What makes a good spiritual leader?

"Aren't bishops in the Eastern churches typically drawn from monastics?"

Yes, it is the custom in the Orthodox Church that bishops be chosen from the monastics. But sometimes the custom is honored more as a technicality. That is, a man who is not a monk is elected as a bishop; then he receives monastic tonsure a few days before his ordination as a bishop. Thus, in practical terms the real requirement is that a man be unmarried (whether never married or widowed) rather than that he be a monk.

It is perhaps inevitable that this should be so in places (such as here in America) where Orthodox monasticism is not strong, and there are relatively few experienced monks to choose from.

Father Anthony Karbo. Holy Theophany Parish OCA, Colorado Springs.

I think in the Catholic tradition that spiritual authority and paternity are inseparable. (The word paternity encompasses motherhood, too, in my usage** by the way.) This means authority redounding in love and discipline. It means interest. Care.

That Father knows who the heck I am, and cares about me. He wants me to be good, better. He cares about my problems. He gives me what he has to help me grow. He considers my vocation to be linked with his own.

Father Anthony makes it his business to see that everyone, every regular parishioner, is receiving the sacraments, properly. That means he preaches confession, and asks people to confess regularly. He guards the chalice. If he doesn't know you, he asks if you are prepared to receive.

He is also emphatically a man. He's got a beautiful wife (the matushka, also a mensch) and five great kids. A good family. He lives simply, is humble, and works at carpentry on the side.

There's absolutely no doubt in my mind who he is; where he stands; and who, and what he's fighting for. You know what he believes. He's unabashedly, unapologetically fervent, he doesn't play games.

Most whenever you drop by the parish, he's usually there, coffee ready, with time to talk.

This, in contrast to almost every Catholic priest, and unfortunately (in my limited experience) many non- OCA/ROCOR ethnic Orthodox (Greek, Serbian, Antiochian) priests, that I know. Many of them are good men. But all too often out to lunch. Equivocal. Emotionally distant or stunted. Uninvolved. Sexually ambiguous or foofy. Not at all fervent, too often uninvolved.

Like, whaz up, faddah? Not much, at all, apparently. Alright, then. Enjoy that sinecure you've got goin' there.

** as in the Spanish "mis padres"

If I were to be so fortunate as to have him as my spiritual father, I would choose the theologian, philosophy professor, and author ( The Divine Conspiracy, Renovation of the Heart, and others) Dallas Willard. He is as kind and humble as he is brilliant. I have heard him speak at a number of conferences, and each time he has patiently and graciously greeted, and sometimes counseled every person who lined up to neet him. He is just a Godly man.

Charles Curtis, on the basis of your testimony here to the man who is pastor, and even more so to your unwitting testimony as to the man you are, if I were anywhere near Colorado Springs I would be in your parish.

Among the probably hundreds of Catholic priests I have known, one stands out. He wasn't a pastor, he was a monk. And didn't really have that much to do with lay people, but we were friends. This man had an incredible, down-to-earth integrity.

He was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a killer blood cancer. When the first rounds of chemotherapy didn't work, he was recommended to bone marrow transplant, the only possible cure (and of course a very risky therapy in itself).

He refused.

In the most reasonable tone imaginable (like, "of course this is obvious to everyone") he explained that having taken a vow of poverty as a monk, he had publicly identified himself with the poor. In the present state of American health "care," although his rich monastery could well afford this treatment, my friend explained that the fact that "half the people in Neighboring Town X could not afford this treatment" was decisive for him.

So he died, in his 50's.

I aspire to that integrity. Sometimes it seems an awfully long way off, but Romuald has lifted the light of his spirit and his (very formidable) intellect to show us the way.

Romuald Deutscher, OSB, Cam. RIP. Pray for us, Rom.