On Priestly and Religious Vocation

To nn. 246, 255, 256. "Monsignor,

By reason of the dissensions which have arisen on the occasion of the twofold work of Canon Joseph Lahitton on The Priestly Vocation, and of the importance of the doctrinal question raised there, Our Most Holy Father Pope Pius X has deigned to appoint a special Commission of Eminent Cardinals.

This Commission, after maturely examining the arguments in favor of one and the other thesis, pronounced, in its plenary meeting of last June 20, the following judgment:

"The work of the distinguished man, Canon Joseph Lahitton, whose title is La Vocation Sacerdotale, is in no way to be reproved; indeed, insofar as it maintains: 1. that no one ever has any right to ordination antecedently to the free election of the Bishop; 2. that the condition which, on the part of the one to be ordained, must be attended to, and which is called priestly vocation, by no means consists, at least necessarily and by ordinary law, in some internal aspiration of the subject or invitations of the Holy Spirit to entering the priesthood; 3. but on the contrary, that nothing more is required in the one to be ordained, so that he may be rightly called by the Bishop, than a right intention together with suitability, placed in those gifts of grace and nature, and approved through that probity of life and sufficiency of doctrine, which make a founded hope that he will rightly undertake the duties of the priesthood and be able to observe its obligations holily: it is to be praised exceedingly."

His Holiness Pius X, in the audience of June 26, fully approved the decision of the Most Eminent Fathers, and he charges me to give notice of it to Your Excellency, who will kindly communicate it to the one concerned, Canon Joseph Lahitton, and have it inserted in full in the Semaine Religieuse of the Diocese..." Rome, July 2, 1912. R. Cardinal Merry del Val.

For rightly embracing the religious state, besides the general invitation made to all, a special divine vocation is required. This same divine vocation also is necessary for embracing the priestly state. Matthew 19:11.

Now this divine vocation is had by supernatural internal illuminations of the intellect and inspirations of the will, by which someone judges such a state to be suitable, useful, or even in some way necessary for himself in order to attain holiness of life and eternal salvation, and conceives and constantly fosters the desire of embracing this state. St. Thomas, II-II, q. 189, a. 10, ad 1.

And this will, since it is a will of the end, is that right and efficacious intention which is altogether necessary for actually embracing the priestly and religious state.

But the aforesaid judgment of the intellect and rational aspiration of the will, proceeding from special divine providence, can be had in various ways. St. Ignatius of Loyola, Spiritual Exercises, on Election. Moreover this divine vocation is shown by various signs. For it is together with aptitude, both internal and external, for the aforesaid state.

But it must be recognized by legitimate Superiors through positive proof, and must be held ratified for its effect, after an examination duly made beforehand concerning the divine vocation itself. And this legitimate admission or election fully and adequately constitutes the divine vocation. Roman Catechism, on Orders, n. 3.

Wherefore, according to the common opinion of St. Alphonsus, a cleric who up to this point has been in shameful sin, whether relapsing or customary, although he has sincere sorrow for his sins and the purpose of not sinning thereafter, and can be absolved, nevertheless cannot be admitted to sacred orders unless beforehand, from other indications, he gives morally certain hope of himself, that he will live constantly in holy chastity. St. Alphonsus, book 6, n. 64 ff.

1. The question concerning divine vocation to the ecclesiastical state has been debated, and various opinions of authors are found. There are those who place it in legitimate admission to sacred orders made by ecclesiastical superiors. There are those who place it in an inclination and a certain attraction which someone experiences in himself toward the priesthood. Others are content with the simple will of ascending to the priesthood or of embracing the religious state, together with the will then of carrying out the obligations of the same state. Others place it in aptitude for the ecclesiastical state. Others establish it in the various ways by which the will and purpose of embracing the ecclesiastical state is had. Finally, others deny that any divine vocation is necessary, since it is free to all to embrace any state whatever.

2. What is to be thought of these various opinions is shown sufficiently and more than sufficiently by the Decision of the Most Eminent Fathers and by the proposed thesis, which looks at divine vocation taken adequately and completely, and which we shall soon try to declare and demonstrate. Let it only be permitted to note beforehand that, in our very humble opinion, a special vocation of God to the state of the counsels, such as the religious state is and also the priestly state, can in no way be denied. And this is established from the very Decision of the Most Eminent Fathers related at the beginning, and from the declaration and demonstration of the proposed thesis, which was publicly defended in the Academy of Moral Theology held in the Pontifical Gregorian University on May 24, 1912, with His Eminence Cardinal Casimiro Gennari presiding, who publicly approved and praised it in most ample words. And that thesis in reality is nothing but a certain explanation and declaration of that Decision, although it preceded it in time.

3. Certainly in the aforesaid Decision of the Most Eminent Fathers it is asserted that, antecedently to the free election of the Bishop, as regards priestly ordination a right intention is required together with suitability for the aforesaid state. But this right intention, or will of embracing the ecclesiastical or religious state, together with suitability for it, is precisely that which constitutes divine vocation, since that intention and will is from God.

Hence Pius X, in the Catechism published at Rome by his command in the year 1913, n. 404, to this question: "Would one who entered the Priesthood without vocation do wrong?" gives this answer, which, like the question, altogether supposes a prior vocation to the Priesthood: "One who entered the Priesthood without vocation would do very great wrong, because etc." And in the same Catechism, n. 405, to this other question: "What duties do the faithful have toward those called to Orders?" this answer is added: "The faithful have the duty of leaving to their children and dependents full liberty to follow the vocation, etc." Therefore, in order that someone rightly enter the Priesthood, he must have a prior vocation to it, namely a DIVINE VOCATION. And this as regards the priestly state.

4. As regards the religious state, in the Norms of the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars, approved in General Congregation on June 28, 1901, and which constitute the law in force in the Church for Institutes of simple vows, article 56 asserts that divine vocation is altogether required, and in the first place, for admitting someone into the Institute: "The conditions required in those to be received are: first of all, A TRUE VOCATION PROCEEDING FROM A SUPERNATURAL END." Behold that RIGHT INTENTION, or DIVINE VOCATION.

5. Other things being omitted, the stated assertion is confirmed from innumerable documents, especially of the Supreme Pontiff Pius X, and from the Constitutions continually approved by the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars and now by the Congregation on Religious. Pius X, Constitution Susceptum inde, March 25, 1914, says: "The perpetual care of the Church, that unworthy or not sufficiently suitable ministers be kept away from the Priesthood; the constant solicitude of the same, that those who have been approved AND CALLED BY GOD may be prepared for it in such a way that, etc."

"Let the Bishops promote..., as the Tridentine prescribes, according to the necessity of the dioceses; and in promoting in this way they will be able to choose only those who are truly suitable, sending away those who would show inclinations contrary to the priestly vocation, chief among them lack of discipline, and that which generates it, pride of mind." Pius X, Encyclical Letter Pieni l'animo, July 28, 1906.

And the same Supreme Pontiff Pius X wrote to the Master General of the Order of Preachers on August 4, 1913: "Let the Prelates of the Order take complete care that they do not hastily, nor in groups, admit young men concerning whom it is uncertain whether by divine breath they choose that most holy manner of life." Is this not a divine vocation prerequired for rightly embracing the priestly and ecclesiastical state? Cf. the first Supplement to the 4th and 5th ed. of the Institutiones Theologiae Moralis, and 4th ed. of the Enchiridion Morale, 3rd ed., p. 62 ff.

Likewise Pius X, writing to the same Father General of the Dominicans on May 7, 1907, expressed himself thus: "The Chapter Fathers will understand how important is the enlightened choice of young novices, and their gradual formation. If it is true that Vocation comes from God, it is no less true that God deigns to make use of second causes to effect the designs of His eternal wisdom."

Likewise by a chirograph dated June 1, 1914, concerning the Canossian Virgins to be educated for their sacred missions, the Supreme Pontiff Pius X established that "a certain house be established for educating and forming, for so great a task and burden, those Canossian virgins who, God calling, shall have willed to undertake it." Acta Apostolicae Sedis, vol. 6, p. 341.

And by an autograph of January 28, 1912, to the students of the Seminary of Reggio, in Emilia, Pius X prays God that "they may show most certain proofs of the divine vocation to the priestly state... through piety, discipline, and study."

6. Benedict XIV, de Synodo, book 11, chap. 2, n. 12, likewise prescribes that clerics who cannot be received in the Seminary be taught "with what gifts and virtues those who desire worthily to approach the ministry of the sanctuary ought to be furnished; what are the true indications of an ecclesiastical vocation; what manner of life, etc." And n. 16: "nor let any be admitted into the clergy except those who are recognized as both deserving and endowed with the required qualities, and, so far as it is permitted to man to judge concerning interior things, called by divine vocation to ecclesiastical ministries."

7. The spiritual director in Seminaries will give suitable admonitions to the students, especially as regards priestly vocation. Confessors of Seminaries must impose the obligation of withdrawing from the ecclesiastical state on those who would show that they are not called to it. And to the higher courses none are to be admitted except those young men who have given signs of vocation to the ecclesiastical state. Articles 54, 56, 86 of the Norms for the educational and disciplinary ordering of Seminaries in Italy, Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars, January 18, 1908, which the Supreme Pontiff Pius X ordered to be observed and put into execution by all whom it concerns.

It is decreed that one is to be kept from sacred orders "who does not present certain signs of vocation, or does not seem furnished with the qualities required for the ecclesiastical state." Sacred Consistorial Congregation, Decree Vetuit S. Tridentina Synodus, December 22, 1905.

The Sacred Congregation on Religious, Decree of January 1, 1911, established several things as regards lay brothers for promoting in them with more earnest care the holy purpose of vocation. Acta Apostolicae Sedis, vol. 3, p. 30. And it also established several things for Religious bound to military service, lest they lose the gift of holy vocation. Acta Apostolicae Sedis, vol. 3, p. 37. And again, in the Decree of September 7, 1909, concerning certain persons not to be admitted into Religious Families, it begins thus: "Although the Church of Christ is affected with spiritual joy when the faithful, by mature deliberation and right intention, embrace the state of perfection in Religious Families, nevertheless solicitous of quality rather than number, she has so regulated entrance into the Novitiate and profession of vows, that she decreed that only those be admitted to observe the evangelical counsels in religious houses who would give proofs of divine vocation." Acta Apostolicae Sedis, vol. 1, p. 709.

And coherently with the Norms, in article 8 of the Constitutions of the Sisters Reparatrixes of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, which very recently were definitively approved by the Sacred Congregation on Religious, as in others, it is established: "No persons shall be admitted into the Institute of the Sisters Reparatrixes unless they have a true supernatural vocation."

Nor is the following Decree of the Holy Office to be passed over in silence, which openly presupposes and affirms a prior divine vocation to the ecclesiastical state.

"DECREE. Sodalities established for promoting and assisting ecclesiastical vocations are enriched with spiritual graces. Certainly most provident God is present to His holy Church, that He may send laborers into the harvest at the opportune time; but He does not disdain that His faithful very often undertake to be cooperators in a mission of this kind. He is indeed the author of the most pious counsel by which many Sodalities have arisen throughout the world for fostering, protecting, and assisting ecclesiastical vocations... All and each of the sodalities whose principal and immediate end is to promote ecclesiastical vocations and to help them by suitable means..." Holy Office, May 28, 1913; Acta Apostolicae Sedis, vol. 5, p. 236 ff.

8. The Most Reverend Bishop John Régine, Bishop of the Diocese of Newcastle, in his Pastoral Letter for the Lent of the present year 1915, p. 7, says that bad priests are present in the clergy because "some, NOT CALLED, entered the sanctuary by the window as a thief and robber."

And the Most Reverend Bishop of Arezzo, John Volpi, in his Pastoral Letter of the year 1914, distinguishing between internal and external vocation, says that this latter is the authentic and official vocation, but that for it an internal divine vocation is altogether presupposed, either from divine revelation, or from some extraordinary motion of the Holy Spirit, or from one's own free supernatural election, namely made in the spirit of faith and with the help of ordinary grace; and this purpose indeed must often be renewed, so that finally in effect it may really attain the end. "It is enough that the vocation arise from an intention, which is the fruit of a deliberation and of an election proceeding from our free will, which never excludes grace, of course, but instead always supposes it." Pp. 8, 18, 19, 28, 30.

And the same Most Reverend Bishop of Arezzo, loc. cit., p. 15, says: An efficacious means for having good priests is to ordain only truly good priests, because these "will work with great zeal in rightly cultivating the souls of young boys, and by such a means they will cause the seed, that is, the natural and supernatural predispositions, of the divine vocation to unfold in a good number of them... in contrast with a priest who is not good, who... because he has never experienced in himself so sublime a vocation, or has not corresponded to it, is unfit to discern it, to nourish it, to develop it in others."

Moreover the praised Bishop of Arezzo excellently insists in his Pastoral Letter on this preparation of young men of good disposition for the priesthood. But how finally will young men be able to arrive at the priesthood without any aspiration to it?

And this aspiration, if it is truly had in them, certainly is not without grace, which is in the supernatural illumination of the intellect and inspiration of the will by the Holy Spirit. "It is God who works in us both to will and to accomplish, according to good will." Philippians 2:13.

See also Monitore Ecclesiastico, vol. 25, p. 125 ff., May 31, 1913; vol. 25, p. 221 ff., July 31, 1913.

9. Now the general vocation of all to the state of perfection, and consequently to the religious and priestly state, is established from the very words of Christ, inviting all to follow Him perfectly, by the observance proposed to all not only of the precepts, but also of the evangelical counsels. To all Our Lord Jesus Christ even now says what He said to that young man who from his youth had kept all the commandments: "If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell what thou hast, and give to the poor,... and come, follow me" (Matthew 19:21). The Apostle also repeats to all the invitation of Jesus Christ: "Concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord, but I give counsel.... She shall be more blessed if she so remain, according to my counsel" (1 Corinthians 7:25, 40).

10. But another special divine vocation is required for embracing the aforesaid state, as is asserted in the first part of the proposed thesis. For, as Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself said to the Pharisees: "Not all take this word, but they to whom it is given" (Matthew 19:11). Not all take it is not said only of intellectual cognition, by which someone judges celibacy to be superior to matrimony, but is said of such an intellectual cognition by which he approves that virginity to be preserved, and by which consequently the will is efficaciously impelled to embrace it.

Therefore, after Christ said, "Not all take this word," He immediately adds: "but they to whom it is given." Therefore a special benefit of God is required, a special gift of God, "but they to whom it is given"; and this gift is a special divine vocation.

11. After the Apostle in 1 Corinthians (7:1 ff.) had affirmed matrimony to be good and virginity to be preserved as better, he immediately thereafter says: "Except to each one as the Lord hath divided, each one as God hath called him, so let him walk." And again: "Let every one remain in the vocation in which he was called." And a third time: "In what state every one was called, brethren, in this let him remain with God."

According to the Apostle, not all are called to matrimony, nor all to preserving virginity. Nor likewise are all called to the religious state, to the priesthood, and to the apostolate. Therefore if virginity is far more excellent than matrimony, if the religious state excels the secular state, if the priestly state far excels the lay state, then for this and for that there is a special vocation from God, a special grace. If according to the same Apostle "every one hath his proper gift from God, one indeed after this manner, and another after that" (ibid., v. 7), one, as the same Apostle says, "bound to a wife," another "loosed from a wife" (v. 27), one woman "joined in matrimony" (v. 10), another "unmarried and a virgin" (v. 24), is it not a special gift of God that someone fortunately embraces virginity, and more fortunately the priestly and religious state, "having obtained mercy from God, that he may be faithful" (1 Corinthians 7:25), which God in His wisdom grants to some and does not grant to others?

12. "Divine vocation," says St. Alphonsus, "is especially necessary for assuming the ecclesiastical state.... However learned, prudent, and holy someone may be, he cannot of himself enter the sanctuary unless first he is called to it by God and is introduced into it by God" (in the work Selva di materie predicabili, chap. 10 of the first part). This divine vocation is interior, as is evident of itself.

13. Now who are those to whom this has been given from heaven, or in what does this divine interior vocation consist? The other part of our thesis responds to this second question. This divine interior vocation consists in supernatural internal illuminations of the intellect and inspirations of the will, by which someone judges such a state to be suitable, useful, or even in some way necessary for himself in order to attain holiness of life and eternal salvation, and conceives and constantly fosters the desire of embracing this state; and thus he takes that word, with docile intellect and efficacious will, which not all take. For we are treating of a full and perfect divine vocation, which is brought through to its effect.

14. After Christ uttered these words: "Not all take this word, but they to whom it is given," He Himself at once explains to whom it has been given, and how. For He says: "There are eunuchs who were so born from their mother's womb," namely from a defect of nature, and consequently from natural necessity; and therefore that supernatural gift is not to be sought in these. But Christ proceeds, saying: "And there are eunuchs who were made by men," that is, by the violence of others, the malice of others. Therefore neither are these those to whom the heavenly gift of virginity and chastity has been bestowed from above.

And finally Christ added: "And there are eunuchs who have castrated themselves for the kingdom of heaven." To understand this literally would indeed be absurd, just as it would be altogether absurd to understand literally those other words: pluck out thy right eye and cast it from thee... cut off thy right hand and cast it from thee (Matthew 5:29-30), cut off thy foot and cast it from thee (Matthew 18:8). For Christ says: "and there are eunuchs who have castrated themselves for the kingdom of heaven." Physical impotence contributes nothing at all to acquiring the kingdom of heaven for oneself and to preaching the kingdom of heaven to others.

Therefore the eunuchs who have castrated themselves are those who, by judgment of the intellect and by firm or constant purpose of the will, contain themselves, so that they may be free from the care and solicitude of a family and may be able to expend themselves wholly in divine service. For that phrase "for the kingdom of heaven" signifies this: that someone may please God more readily, more surely, and more fully. St. Paul expressly declared this: "He that is without a wife is solicitous for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please God. But he that is with a wife is solicitous for the things of the world, how he may please his wife, and he is divided; and the unmarried woman and the virgin thinks on the things of the Lord, that she may be holy in body and in spirit; but she that is married thinks on the things of the world, how she may please her husband" (1 Corinthians 7:32 ff.).

15. That Christ designates a perpetual state for the whole course of life, and not a passing one for some brief time, the words themselves show clearly: those "who have castrated themselves." For by these words are designated those who are perpetually impotent, and who perpetually by their own will have rendered themselves impotent for marriage. And these are those who, by judgment of reason and by firm purpose of the will with the grace of God, are withdrawn in perpetuity from all marriage. And this is not fully fulfilled except by those who, by the solemn vow of sacred orders or of religious profession, render marriage illicit and invalid for themselves.

Certainly, in order that someone attain this holily in fact, it is altogether necessary that in his mind he consider the excellence and superiority of that state, its suitability, utility, and necessity, for the kingdom of heaven, for acquiring its goods, and that he conceive a constant, firm, efficacious desire for that virginal, religious, priestly state. And these indeed are supernatural illuminations of the intellect, supernatural inspirations of the will, and both the former and the latter are supernatural gifts of God, "to whom it is given."

And this indeed is that right intention required by the Decision of the Most Eminent Fathers, which right intention indeed is certainly a supernatural intention or supernatural will; for intention is an act of the will, before which there precedes a prior cognition of the intellect. Therefore that right intention is contained precisely in the aforesaid illuminations of the intellect and inspirations of the will. But in order that someone truly embrace the ecclesiastical state, it is necessary not only that he conceive that right intention, but also that he foster it constantly. Without this constancy, that right intention will be without effect. And this constant right intention appears still more clearly if it is considered that embracing the priestly and religious state does not happen in an instant, but lasts from first tonsure to priestly ordination, from postulancy to profession.

16. The Angelic Doctor, although he does not use the term divine vocation to sacred orders, nevertheless implicitly requires it, by requiring for them, besides knowledge, a holiness that is not common. Knowledge is required, says St. Thomas, "because one receiving order is set over the people to repel ignorance." Excellent holiness is required because, he says, "just as those who receive order are constituted above the people by the grade of order, so also they should be superior in the merit of holiness."

But explicitly, as regards the state of perfection, St. Thomas affirms divine vocation, and indeed as it is proposed in our thesis, namely by affirming divine inspiration, without raising any doubt concerning it; and he uses a still more significant word, namely divine motion. "It must be said," he says, "that when it is said, 'Prove the spirits, whether they are of God,' this has place in those things which are doubtful, whether they are OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD; just as there can be doubt in those who already are in religion whether he who offers himself to religion IS LED BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD, or feignedly. And therefore those who approach must be proved, whether THEY ARE MOVED BY THE DIVINE SPIRIT. But for him who approaches religion there can be no doubt whether the purpose concerning entrance into religion, having arisen in his heart, IS FROM THE SPIRIT OF GOD, whose office it is to lead man into the right land" (II-II, q. 189, a. 10, ad 1).

17. Now Our Lord Jesus Christ established in His Church a state of counsels and perfection, or the religious state; likewise He established in His Church a state of counsels and apostolic zeal, or the priestly state, by which priests themselves would more easily and abundantly attain the kingdom of heaven, and would promote the kingdom of heaven among others, by announcing the Gospel among the nations and serving their spiritual good. To this religious and priestly state the same Christ does not oblige all, but only invites and exhorts all, setting before all the excellence and superiority of the religious and priestly state.

Yet most certainly God moves not all, but many, by internal illuminations of the intellect and inspirations of the will, so that they in fact embrace the aforesaid state. And from this also it is that God by His divine providence so distributes His natural and supernatural gifts that those whom He calls to the religious and priestly state are furnished with those gifts which are necessary for this kind of life.

Wherefore in Monitore Ecclesiastico, vol. 24, it is very aptly observed: "Those whom the Lord calls to a state of such holiness, He so disposes and prepares with natural and supernatural graces that they may be found suitable for it. Those whom God chooses for some office He so prepares and disposes that they may be found suitable for it. St. Thomas.

"Nor does He only make them suitable, but He renders their vocation sufficiently knowable, chiefly from that same suitability, Guerra, etc.," namely especially by probity of life and sufficient doctrine. "These two things are altogether required for clerics to be promoted: innocence of life joined with soundness of doctrine." Pius X, Motu Proprio Sacrorum Antistitum, September 1, 1910, par. VII. Cf. also Monitore Ecclesiastico, vol. 24, p. 318 ff.

And this divine motion and divine providence is divine vocation to the religious state, to the ecclesiastical state; it is certainly an internal divine vocation, according to the word of the Apostle.

18. And divine vocation, the voice of God calling, is so called by the Sacred Consistorial Congregation itself.

In the Circular Letters of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation dated July 16, 1912, that is, shortly after the praised Decision of the Most Eminent Fathers, concerning the Seminaries of Italy, to the Most Reverend Ordinaries, first the defect is noted in Seminaries of students who aspire to the ecclesiastical state, and then, as regards our matter, the following is had:

"Since by the divine promises it is certain that the Levitical stock will never dry up in Israel, and that divine assistance and vocations to the ecclesiastical state will not be lacking in the Church, even to the consummation of the age, nor will there ever be lacking generous souls who respond to the voice of the Lord even when He calls them to privations and sacrifice: there is no need to lose heart over the present difficulty from which the dioceses suffer. But rather it is fitting to think of the remedy.... Let them seek... young boys of good disposition... inclined toward the things of the Church,... let them cultivate them in piety... so that, if the voice of God should call them, they may be fit and prepared to respond to it and to enter the Seminaries at the proper time."

And afterwards, according to the same Sacred Congregation, due precautions are to be used in admitting them to the Seminary. "Let at least this be required... that they manifest an initial inclination toward the ecclesiastical state.... The mixing of students not called and others called to the ecclesiastical state always proves fatal to the latter, and... causes the loss of many vocations.... As regards the schools, care will be taken that they be internal and for seminarians alone or for aspirants to the ecclesiastical state.... They must have a character and direction proper to themselves, such as is required for aspirants to the Priesthood.... All the students of the gymnasium must compete for the State license.... Exceptions in this regard must be only in very rare cases of advanced age, distinguished piety, and certainty of vocation."

Behold, therefore, divine vocation prerequired not only for admission to the Priesthood, but for admission itself into Seminaries. This divine vocation indeed, according to the same Sacred Consistorial Congregation, is a special divine grace, which is manifested by the aforesaid inclination toward holy things and aspiration to the ecclesiastical state, and therefore is not without some aspiration of the subject or invitations of the Holy Spirit to entering the Priesthood.

And here it must immediately be noted that the aforesaid inclination, which is manifested either from the first years of life or later and is fostered for a longer time, absolutely speaking is not altogether necessary for having a divine vocation, as is asserted in the Letter of the special Commission of Cardinals, and as will soon be clear from the various ways by which divine vocation can be had.

But it is one thing that priestly vocation does not require this inclination, from a certain internal almost continuous aspiration of the subject, or from almost continuous invitations of the Holy Spirit, at least necessarily and by ordinary law, as is had in the Declaration of the Most Eminent Fathers cited at the beginning; and it is another thing that, if the aforesaid inclination is had, by an almost continuous internal aspiration of the subject, or by almost continuous invitations of the Holy Spirit to entering the priesthood or the religious state, this is not a divine vocation. Certainly, by the very fact that it is asserted in the Decision of the Cardinalitial Commission that priestly vocation does not consist in it, at least necessarily and by ordinary law, it is implicitly affirmed that nevertheless it is a true priestly vocation, although not necessarily and extraordinarily.

And here, before we declare the aforesaid various modes of divine vocation, certain other very grave words of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation are to be noted, to whose letter the thesis established beforehand altogether corresponds. "The liceal State license," it says, "will not be obligatory for all, but indeed... for those OF WHOSE VOCATION the Ordinaries were not entirely certain." And this certainty certainly is not had as regards those who show themselves inclined to worldly things; on the contrary, it is had as regards those who show themselves inclined to sacred things, to piety, to the worship of God, which St. Jerome very beautifully describes in his Nepotian, still a cleric: "He was solicitous whether the altar was shining, whether the walls were without soot, whether the floors were clean, whether the porter was frequently at the door, whether the veils were always at the entrances, whether the sacristy was clean, whether the vessels were bright, and whether pious solicitude was disposed for all ceremonies; he neglected neither the lesser nor the greater duty." If in the Seminary all the students showed this same most pious inclination, would it not render the Bishop secure concerning their divine vocation?

19. Nevertheless God does not move and call all in the same way, as the doctors and teachers of the spiritual life teach. According to the commonly received doctrine handed down by St. Ignatius of Loyola in his Spiritual Exercises (Second Week, on Election), divine power so impels the will of some that all doubt, indeed even the faculty of doubting, has been taken away from the soul so that it does not fail to follow such an impulse, as we read happened to Blessed Paul and Matthew, and to certain others, when Christ called them.

Others God moves and attracts not with so great evidence and certainty, but He allures them by frequent, and often almost continuous, experience of interior consolation or desolation, by which the divine good pleasure concerning the election of this state becomes sufficiently clear and known.

Finally, God so most sweetly moves others that, as though left to their natural faculties, they themselves begin to seek and await the will of God, until the Creator Himself and Our Lord communicates Himself to the soul devoted to Him (Annotation 15). Considering first the end, for what man was born, namely to praise God Our Lord and to save his soul, and desiring this, someone thinks and feels that this more excellent state of life is more useful and necessary for himself, so that by it he may be helped in the service of his Lord and in the salvation of his soul.

The first motion is extraordinary; the second is more ordinary, from a certain supernatural inclination; the third, simply ordinary, is from a prior consideration of the end and of the means to it, yet it is always a supernatural motion. For man cannot conceive heavenly desires by the powers of nature without grace.

Wherefore, since grace is situated in the supernatural illumination of the intellect and inspiration of the will, that third motion also is had, as is said in the proposed thesis, in supernatural illuminations of the intellect and inspirations of the will, by which someone judges such a state to be suitable, useful, and necessary for himself for obtaining holiness of life and the eternal salvation of his soul, and determines himself by a constant and efficacious will to desiring and embracing that same state. But this varied manner of having divine vocation is certainly not the vocation itself. Rather, interior divine vocation is in that supernatural will itself, in whatever way at last it is conceived.

20. This supernatural vocation does not exclude natural repugnance, which someone could easily experience. But then, with the grace of God assisting, the will is strengthened to do violence to nature. Likewise the same supernatural vocation does not exclude some natural affection; for grace, accommodating itself to human weakness, not rarely also uses the occasion of some natural advantage which could be had from such a state.

And if the end is not primary, but altogether secondary, subordinated to that end of supernatural good, of greater security of one's own salvation, of promoting divine glory, and of procuring the salvation of souls, then indeed the supernatural determination to embrace the religious and ecclesiastical state is not impeded by this, nor that right intention which must be had in it. Finally, that supernatural vocation which is had from consideration of the end and of the means can well first have its origin from exterior grace, from the counsel of others, from Spiritual Exercises made, from the reading of the lives of the Saints. "For God by His common Providence directs each one through parents, companions, confessors, teachers, and other occasions and second causes, by which it happens that this one devotes himself to matrimony, that one to the priesthood, but freely." Cornelius a Lapide, Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:7.

21. This supernatural will, if it is truly from God and is efficacious, is together with internal and external aptitude for the aforesaid religious and ecclesiastical state. This internal and external aptitude, which is affirmed in the third part of the thesis, consists in those gifts of body and soul, of health and talent, by which someone is fit for fulfilling the obligations and for exercising the offices proper to the aforesaid state.

And among gifts of this kind there is especially numbered that honesty of morals by which someone gives good hope of himself, whether as regards his own sanctification, or as regards the good edification of his neighbor. By this aptitude are also removed all impediments which arise from extrinsic circumstances, as, for example, if someone were held by the obligation of supporting his own parents and of taking care of his own family.

The Letter of the Special Commission of Cardinals very knowingly joins this aptitude with the aforesaid right intention. In this aptitude, divine vocation is present only materially. And from it a sign of true vocation is had; as also from that right intention of seeking not the things which are one's own, but the things which are Jesus Christ's, another sign of true divine vocation is had. Let St. Alphonsus be heard: "For receiving orders divine vocation is required.... But the principal signs are: suitable knowledge,... probity of life... right intention, namely the desire of devoting oneself to divine glory and the salvation of souls." L., book 6, n. 802.

22. These things St. Doctor says in the Moral Work. And in another work, Homo Apostolicus, St. Alphonsus likewise altogether distinguishes divine vocation from its signs and indications.

"Concerning the state," he says, Homo Apostolicus, last tract, point 4, nn. 39-40, "to be chosen by some young man, let the Confessor not dare to determine it for him, but only from indications let him take care to persuade him of that state to which he can prudently judge him to be called by God. Especially speaking of those who wish to enter Religion.... Let the Confessor well test the vocation of his penitent, inquiring whether he has any impediment to it from inability, infirm health, poverty of parents?... If the end were worldly... that is not a true vocation.... But if the end is good, and an impediment is absent, the Confessor, nor another, neither ought nor can, without grave fault, impede or dissuade him from the vocation.

"If some young man wished to assume the state of a secular priest, let the Confessor not be easy in agreeing, without long and proved experience of a right end, and of knowledge, or of sufficient capacity. Secular priests indeed have the same, indeed a greater obligation than Religious; and on the other hand they remain in the same dangers of the world. Hence, in order that someone become a good priest in the world, it is necessary that beforehand he have led a very exemplary life, remote from games, from idleness, from wicked companions, and given to prayer and the frequenting of the sacraments."

23. Now in order that someone in fact embrace the religious and ecclesiastical state, it does not suffice that he have a divine vocation to it. Since each of those states is a state in the Church, and a state of no ordinary holiness, it is necessary that his vocation be recognized and approved by legitimate Superiors in the Church, and then that he be legitimately admitted and received by them into that state.

24. As regards the religious state, the matter is most clearly evident from the previous required information, probations, and examinations which have been established in the Rules of all Religious and in the Norms of the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars, and now of the Congregation on Religious, and also in the Apostolic Constitutions, especially of Pius IX, which are well known to all. Nor is this matter new in the Church, since it flows from the very nature of the thing.

25. In the Rules treated more fully for Cenobites among the works of St. Basil, Migne, vol. 31, cols. 943, 946, Question X, it is said in the Response: "Since the benign God, and the same Our Savior Jesus Christ, proclaims and says: Come to me all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you, it is dangerous to repel those who, by our work, approach the Lord and wish to undergo His sweet yoke and the burden of the precepts, by which we are lifted up to heaven.

"Nevertheless it must not be permitted that anyone come with unwashed feet to the holy teachings; but just as Our Lord Jesus Christ questioned the young man who had approached Him concerning his past life, and when He had learned that it had been rightly lived, commanded him besides to obtain what was lacking for perfection, and then gave him the opportunity of following Him: so certainly also by us the past life of those approaching is to be weighed, and to those who have done anything rightly, more perfect teachings are to be handed down. But those who are converted either from a wicked life, or from an indifferent state pass over to the perfect life situated in the knowledge of God, these it is fitting to scrutinize, namely with what morals they are endowed, whether unstable, whether prone to making judgments....

"For these, besides the fact that they themselves receive no advantage, also become authors of detriment to the rest.... While they are still outside, let us send them away, lest the experiment bring some harm and destruction to the brethren.... But after each one has been declared, by every test being applied, as some vessel useful to the Lord and prepared for every good work by those who can skillfully scrutinize such things, then at last let him be numbered among those who have dedicated themselves to the Lord."

26. And as regards sacred orders, the discipline in force in the Church is that each one be ordained by his own Ordinary, who cannot do this unless, after previous testimony of approved persons, there is certainty concerning the sufficiency of knowledge, the honesty of morals of the one to be ordained, and also the absence of any canonical impediment, and concerning his true divine vocation to the ecclesiastical state.

27. These and other things, affirmed in the thesis and already explained, the Roman Catechism embraces thus, declaring who are to be considered divinely called to the priesthood and ecclesiastical ministries. "Just as," it says, "our Savior was sent by the Father, and the Apostles and Disciples into the whole world by Christ the Lord, so daily priests, endowed with the same power as they, are sent for the consummation of the Saints, unto the work of ministry, unto the building up of the body of Christ.

"Therefore the burden of this so great office is to be imposed rashly on no one, but only on those who can sustain it by holiness of life, doctrine, faith, and prudence. Nor indeed let anyone take the honor to himself, but he who is called by God as Aaron. But they are said to be called by God who are called by the legitimate ministers of the Church. For those who arrogantly introduce and intrude themselves into this ministry, concerning these it must be said that the Lord understood them when He says, I did not send the prophets, and they ran; and nothing can be more unhappy and miserable than this kind of men, nothing more calamitous to the Church of God." On the Sacrament of Order, n. 3.

Here, as is evident, the Roman Catechism is properly treating of mission, or of divine vocation adequately taken, by which those called by God to exercise the sacred ministry ARE SENT. And note that the Catechism asserts that those are called by God who are called by the legitimate ministers of the Church; that is, not all, but those alone. Those alone, because the election of the Bishop is the condition without which there is no legitimate vocation; but by no means all of those, because the Bishop can well be deceived by the fraud of one not called, or even through his own fault. Therefore those alone are said to be called by God who assume this ministry from legitimate superiors, not by the suffrages of the people, nor by the power of any secular magistrate, nor by their own rashness, as the Council of Trent has it against the Innovators.

28. Then, proceeding to explain who are divinely called to the priesthood, who are to be chosen for the priesthood by the ministers of the Church, the Roman Catechism says: To aspire to the priesthood for the sake of gain is sacrilege; to proceed to the priesthood from hope of honors or riches is most pernicious; by the ambition and avarice of those who truly are hirelings, the priesthood is debased. Those alone are "LEGITIMATELY CALLED BY GOD who undertake ecclesiastical duties FOR THE SAKE OF THAT ONE THING, that they may serve the honor of God," loc. cit., n. 4. The priest to be created should be one who is greatly recommended by integrity of life and morals and by fitting knowledge, "because he must hold before others the light of virtue and innocence," loc. cit., nn. 31-32.

29. Wherefore rightly and deservedly it is said in the often-praised Letter of the special Commission of Cardinals: "No one ever has any right to ordination antecedently to the free election of the Bishop." Here it must be carefully noted that no one antecedently to the aforesaid election has a right to it, but antecedently to it he must altogether have right intention together with suitability, and the required gifts of probity of life and of approved sufficient doctrine, that is, divine vocation to the ecclesiastical state.

The required suitability and required gifts certainly are not had in some natural inclination to worldly things; and certainly those are not suitable "who positively aspire to the secular state." But on the contrary, suitability and required gifts certainly are had in a certain supernatural inclination to the sacred things of the Church, together with zeal for a holy life and sufficient talent for learning sacred doctrine, as is had in the praised Circular Letters of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation. And suitability, from what has been said, is generally had from a sincere intention and firm will of dedicating oneself to divine worship, to the glory of God, to the salvation of souls, to the salvation of one's own soul. Namely, he is not suitable who lacks divine vocation.

"Let them not be initiated to First Tonsure... concerning whom there is no probable conjecture that they have chosen this kind of life not by deceit to flee secular judgment, but in order to offer faithful worship to God." Council of Trent.

The author of the dissertation which is found in Monitore Ecclesiastico, vol. 27, p. 76, speaking of priestly vocation adequately taken, says: "Ecclesiastical vocation is a sufficient manifestation of the divine will that such a person become His minister. And this manifestation is made by full and certain suitability for the priesthood, opportunity of adding another priest to the clergy, necessity or utility of the Church, and the election of the Bishop." And certainly the chief condition of that suitability is the will and desire of such a state, not the will and desire of worldly things.

30. From the very words of the Roman Catechism which have been related, it is evident that each can be called a divine vocation: both the will inspired by God of living for God in this state of counsels and perfection, and the admission or election to it by legitimate Superiors, and at the same time also the mission to exercise the sacred ministry. And in reality, divine vocation, taken adequately and fully, embraces this whole thing. And if a distinction is made between one and the other, and that expression divine vocation is taken more strictly, then indeed in ecclesiastical documents, and almost always among Theologians, it is very often restricted to that supernatural will divinely inspired, "to whom it is given."

As Benedict XIV proclaimed: "those who are called into the portion of the Lord are to be formed from their earliest age to piety and integrity of morals" (Encyclical Letter Ubi primum, December 3, 1740, § 2); so Pius IX says: Let no one be admitted to the priesthood unless, from the manner of his past life, he feels that he is called to the priesthood, Rule for the Pio Seminary, June 28, 1853. Leo XIII enjoins that among boys and adolescents there be discerned those to whom God has given a vocation, To the Clergy of France, September 8, 1899.

But Pius X commands: The vocation of the students is to be observed, and is to be nourished with due counsels; those are to be removed from theological studies and repelled from Seminaries who do not show that they are called, who do not show an ecclesiastical vocation, Rule for Seminaries, nn. 30, 54, 56. And in the Catechism of the Roman Province, also prescribed by the Supreme Pontiff Pius X, June 14, 1905, it is said that for embracing the priestly state divine vocation is first of all necessary, to be recognized from one's own suitability for the studies and obligations of this state.

And the same acceptance of divine vocation is often had in the historical Lessons of the Roman Breviary. Thus, for example, in Lesson IV of the Office of St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen, divine vocation is affirmed according as it is set forth in our thesis. For it is said: "When Fidelis had experienced the dangers of the forum, he resolved to enter upon a safer way of eternal salvation, and, enlightened by a heavenly vocation, a little later asked to be enrolled in the Seraphic Order among the Capuchin Friars Minor."

And in Lesson IV of the Office of St. Peter Martyr, it is said of him: "called by the Holy Spirit to a more sublime form of life, he undertook the Institute of the Order of Preachers." And in Lesson V of the Office of St. Bernardine of Siena, his vocation to the Order of St. Francis is narrated thus: "Tried by a grave illness, and after bearing it most patiently for four months, finally restored to health, he began to deliberate about undertaking the institute of religious life; and to prepare the way for himself in this, he rented a little dwelling at the far end of the city, and when he had hidden himself in it, he lived a life most austere in every respect, constantly praying God that He would show what he should follow. Therefore it came about divinely that he chose the Order of Blessed Francis before the rest, in which he excelled in humility, patience, and the other virtues of a religious man."

This certainly was an interior divine vocation. And it was also joined with an external vocation in St. Aloysius Gonzaga, who "was called to the Society of Jesus by a heavenly voice at Madrid." Lesson V of the Roman Breviary. On the feast of the Blessed Martyrs Mark Crisinus and Companions, September 7, Lesson IV says of Mark Crisinus: "When by divine instinct he felt himself impelled to the priesthood, he put on the clerical habit and applied his mind to theological studies." And of his companion in martyrdom it is said in Lesson V: "When he grew up, he felt himself called to enter the Society of Jesus, especially with this intention, that he might come to the aid of his homeland, infected by the heresy of Luther and Calvin and troubled by civil disturbances."

But as regards theologians, it suffices to recall to memory the very question which they commonly treat: namely, whether someone who omits to follow a divine vocation sins gravely and is in a bad state. St. Alphonsus, book 4, n. 78; book 6, n. 785.

30. But assumption to sacred orders, made by legitimate authority, is called election in the Roman Pontifical, as can be seen in the rite of ordination of a subdeacon, deacon, priest, and bishop. In the rite of ordination of a deacon it is said by the Bishop: "With the assistance of the Lord God and Our Savior Jesus Christ, we choose these present subdeacons into the order of the diaconate." And the rite of episcopal consecration is inscribed: "On the Consecration of One Elected Bishop"; and throughout that whole rite, in which there would especially be place for the text which is always brought forward, "He who is called by God as Aaron," the one to be consecrated is never called "called," but always "elected," from the beginning to the end of the consecration in the Pontifical.

And well known is what St. Alphonsus says, book 6, n. 804: "But if divine vocation is necessary for the Priesthood, it will be more necessary for the offices of Bishops and Pastors." But this admission or election made by legitimate ministers of the Church is also well both a vocation and is called a vocation, as we heard from the Roman Catechism. And in the Sacred Scriptures themselves divine election also is called vocation. Christ Himself in John (15:16) says to the Apostles: "You have not chosen me; but I have chosen you." And in Mark (3:13-14) it is said: "And going up into a mountain, He called unto Him whom He willed; and they came to Him, and He made that twelve should be with Him, and that He might send them to preach."

31. Nor indeed is it to be passed over in silence that the word vocation is found in the Roman Pontifical also in the prior meaning. In the Ordination of a Subdeacon the Bishop says: "Let us pray God and Our Lord, most dear brethren, that upon these His servants, whom He has deigned to call to the office of the subdiaconate, He may pour forth His blessing and grace." And in the blessing and consecration of Virgins the word inspiration also is found. For the Bishop thus asks a blessing from God upon the garments of the virgins: "that they may keep, with Thee protecting, the habit of blessed chastity which, with Thee inspiring, they receive."

Nor finally is the word of constant purpose lacking in the Pontifical. For in the ordination already mentioned of a subdeacon, the Bishop thus addresses those to be ordained: "While there is time, consider; and, if it pleases you to persevere in the holy purpose, in the name of the Lord come here."

32. Since these things are so, it is evident that although admission and election to the religious and ecclesiastical state is well and can also be called vocation, nevertheless, precisely taken, it is neither vocation adequately considered, nor is it divine interior vocation formally accepted, but it is external, authentic, official vocation, as the Most Reverend Bishop of Arezzo well says, which altogether presupposes the former.

And thus St. Thomas, in I-II, q. 108, a. 4, ad 1, asserts that the evangelical counsels are not expedient except for him "WHOSE AFFECTION IS INCLINED TO THESE THINGS. And therefore the Lord, when proposing the evangelical counsels, always makes mention of the suitability of men for the observance of the counsels." And II-II, q. 189, a. 1, ad 4, he teaches that no one ought to induce others to enter religion "before they are inwardly urged to this by the Holy Spirit."

But once this internal urging of the Holy Spirit has been had, the same Angelic Doctor, in the same question, article 1, unhesitatingly asserts that "children are bound rather to obey the Father of spirits than parents of the flesh. Hence the Lord reproved the disciple who was unwilling to follow Him because of his father's burial." Therefore the Father of Spirits had already inwardly urged the aforesaid young man. Already before that external vocation of Christ an interior vocation of the Holy Spirit was present. "For vocation," says the same St. Thomas (I-II, q. 113, a. 1, ad 3), "refers to the help of God inwardly moving and exciting the mind."

Nevertheless someone can well fail to follow this vocation. Christ "called not only the innocent young man, but also Matthew the sinner. But Matthew followed Him calling, while the young man did not" (St. Thomas, II-II, q. 189, a. 1, ad 1).

33. The teaching of St. Alphonsus is twofold: he asserts, book 6, n. 802, that those who intrude themselves into the sacred ministry without vocation, explored by the aforesaid signs, cannot be excused; and that Bishops who promote those not called to sacred orders are to be reproved. Wherefore, as from St. Thomas...

...so from St. Alphonsus divine vocation is not conferred by the Bishop, but the Bishop is bound altogether to presuppose and verify it. After the prayer of Peter in the midst of the brethren, "Praying they said: Thou, Lord, who knowest the hearts of all men, show which one of these two Thou hast chosen" (Acts 1:15, 24). And in the Ordination of a Subdeacon the Bishop likewise prays: "Holy Lord, Almighty Father, eternal God, deign to bless these Thy servants, whom Thou hast deigned to choose for the office of the Subdiaconate." Roman Pontifical.

34. It is pleasing here to relate what His Eminence Cardinal Gasparri has concerning divine vocation to the clerical state, de Ordine, vol. 1, chap. 3, sect. 1, art. 1, n. 110 ff., Paris ed. 1893, p. 64 ff.

"All admit, except those who reject divine providence or the supernatural order, that God, independently of the merits of the creature, chooses some before others for the priestly state... and prepares the same by gifts, whether of body or of soul, suitable for worthily and laudably undertaking the sacred ministries. THIS ACT OF DIVINE SUPERNATURAL PROVIDENCE IS DIVINE VOCATION TO THE CLERICAL STATE.... From what has been said it is evident that one not called by God to the priestly state ought not to receive the priesthood.... On the contrary, it is evident that one called by God ought to embrace the clerical state....

"Except in evident cases, no one by his own private judgment, unless rashly, can define that he is not called by God, and much less that he is called by God to sacred orders.... Therefore, for exploring our vocation, we must usually seek counsel from others.... Namely, in the first place it belongs to the Bishop to explore vocation.... The Confessor supplies the place of the Bishop for the internal forum... the rector of the seminary for the external forum....

"Moreover the indications of vocation are sometimes extraordinary.... The ordinary sign of ecclesiastical vocation is indeed a supernatural sense inclining a man to embrace the clerical state, with regard to the glory of God and the salvation of neighbors. For God does not commonly call a man to the clerical state without inwardly inclining him by a certain supernatural aspiration, which is not sensible, and sometimes is resisted by affections contrary to nature, or even by fear, which the grave burden of the priestly ministry impresses upon souls.

"This inclination is necessarily accompanied by ardent charity toward God and toward neighbor on account of God, zeal for sacred studies, care for divine things.... If this constant and strong inclination from a right end is present, with the other affections indicated, and with due knowledge and due holiness, and no other impediment stands in the way, and if finally the Bishop, after making scrutiny, admits the candidate and judges him necessary or useful, divine vocation is morally certain."

35. After these things, it ought to seem very easy to all to take the step to proving the last part of the thesis, by which a cleric habituated in shameful sin or another similar sin is excluded from sacred orders as unworthy, unless from grave indications, either of a sufficient experiment already made or of some extraordinary grace, there is moral certitude that he will live holily thereafter, as the holiness of the priestly state demands.

36. This last part of the thesis reports the doctrine of St. Alphonsus in his dissertation on this matter, which moral Theologians commonly follow. Nevertheless, there are not lacking those who, on the contrary, opine that such a cleric can at the same time both receive absolution and be admitted to sacred orders. For, they say, if he has sincere sorrow and purpose by which he can be absolved, he can also be promoted to sacred orders, since that purpose contains the will not to relapse into sins and to employ the due means.

37. But this reasoning is not right. For to receive absolution it suffices to have sorrow in the present and the purpose of not sinning thereafter; and it is not required that a future relapse into sin, vice, and evil habit not be foreseen. Indeed, in the present, sincere sorrow for committed sins and a sincere purpose of not sinning thereafter can be had, and at the same time a future relapse into sins is foreseen. These things are not mutually incompatible, and they are proved by daily fact itself.

38. But for receiving sacred orders, on the contrary, it is necessary that there be some moral certitude that the one to be ordained will live chastely and holily. Concerning those to be initiated with first tonsure, the Council of Trent, sess. 23, chap. 4, de Reform., says that those are not to be initiated with first tonsure "concerning whom there is no probable conjecture that they have chosen this kind of life in order to offer faithful worship to God," but from another human motive.

According to the same Council of Trent, loc. cit., chap. 5, those are not to be promoted to minor orders concerning whose good morals there is no certainty from diligent inquiry made beforehand. But as regards sacred orders, the same Council, loc. cit., chap. 8, first says that the honest morals of those to be ordained must be commendable; and then again, chap. 13, concerning the subdiaconate and diaconate, it expressly says that those are not to be promoted unless they hope, with God as author, that they can keep continence. Finally, chap. 14, concerning the priesthood, it decrees that those are to be assumed who have conducted themselves piously and faithfully... with good testimony of their life; and that these, after diligent examination preceding, be proved suitable, and be so conspicuous in piety and chaste morals that a shining example of good works and counsels of life can be expected from them.

39. Now one habituated in shameful sin has not conducted himself piously and faithfully, nor can he have good testimony of life, although here and now he has sincere sorrow for his past life and a purpose for the future; and therefore he certainly cannot be proved suitable for the priesthood after diligent examination preceding. And since he is not conspicuous in piety and chaste morals, a shining example of good works undoubtedly cannot be expected from him.

Only then can there be had concerning him a probable conjecture and rational hope that, with God as author, the virtue of continence and chastity will remain in him, when, as St. Alphonsus has it, either from an experiment already made or from an extraordinary grace of God, he appears now clothed with the new man, who according to God is created in justice and holiness of truth. And in the cited Decision of the Most Eminent Fathers it is said that there is required for sacred ordination, besides sufficiency of knowledge, that probity of life which may make a FOUNDED HOPE that someone will rightly undertake the duties of the priesthood and be able to observe its obligations holily.

40. Wherefore, although a confessor cannot oblige a penitent to approach sacred orders (Sacred Penitentiary, August 27, 1829), nevertheless he can and must declare to him the obligation of withdrawing from them if he is unworthy.

Nor indeed is there to be fear that from this it will come about that a sufficient number of ministers will be lacking in the Church of God. For the Angelic Doctor thus refutes this objection: "God never deserts the Church so that there are not found suitable ministers sufficient for the necessity of the people, if worthy men are promoted and unworthy men rejected. And if so many ministers could not be found as there now are, it would be better to have few ministers than many bad ones, as Blessed Clement says" (Supplement, q. 36, a. 4); and Benedict XIV and Pius X also say this to the Archbishop of Caracas.

These things the Supreme Pontiff Pius X wrote very recently to the Archbishop of Caracas; and, addressing the Bishops of that Church, he says these things which regard the Venezuelan Church:

"You will give attention that your Seminaries be such as the Tridentine Synod ordered, that is, dwellings of religion and doctrine, in which clerical youths may be duly instructed for the offices and duties of the priesthood. First of all, therefore, as regards the discipline of morals, let a grave and austere discipline reign there, with you insisting on it; and let the students for sacred things be deeply formed in those virtues which are especially those of a priest: piety, chastity, solicitude for souls, and Christian humility, which moreover is the foundation of the virtues.

"But concerning the plan of studies which ought to flourish in your Seminaries, you can take a model from those things which are the foundation of the other virtues.... Permit Us to inculcate in your ears and souls that most grave word of the Apostle: lay hands hastily on no one. For if, after all the things which pertain to the proper education of students of the Clergy have been procured and prepared, you nevertheless do not take care that you give access to the priesthood only to the worthy, consider that all your labor has been in vain.

"But it is unworthy for a priest to be rude or not sufficiently instructed in doctrine, who ought to instruct others unto salvation; but far more unworthy is one who exercises among the people the teaching of Christian virtues, while he himself sticks in the mud of vices. Therefore know that it will not be lawful for you to admit anyone into sacred orders unless within the enclosures of the Seminary he has completed the legitimate course of studies with praise for diligence. But if someone, although he has done well in studies, nevertheless seems to be of morals not altogether upright, you yourselves understand that it will be a great crime for him to be initiated into sacred things. For it is altogether better that somewhere there be no priest who has care of souls, than that there be one of such a kind who, offending by perversity of life, prepares pest and destruction for the Christian people instead of salvation." Letter Sollicitis nobis, December 8, 1910, Acta Apostolicae Sedis, vol. 4, p. 25.