Today as never before, the credibility of priestly ministry depends on the way each priest lives rooted in a lived unity, in a pattern of life where priestly service reaches the point of common witness where the Lord himself, the one Priest, is present.
If the priest becomes a specialist, he must become so within the communio, in unity. The spirituality and the pattern of life of a priest are unity…
A priest cannot, however, reach that level of service to unity and in the cause of unity if he lives an isolated life. Only if he lives rooted in unity with his bishop and in the unity of the presbyterate can he make it clear that it is not he, but the Lord, who works or speaks.
Klaus Hemmerle
Il sacerdote oggi
Gen’s 12 (1982/6) p. 12