WASHINGTON — Decrying "the poverty of our preaching," one of the Roman Catholic Church's most prominent figures has launched a national project to "fill priests' bellies with fire" as the first step toward prodding congregations to do more about social problems.
Father Walter J. Burghardt, 77, a noted Jesuit preacher, writer and theologian, retired from Georgetown University last year to organize a series of workshop retreats aimed at developing a broad network of activist priests with enhanced preaching skills.
"This has generated an incredible amount of excitement because social justice problems have mushroomed," Burghardt said of the project, which is run through the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown and is called "Preaching the Just Word."
"What we are trying to do is unique in the history of the Catholic Church in this country," he said. "There has never been an effort self-organized in this fashion to move Catholic social action toward problems that really harrow us these days."
The first five-day session was held near Annapolis, Md., last May, drawing 43 priests from 24 states.
BACKGROUND: Burghardt announced his plans to launch the project in a searing sermon delivered at Holy Trinity Church here in September, 1990.
"After three quarters of a century, I am deeply disturbed at the poverty of our preaching," he said of his fellow priests.
"I agonize because in this land of milk and honey, one of every five children grows up beneath the poverty line--and our pulpits are silent.
"I agonize because in this land of the free, blacks and Hispanics are still shackled as second-class citizens, are leaving our church in record numbers--and we preachers have nothing to say to their hungers.
"I agonize because thousands upon thousands of women are battered by the men who vowed to respect them, untold children are abused by the barbarians who brought them into being--and we mouth mealy platitudes about a God who cares for everyone. . . ."
In an interview, Burghardt explained the rationale behind his project.
He said that Catholic preaching is "not very effective" in part because "a number of priests don't feel competent to preach. Many of them claim they don't have time to prepare. My answer to them across the country is: Where are your priorities? If preaching is No. 1 or 2, then something else goes.
