VII. On Simple Priests and Inferior Clerics

What about priests? - Simple priests are held to serve the church to which they have been assigned, and to devote themselves to the salvation of the faithful. This chiefly demands two things: to teach boys and the uninstructed the rudiments of faith, and to receive the confessions of those who are in mortal sin, if the one who by the office undertaken is held to provide these things is lacking or is not sufficient for all. This is established not only from the general obligation of charity, but also from the office itself of the priesthood, and from Trent s. 23, c. 13, 14, 16 de R., which declares that priests are not ordained except because of the necessity and utility of the Church. Hence clerics cannot be admitted to orders unless they are incardinated or enrolled in some church, Benedict XIV, de Syn. l. 11, c. 2, n. 7, 13. But no one from C. Ex quo of Benedict XIV can abandon without the Bishop's permission the church to whose service he has been assigned. Nor indeed is it lawful to depart from one's own diocese without the command of the Ordinary; and if any have departed, they can also be recalled by penalties and censures, excepting those who depart seeking elsewhere the things necessary for their support, unless provision is made for their suitable sustenance. S. C. C., March 15, 1625; September 13, 1749; August 30, 1732.

Therefore Bishops can forbid foreign priests, without commendatory letters of their own Ordinary, to minister the sacraments in their dioceses or to undertake divine services, not even regulars, and in churches of regulars, unless perhaps of the same order. Trent s. 22, decree de observ. etc.; s. 23, c. 10 de R. - L. l. 6, n. 625; A. S. S. v. 5, p. 475; v. 10, p. 474 ff.; v. 14, p. 121; v. 23, p. 608 ff.; Bizzarri, Collectan., ed. 1885, p. 89, 303, 304.

Priests who emigrate to America or to the Philippine Islands are held to observe the prescriptions of the S. C. Consistorial, March 25, 1914, A. A. S. v. 6, p. 182 ff. Besides other things which are to be observed, they must first obtain the consent of their own Ordinary and of the Ordinary of the place to which they plan to go. The matter is also to be handled between Ordinary and Ordinary by secret letters.

Priests cannot go into the Canadian region and into the United States of North America to exercise the sacred ministry among the faithful of the Ruthenian rite, unless they have been sent by the S. C. de Propaganda Fide. S. C. de P. F., August 8, 1913, art. 12, 13, 14.

No one originating from Poland can be admitted into the diocesan clergy of the United States of North America without leave of the S. C. de Propaganda Fide. S. C. Consistorial, December 9, 1909, A. A. S. v. 2, p. 102.

Likewise priests who seek Rome in order to remain there must observe the Norms constituted in the Letter of Pius X to the Cardinal Vicar, August 6, 1905. "No cleric, whether pertaining to the Roman clergy or to other dioceses, is to be assumed or chosen by anyone, even one shining with Cardinalitial dignity, for any office or benefice which requires stable or long residence in the City, unless he who wishes to choose him has first sought from the Most Eminent Vicar of the City by secret letters whether anything on the part of the Vicariate stands in the way, and has learned that nothing stands in the way. - But any provision or assignment of office otherwise made will be null and void." Pius X, Constitution Etsi nos concerning the Vicariate of the City, Kalends of January 1912.

All priests by reason of the priesthood itself are held by divine law under grave obligation sometimes to celebrate, three or four times in the year. S. C. C., November 1669. For this is the chief duty for which they are constituted. "Each one is held to use the grace given to him when it will be opportune." St. Thomas 3 p., q. 82, a. 10. And St. Alphonsus, l. 6, n. 313, calls this opinion "far the more common and safer." For there is another opinion, which excuses at least from mortal sin, provided they communicate at Easter and contempt and scandal are absent. The reason of this opinion is that there is no certainty about a precept, since the reasons of the opposite opinion are by no means convincing. But that opinion, from St. Alphonsus, "at least because of scandal, is scarcely probable in practice." Cf. Trent s. 22, c. 2; s. 23, c. 14 de R. Yet certainly it is venial without reason to abstain from making the sacred rite and from hearing Confessions, since there is the same reason for both.

In common necessity they can also be compelled by their own Ordinary to make the sacred rite on feast days and to minister the sacraments; indeed, if pastors are not sufficient for this and others are lacking who could be joined to them as coadjutors, to teach boys the rudiments of faith, to preach, and to have the care of souls. - Constitutions of Benedict XIV, Declarasti nobis, March 16, 1746, Etsi minime; S. C. C., March 18, 1578; Roman Council, year 1725, tit. I, cap. 5; Trent s. 24, c. 18 de R.; St. Thomas Quodl. 12, a. 27, 28, 30; A. S. S. v. 14, p. 409; v. 17, p. 288; A. A. S. v. 2, p. 911 ff. "No one, whether secular or regular, even in the churches of his own orders, may presume to preach against the opposition of the Bishop." Trent s. 24, c. 4. Cf. also s. 5, c. 2 de R.; Clement VIII, C. Superna; St. Thomas Quodl. 12, a. 27. Preaching is to be had according to the norms proposed by the S. C. Bishops and Regulars, July 31, 1894, and confirmed by Pius X, Motu Proprio Sacrorum antistitum, September 1, 1910. "Announcing to them the vices which they must decline, and the virtues which they must follow, so that they may be able to escape eternal punishment and obtain heavenly glory." Trent s. 5, c. 2 de R.; Pius X, Letter to the Italian Bishops, July 28, 1906.

All clerics, especially priests, owe reverence and obedience to the Bishop in those things which pertain to morals and to ecclesiastical discipline. C. Conquerente 16 de Off. iud. ord.; CC. 2, 4, 9 de Maior. et obed. - E. M.

245 bis. Note: Preachers, and those chosen for holding sermons through the time of Lent, are held to take and sign the oath according to the formula prescribed in the Motu Proprio Sacrorum Antistitum of Pius X. If it is a question of priests of their own diocese, Ordinaries are to take great care that the same are never admitted to that duty of preaching unless first they have been approved concerning life, knowledge, and morals, that is, unless after a trial has been made, or by another suitable method, it has been established that they are suitable. But if the matter concerns priests of another diocese, they are to allow no one to ascend the pulpit, and this especially on solemn days, unless it has first been established from the written testimony of their own Ordinary or religious Superior that the same are endowed with good morals and are equal to that duty. But the Moderators of each Order are to permit absolutely no one from the pupils of their own discipline to undertake the duty of preacher, and much less are they to commend him by testimonial letters to the Ordinaries of places, unless they have a clear view of the probity of his morals and his faculty of preaching. Pius X, M. P. Sacrorum Antistitum. Bishops and Moderators of regulars cannot grant letters of commendation without note to their subjects who have somewhere been prohibited from preaching. Sacred orators who have been prohibited by Bishops in any place cannot be invited. S. C. Consistorial, September 25, 1910.

A priest can give a blessing, privately or by a private rite, to fields, animals, and other similar things.

Bishops are not to permit gatherings of priests to be held, except very rarely, and so that no discussion be made about Bishops, about the Apostolic See, and nothing be said which injures sacred power, or savors of modernism, or touches presbyterianism or laicism. At meetings of this kind no priest from another diocese is to be present, unless commended by letters of his Bishop. Pius X, M. P. Sacrorum Antistitum.

What about inferior clerics? - "No one doubts that if someone dared to approach sacred ordination, knowing that he has not been called by God, he could not be excused from mortal fault, both because of the grave presumption of intruding himself into the sanctuary against the will of God, and because of the certain danger of damnation to which he then exposes himself. Yet, in order that one to be promoted may be excused from fault, it is enough for him that he present a good end and offer himself to the Bishop to be tested, provided he does not certainly know that he was never called by God." L. 73. The Apostle teaches the grave necessity of this vocation thus: Nor does anyone take honor to himself, but he who is called by God, as Aaron was. Hebrews 5:4. And the sublimity of the order, the holiness of the office, and the gravity of the burden prove the same. L. 802, 803. Cf. here 255, 256. - Concerning one who receives minor orders or first tonsure with the intention of escaping the lay forum, and afterwards of returning to secular life, some, from St. Alphonsus 785, probably say that he sins venially; others more probably say that he sins mortally. Trent s. 23, c. 4 de R. - But one who neglects to follow a divine vocation does not seem able to be excused from some fault, when indubitable signs of vocation are present, because of the dangers to salvation in which he will be placed who, having despised the divine vocation, embraces the worldly state from his own will and from a motive less consonant with reason. Yet grave sin is absent, for divine vocation is an invitation, not a precept; and sufficient graces for salvation are given to all, and if someone prays as he ought, he will also obtain congruous and efficacious graces. Cf. 255 ff.; Roman Catechism on Order, n. 3, 4.

There ought to be two endowments of inferior clerics, so that they may be held worthy of sacred orders: knowledge and holiness. The first reason is that ignorance, speaking generally, in ecclesiastics harms not only themselves but also others. Yet less knowledge is required in religious destined solely for choir, such as Carthusians. Add also if someone, for example, were to be constituted in some chaplaincy in which only Mass would have to be celebrated. The second reason is that from Trent s. 23, c. 12 de R., only those are to be assumed to sacred orders "whose approved life is old age," namely who are old in virtue. And this is confirmed from the common authority of Supreme Pontiffs, Fathers, and Doctors, who all require in one to be ordained not only negative holiness, namely that he be immune from grave sin, but also positive holiness, i.e., that he be imbued with good morals. Innocent XIII, C. Apostolici ministerii. "Sacred orders presuppose holiness." St. Thomas 2. 2, q. 189, a. 1 ad 3. - L. l. 6, n. 782, 783, 892, 893; St. Thomas, Suppl. q. 36, a. 1, 2; Roman Catechism on the Sacrament of Order, n. 30-32; E. M.

Is absolution to be denied to a cleric habituated in hidden sins of lust, who wishes to ascend to sacred orders without a preceding experiment of continence? - As regards the proposed question, St. Alphonsus has these things, l. 6, n. 64 ff., where he has a dissertation on this matter, commended by Benedict XIV, de Syn. l. 11, c. 2: "1. The present and ancient law of the Church, always constant, binds both Bishops and Confessors and those to be promoted, so that when some cleric relapsed or accustomed in the vice of the flesh wishes to ascend to a sacred order, whether to the subdiaconate, or to the diaconate, or to the priesthood, although he has been sincerely converted to the Lord, and therefore can immediately be absolved, nevertheless he will not be able to receive sacred order unless for some time he gives labor to uprooting the depraved habit. And, if he persists in receiving order at once, he is not judged disposed for absolution, because he violates the law of the Church in a grave matter. 2. Yet a case can be given in which God gives the penitent such extraordinary grace of compunction, which renders him so approved that he himself can immediately assume sacred order; and therefore receive the benefit of absolution, without first being proved by experience of time.... And here it must be noted that what has been said about the vice of lust must be said the same of any other, namely drunkenness, avarice, blasphemy, hatred, etc. But that simple sanctifying grace is by no means sufficient for receiving sacred orders, but beyond it interior perfection is required, is established from the common agreement of the holy Fathers and Doctors, who with one voice demand it." But by how long a space of time, outside the extraordinary case, the relapsed are to be tested, there is no determined rule of time, since, all circumstances of person, things, and cases having been maturely weighed, the whole question is to be resolved before the Lord.

The author of the work Istruzione pei Novelli Confessori, p. 2, c. 3, n. 63, denies a positive law of the Church, and others also hold this opinion. Hence they assert that the natural law is to be attended to; since, because celibacy is attached to sacred orders by the law of the Church and by vow, one would act against the right judgment of prudence who would wish to assume so great a burden which he thinks he cannot bear. Hence the Confessor could not absolve him if he still wished to be initiated into sacred orders. On the contrary, the Confessor could absolve him if he sincerely believed that, with the help of God's grace, he could live chastely, and efficaciously proposed that he would use suitable means so that he might be freed from the depraved habit.

But although there is not given a positive law of the Church about a certain time of probation to be awaited, nevertheless there is certainly given a natural and positive law of a holiness not common and ordinary, which the nature of sacred order and the prescriptions of the Canons require beforehand, and which the perfect and perpetual vow of chastity attached by the Church to sacred orders also shows and confirms more than sufficiently. Cf. Trent s. 22, c. 1 de R.; s. 23, c. 12, 13, 14, 18; and St. Thomas 2. 2, q. 184, a. 6, 8; q. 189, a. 1 ad 3; Suppl. q. 36, d. 4 ad 3; q. 35, a. 1 ad 3, where he says: "for the suitable execution of orders, goodness of any sort is not sufficient, but excellent goodness is required." If for execution, therefore also for reception. Hence the Angelic Doctor immediately adds: "so that just as those who receive order are constituted above the people by the grade of order, so also they may be superior by the merit of holiness. And therefore grace is pre-required which suffices for this, that they may be worthily numbered among the people of Christ. But in the reception itself of order a more ample gift of grace is conferred, by which they are rendered suitable for greater things." And the Roman Council, tit. 6, c. 3: "Those who are about to approach more nearly to the most sacred mysteries ... we will that they excel in that knowledge and piety, so that they may worthily minister the sacraments of the Church, teach the faithful of Christ sound doctrine, and be able to go before them on the way of salvation no less by example than by words." The same is drawn from the Norms of the S. C. Bishops and Regulars, January 18, 1908, for the Seminaries of Italy, and from the Exhortation to the Catholic Clergy of Pius X in his Letters Haerent animo, August 4, 1908. How indeed can it prudently be judged that this will be so concerning a cleric hitherto entangled in sins and vice of lust, without another probation?