The Catholic Church needs good priests, now and always. Facing past scandals, and new struggles, some seek intercession and wisdom from the patron saint of parish priests, St. Jean Vianney. The French priest is said to have faced regular attacks by satan, yet his ministry thrived, during a time of great difficulty for the Catholic church in France.
St. Jean Vianney is a holy priest, and we need holy priests. If a fish stinks in the head, the rest of the fish is probably not edible either…probably not good!
– Fr. Stephen Dominic Hayes
In today’s episode we visit St. Jean Vianney’s village of Ars, France, and remember a time when his incorrupt heart toured the United States during another time of trial in the Church. There are reasons to be hopeful about the faith, but as Pope Leo said, priests need to “Always count on God’s grace and [his] closeness too and together we can truly be this voice in the world.”
Listen on: iTunes | Spotify | Audible/Amazon | Google Podcasts | Audacy | YouTube
[Editor’s note: this episode offers a new context to our episode on St. Jean Vianney’s heart visiting Ohio in 2019.]
St. Jean Vianney’s village of Ars-sur-Formans
There’s a famous story about St. Jean Vianney, maybe you’ve heard it. A French boy in the 19th century one day saw a priest pulling a wooden cart. The priest asked the boy the way to the village of Ars, north of Lyon. The landscape is picturesque French villages, farms, riverways. The boy guided this priest to the church and the priest said, “Thank you for showing me the way to Ars…now I will show you the way to Heaven.”
The priest of course was Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney, the Curé d’Ars, or parish priest of Ars.
“Even today if you come to Ars it’s a relatively small village, but prominently in it is the sanctuary of St. Jean Vianney, and inside you can see his tomb. I just happened to come across Mass as I arrived by taxi from the nearby train station. The closest station, is about 20 minutes away, so you really need to want to come and make it a pilgrimage.”
As many sanctuaries are, this is a peaceful place. My visit was in the off-season so it wasn’t very busy, but still the pews were filled for Mass and a prayer service after it. Visitors can see a confessional, which I’ve read was so dear to St. Jean Vianney, administering the Sacrament of Reconciliation to the point of physical exhaustion. That sacrament is through which sinners can ask for and receive forgiveness, and prayerfully do penance to right the wrongs. To walk through his house, to see his clothing and vestments, his hat, to walk through a garden, it all connects you to a holy priest sent when France needed it desperately.
Years ago, I learned a great deal about St. Jean Vianney from Fr. Stephen Dominic Hayes, itinerant preacher of the Dominican order, assigned to Saint Patrick Priory in Columbus, Ohio.
A man (and priest) of his time
Fr. Stephen Dominic Hayes: “He’s a wonderful example of a parish priest, and he is the patron of parish priests. He entered the seminary after the Napoleonic Wars, and this is a time of devastation of the French church and actually the church in general. One of the things that people do not appreciate about the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, is how systematically the Catholic Church was attacked during this entire period. One statistic I saw was that in a period of 20 years Europe last 90% of its religious. A nine out of 10 religious within 20 years, we’ve never experienced anything that bad and the revolutionary spirit has continued to attack the church over the centuries. This is particularly characteristic of the relationship with the church in France. It’s the secular spirit of the French Revolution. It rejects faith, it rejects the Gospel in favor of human reason, it is the Enlightenment taken, going on steroids. And I think for that reason God gave to that time a simple soul who probably if he was entering seminary at another time would have had difficulty getting through. His Latin was not good. He wasn’t a great brain for theology. What he had, however, was a loving heart, and it is this heart, you know, that visits us.”
Long before our recent episodes about the faith in France, St. Jean Vianney’s heart was why I was in Columbus, Ohio. The Knights of Columbus at the time sponsored a national tour for incorrupt heart of St. Jean, normally in Ars, but at that time traveling the US on a kind of spiritual mission of mercy. The then-head of the Knights of Columbus Carl Anderson said abuse scandals, and the lack of accountability for misdeeds represent a “a crisis of commitment to the Gospel”.
In our episode about relics, you may remember hearing about how the remains of saints, or objects they used, can act as reminders for the faithful, and are venerated…not worshiped, or prayed to.
On this occasion, we focused on the example set by St. Jean Vianney.
Fr. Stephen Dominic Hayes, cont: “The gift of wisdom corrects your loves. And if you love what God loves and follow that, then you will always be doing the will of God and you will be truly wise in a way that transcends human wisdom. And this is very much characteristic of the life and the teaching of Saint John Vianney. You know he’s, he’s very down to Earth. He’s, he speaks many times to his people of his own life before being a parish priest. Simple, simple similes about making a long journey, for instance, and how to keep up your courage while persevering on a long and difficult road. And this saint is the one who we’re sort of celebrating now as his relic comes from place to place for people to see, for people to come to and come close to. Relics are a way for us who are bodied spirits–as opposed to the pure spirits God and the holy angels–but we who are bodied spirits to relate to the unseen God.”
In June 2025, Pope Leo XIV presented a message for the Jubilee of Priests. His comments were for priests primarily, and directed at how to think about the formation of the next generation of clergy, but I think there’s wisdom for all of us as believers and missionaries. The Pope cautioned against isolation saying “How could we, as ministers, build vibrant communities if there is no real and sincere brotherhood among us?”
It’s important to remain focused on God and his commandments to us, even as there is a lot of noise about the faith diminishing. The struggle is real, no doubt, but there are signs of hope. Also in June 2025, the diocese of Arlington, Virginia in the US ordained its largest number of priests in decades, 12.
And that day in Columbus, Ohio so many years ago, with St. Jean Vianney’s heart, there were also good signs. At that time, I spoke with Evan Holguin, who was traveling with the heart as Custodian of the Relic for the Knights of Columbus.
The heart of St. Jean Vianney
Evan Holguin: “There’s obviously an extraordinary grace connected with the relic and that’s why you have so many people come to venerate it and pray before it. I am certainly very blessed to be present to that grace full time. And I think that the way it changes my contemplation, or the way it changes my prayer life as I’m traveling or even my day-to-day habits, it’s changing them because I’m recognizing at that moment the extreme holiness of the object that I’m traveling with and remembering the extreme holiness of St. Jean Vianney. And so it serves as both a mental inspiration but also that supernatural inspiration of just being physically present with such a holy object.”
Evan and I spoke a lot about this idea of having the heart of a saint in the passenger seat. For me to imagine that seemed a bit surreal. Just as surreal, in a good way, to have a church completely full on a weekday, with families and Catholics of all sorts praying and enjoying fellowship. It was a powerful example of community.
Evan Holguin: “As I watch the people who come and venerate, in particular families who come and you see parents teaching their young children what they’re supposed to do because they’ve never seen a relic before, I find that particularly beautiful and seeing the transmission of the faith from one generation to the next. And then also, I’m just always–I don’t want to say astonished, I don’t think that’s the right word–but it’s very eye-opening and humbling in a sense when you go to these events and there’s definitely in more secular media, there’s this narrative that young people aren’t interested in the faith, they aren’t interested in the church or, you know, think that it’s archaic and you watch as these lines are filled with young people, young seminarians, college students, young fathers, young mothers. I think it’s very exciting and and inspiring. Knowing that it’s not strange to be young and to be devoted to Catholicism and to really be interested in some of these beautiful traditions and blessings and practices that we have.”
Historically, we live in an incredibly wealthy age.
Even as poverty and inequality persist, the internet and GenAI have brought new avenues of knowledge sharing, communication and creation. But it s also brought new temptations. Pope Leo has spoken of this, too, especially for young people saying society’s well-being depends upon their being given the ability to develop their God-given gifts and capabilities, and not allow them to confuse mere access to data with intelligence. An awakening to this, and a desire for more authenticity, has led to more interest in the priesthood in places like Ireland.
Remain humble in our brokenness
Catholics need to keep God at the center of our lives, remaining humble in our brokenness. Fr. Stephen talked about this, too.
Fr. Stephen Dominic Hayes: “Humility is not thinking that you’re the worst than everybody. Humility is being willing to do the God will of God when you see it. Pride is the opposite. Pride is in doing my will. Even if I think my will is God’s holy will. And that way lies a corruption of heart that is inconsistent with any kind of holiness. I do think this is a problem in in the church now, we and and the society generally, we have a society that lives by of the pride that wants what it wants on its own terms and by heaven will have it. And of course, all of us who are born into this society come into the life of holy church with that kind of baggage. And I think this explains a number of the current crises in the church and in society. But this heart is the heart of a man who was not corrupt, of a priest who was not corrupt, of a priest who did the will of God as it was revealed to a moment by moment. And thus found a path between heaven and earth, between the Egypt of this world, the Tower of Babel if you want, and the new Jerusalem above where the saints live with Christ who is king of all and universal priest. So I think that he he blazes a road for us and shows in a very practical way fairly close to our own times of how this is lived out, moment by moment, day by day, in the presence of the heart of Christ.”
“I spent the better part of this morning and a bit of this afternoon in Ars, and I leave it feeling much as I did at another site, Pontmain, it was a Marian apparition site, known to pilgrims, known to tour groups, but also isn’t on a main track. There isn’t a main track, there isn’t a direct train connection. As I said before, you really need to want to come here and make it a pilgrimage to enjoy it. I’m glad I did. There were peaceful moments here, especially in the garden of le Curé, the garden of St. Jean Vianney. So it was worth the trip, I m glad I did it, and if you ever get the chance, I hope you will, too.”
Fr. Stephen Dominic Hayes: “Saint John Vianney is a holy priest. And we certainly need holy priests. If a fish stinks in the head, the rest of the fish is probably not edible either. Probably not good. And so, you know, I think for holiness sake, you know, we need to pray for our priests, that we continue, that we remain loyal, that we above all, we seek this holiness that is about a heart and mind and spirit that is dedicated to the purposes of God. You know the priest you know especially is called from the world and the world’s purposes to God’s purposes and his life and he he lays the body and blood of Christ before the people. He hears their confessions. He preaches baptism and calls them people again and again to understand what it is to be summoned by God to his purposes, to his life, to be enfolded by the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, even in this life and to find ourselves with the destiny of being drawn up into the nets of God, into the light that never ends, even in this life, through this life of holiness that we have been given in God’s holy Catholic Church. So I would say, yeah, pray for your priests because the the integrity of the holy, of the Apostolic Ministry is crucial to to life for the church. Although Christ is bigger, I mean it’s not the first time we’ve had difficult priests. As I recall, there was one priest in the original company who liked money more than he did Jesus. When push came to shove, you know. But but even he has a place in the story. So I would say that for Saint John Vianney, this is what we want: the patron of parish priests to pray for us as he stands before the throne of God as we stand before his heart that beat with love for the people he served, for his parishioners. And that priests see that conversion of their people is not so much first of all a matter of intelligence, or cleverness, or heaven help us one more program, but it is about a priest who prays, a priest who fasts and prays and is on his knees for his people and by the love he shows them opens their heart to hear what he has to say from Christ.”
Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Faith Full, if you’ve made it this far please share and subscribe. And if you can t get to Ars, maybe check out the virtual tour on the Sanctuary of Ars’s website.
And also please remember: have a great day.