Gather round, children, and Uncle Boniface will tell you a story.
A few dioceses over from me is a large diocesan Catholic high school. For years a certain Boomer priest was assigned to chaplain duty here. Fr. Boomer's days were quite busy: besides saying the daily Masses and offering confessions, he spent a lot of time doing one-on-one spiritual direction appointments with the students, helping them to work through their various problems. The students made ample use of his availability, and the priest undertook the work cheerfully, believing it to be an integral part of his chaplaincy duties.
In time the priest approached retirement, and the bishop brought in a younger, newly ordained priest to replace him. As might be expected, the younger priest was much more Trad aligned than his Boomer predecessor. Before Fr. Boomer went into full retirement, there was a transitionary period where young Fr. Trad Priest would take over active chaplaincy work but under the overall supervision of Fr. Boomer. Fr. Trad Priest took over Fr. Boomer's schedule, doing the Masses, confessions, and direction sessions.
After only a month or so into the assignment, Fr. Trad Priest had cancelled 95% of the spiritual direction sessions. His schedule immediately cleared up to where he had almost nothing to do most days besides say Mass. Fr. Boomer was indignant. He confronted Fr. Trad Priest and demanded to know why the young priest had cancelled the spiritual direction sessions that were so popular. "You are a chaplain!" he fumed. "This is what you are supposed to be doing!"
After only a month or so into the assignment, Fr. Trad Priest had cancelled 95% of the spiritual direction sessions. His schedule immediately cleared up to where he had almost nothing to do most days besides say Mass. Fr. Boomer was indignant. He confronted Fr. Trad Priest and demanded to know why the young priest had cancelled the spiritual direction sessions that were so popular. "You are a chaplain!" he fumed. "This is what you are supposed to be doing!"
Fr. Trad Priest replied that the overwhelming majority of students who came to him did not want spiritual direction. They wanted therapy. They came to talk about their problems with their parents. To talk about their romantic relationships. Teenage drama with their peers. Emotional problems. Eating disorders. Social anxiety. Academic issues. Fr. Trad Priest said that maybe 5% of the students who came to him actually wanted to talk about their spiritual lives. "I am a priest, not a therapist," he replied. "I'm here to help them get to heaven. Anyone who wants advice about their spiritual life is welcome to come see me at any time, but they should be recommended to therapy for those other problems."
Fr. Trad Priest was shortly removed from the chaplaincy and exiled to administrate a three-parish cluster out in the boonies.
I think there is some nuance required in considering a situation like this.
I have worked with youth for most of my adult life, and I do believe that if you are in authority over young people, you should be of such a character that they feel comfortable asking for your input on things. I'm a history teacher by trade, but I have had kids come to me to discuss matters of abuse, eating disorders, trauma, career advice, and all manner of personal problems. Recently a group of students came and tipped me off that a boy they knew had become addicted to methamphetamines and had a stash of them hiding under his mattress. I consulted with my superiors and passed the information on to the relevant parties. Kids do that sort of thing if they perceive you as reliable and honest. Because these sorts of things will happen, it is incumbent upon persons who work in these settings to be sufficiently prudent, trustworthy, and approachable so that, when faced with such situations, they can be handled responsibly. This absolutely applies to priests.
On the other hand...
It is one thing to be professionally prepared for such occasions, and another thing altogether to adopt a "counseling" role one is utterly unsuited for. In the examples I gave above, one must always know when to simply listen and when to tell someone to go get professional help—or even report the situation to someone else. The vast majority of priests are simply not trained therapists. They may have had a smattering of training in things like basic conflict resolution, but they are not competent to provide professional counseling services and should not be treated as substitutes for a licensed therapist. This should just be common sense, so I am not going to belabor the point, but I will say this is not just a Novus Ordo problem: some of the worst cases of this occur in Trad parishes, where professional mental health counesling is eschewed but "ask Father" is the universal remedy for literally every situation. So it can happen anywhere.
Personally, I have seen very bad fruits over the years from priests being treated as professional counselors. Sometimes the priest is dragged into the role unwillingly by parishioners who want him to simply "tell them what to do" to fix their problems; sometimes the priest adopts the role willingly, thinking, in his hubris, that he is competent to solve each and every human quandary. Often these situations end poorly; some of the worst relationship advice I've ever heard has come from priests. I can personally think of two or three rocky marriages I know of that ended in divorce because of the horrible counseling the priest gave.
Personally, I have seen very bad fruits over the years from priests being treated as professional counselors. Sometimes the priest is dragged into the role unwillingly by parishioners who want him to simply "tell them what to do" to fix their problems; sometimes the priest adopts the role willingly, thinking, in his hubris, that he is competent to solve each and every human quandary. Often these situations end poorly; some of the worst relationship advice I've ever heard has come from priests. I can personally think of two or three rocky marriages I know of that ended in divorce because of the horrible counseling the priest gave.
But beyond the question of the priest's competence for specified therapeutic assessments, there is a more fundamental issue relating to the identity of the priest qua priest. In the story above, Fr. Trad Priest was entirely correct to note that the fundamental vocation of a priest is to get people to heaven through his sacramental ministry. How much more beneficial would a priest's ministry be if he mastered the skills of guiding souls to sanctity! "Though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you have not many fathers," St. Paul said (1 Cor. 4:15). Therapists, counselors, psychologists are a dime a dozen (or, I should say, $100 an hour : / )—a spiritual father in Christ who is wise in the ways of the spirit is exceedingly rare. We need priests to be spiritual fathers much more than anything else. A priest who is aware of his vocation and confident in pursuing it is a force to be reckoned with. Why would we exchange that for the vision of priest as social worker?
I think it ultimately speaks to the crisis of identity that afflicts the priesthood in particular. There is a sense that priests—not all, of course but many—simply don't know what they're supposed to be doing. Any clear and concise vision of their sacramental ministry is replaced with a vague sense that they are out there to just "do good" and they do it with the precision of a Jackson Pollock painting. I have talked to several priests privately over the years who have affirmed this, lamenting that their peers sometimes don't seem to even understand the meaning of their vocation.
The identity crisis can affect Trad parishes as well, except it goes in the other direction: all too aware of the modern dimunition of priestly authority, these priests may try to overcompensate by allowing themselves to become the authority on every aspect of human existence. In both cases the priest is overcompensating due to an underlying muddiness about what his proper role is (incidentally, there are some Trad enclaves where the very reality of mental health as a specialized discipline is rejected, which is insane, and this "ask Father" mentality tends to be worst in such places, but I digress).
If you are a priest, there is nothing wrong with simply telling someone, "I'm sorry, I don't have the expertise to advise you on this. I suggest you seek professional help."
I think it ultimately speaks to the crisis of identity that afflicts the priesthood in particular. There is a sense that priests—not all, of course but many—simply don't know what they're supposed to be doing. Any clear and concise vision of their sacramental ministry is replaced with a vague sense that they are out there to just "do good" and they do it with the precision of a Jackson Pollock painting. I have talked to several priests privately over the years who have affirmed this, lamenting that their peers sometimes don't seem to even understand the meaning of their vocation.
The identity crisis can affect Trad parishes as well, except it goes in the other direction: all too aware of the modern dimunition of priestly authority, these priests may try to overcompensate by allowing themselves to become the authority on every aspect of human existence. In both cases the priest is overcompensating due to an underlying muddiness about what his proper role is (incidentally, there are some Trad enclaves where the very reality of mental health as a specialized discipline is rejected, which is insane, and this "ask Father" mentality tends to be worst in such places, but I digress).
If you are a priest, there is nothing wrong with simply telling someone, "I'm sorry, I don't have the expertise to advise you on this. I suggest you seek professional help."
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