placid Solari of Belmont Abbey was ordained a priest 45 years ago. Of his older brother, Father James Solari, he says, “He was someone I always looked up and aspired to be like. He was a monk and a priest, and he caught my attention also when he earned a doctorate in theology during the time I was in high school. That path – monk, priest, doctorate in theology – has been mine as well.” (Photo provided by Belmont Abbey)
