Case LVI: Admission to Holy Orders

Placidus, spiritual director and confessor in a clerical seminary, became uneasy in mind at ordination time every year, as he does not know exactly whether or not he should admit certain doubtful candidates to Holy Orders; all the more he is embarrassed as there prevails in the diocese a great lack of priests. Recent moralists, like BERARDI, appear to favor leniency; earlier ones, however, demand that doubtful candidates be rejected. The question is: What rule is to be followed in this regard?

Answer.—Doubtful may be considered in general all those candidates who have not discarded serious sinful habits, but have merely promised amendment. Of such habits may be mentioned especially ebrietas and mollities.

The longer a candidate remains under the circumspect guidance of a spiritual director, the better judgment can the latter form of the penitent’s temperament: the formation of this judgment is particularly easy after an alumnus has spent three or four years in the seminary. He, who in the first years of his sojourn in the sanctuary of the Lord, far from the distracting clamor of the world and close to the source of grace, shows no signs of earnest purpose of amendment, of him can lasting amendment neither be expected after ordination; for he who honestly and sincerely makes use of the means of grace at his disposal, will assuredly become master of his passions before ordination. But he who employs them only indifferently, can not without presumption expect miraculous conversion from the Holy Sacrifice and the Holy Office. Grace and good will are the chief factors in the process of perfection. Where honest good will is wanting, there exterior graces avail little and only periodically.

An opinion is more difficult if the candidate came to the seminary from a life in the world, and within the space of a year must finally declare himself for the priesthood. In this case the terms “rarius, bonae frugis, probitas” are for the director the criterion.

(a) Rarius. Relapse into sin must not only become rarer, but very rare indeed, for St. Paul writes to his disciple Timothy, II, 22: “Impose hands hastily on no man, neither become a participant in the sins of others.” The Council of Trent, sess. 23, cap. 14, charges the bishops: “Let the bishops know that only the worthy, whose mature age is one of approved life, ought to be assumed into these orders,” and St. THOMAS teaches that for the candidates for ordination goodness of just any kind does not suffice, but excellent goodness is required. For this reason P. Marc (p. 411) draws the conclusion:“Hence the Apostle (II Tim. III, 6) forbids neophytes to be ordained, that is, as the same Angelic Doctor explains, those who are neophytes not only in age but also those who are neophytes in perfection.”

God, in His wise providence, gives as a rule moral virtue not without effort and struggle on the part of the recipient, and this effort will be all the harder, and the struggle all the more violent, the more the opposite vice has taken possession of the sensual nature, and the deeper roots it has struck in the heart.

Like a river that has overflowed its banks, and lays waste the fields. and meadows, can not be turned back into its bed by an easy turn of the hand, neither can the stream of passion, especially when it is a question of occasio in esse, securely be dammed merely by a simple act of will, and generally even after a sincere return to God some relapses are not unlikely, until virtue gradually has been fortified. Naturally, inconstancy, neglect in co-operating with grace, and inexperience in employing the means of grace, are the causes of such relapses.

(b) Bonae frugis. The candidate must show that he has labored at the amendment of his life with fruit and profit, and that thus, in his new state in life, he gives promise of being useful to himself and others. He, who is himself not in the state of grace, who discharges the sacred functions therefore sacrilegiously, certainly will never contribute to the welfare of the Church, nor be a blessing to the souls entrusted to him. The Church does not of course demand that her clergy must have been previously perfect, and for admission to the cloister, as well as to the seminary, the principle of St. BERNARD applies: “We receive all into monasteries in the hope of improvement,” but she demands to see in her prospective ministers visible progress in virtuous endeavor, and this all the more pronounced the nearer they approach the altar. Hence BENEDICT XIV, in his Bull Ubi primum, addresses the bishops thus: “With earnest and great diligence applied, we must investigate whether the manner of life and progress in sacred learning of those who have received the ministries of the preceding Orders have been such that they are truly to be judged worthy to whom it may be said, ‘Go up higher’; since otherwise it is expedient for some rather to remain in a lower grade than to be promoted to a higher one with greater danger to themselves and scandal to others.”

The Council of Trent expresses itself even more plainly (Sess. 23, cap. II) on individual ordinations, demanding from those in minor orders: “Let clerics so ascend from grade to grade that, together with age, merit of life and greater learning increase in them; this will be proved especially by the example of good morals, assiduous ministry in the church, greater reverence toward priests and the higher orders, and more frequent Communion of the Body of Christ than before”; of deacons and sub-deacons it expects (cap. 13): “Subdeacons and deacons are to be ordained who have good testimony and have already been proved in minor Orders, and who hope, with God as author, that they can remain continent,” and of priests (cap. 14): “Those who have conducted themselves piously and faithfully in the ministries previously exercised and are assumed into the order of the Presbyterate are to have good testimony... and to be so conspicuous in piety and chaste morals that an eminent example of good works and admonitions for life may be expected from them.”

(c) Probitas. Mere outward integrity and freedom from conspicuous exterior faults do not suffice; a life of probity is demanded, probata vita, as the Council of Trent says, alluding to the words of St. Paul: “Deacons likewise chaste; and let these first be proved, and thus let them minister, having no crime.” Hence St. ALPHONSUS requires of candidates for the priesthood probitatem habitualem, and St. BERNARD demands: “But for the clergy it is necessary to choose men who have been proved, not men who are to be proved.”

Although in regard to renunciation of temporal goods and submission of the will lesser claims are made upon secular priests than upon regulars, yet in puncto puncti, being in constant intercourse with the world, and having fewer means of grace, they are exposed to greater danger and in this they must be fortiores. Hence St. ALPHONSUS, and after him Scavini, require of an ordinandus a perfect abstemiousness of three months. Cardinal Goussey says: If a candidate has fallen once or twice, more from frailty than from design, and is much affected by his fall, then according to our opinion six months’ probation are enough; generally, however, a year should be required, especially if the fall was of design. Other moralists, as Bertin, Bouvier, Leon. A Porto Maur., are still more exacting.

It should not be inferred from these opinions that the probitas ordinandorum is to be determined according to mathematical forms, by days and months, for the human heart is not a machine. One who has been on probation for a long while may again relapse, and a recently converted Paulus may hold his ground. We must never forget that even a promising servant of God may fall if he do not - combine continual vigilance with prayer and work, and that for us all the words are applicable: he that standeth, let him take heed lest he fall. For a forceful, energetic character there may suffice a considerably shorter probation than for an indolent weakling, one who seeks the security and shelter of the sanctuary rather than the glory of God and the Church’s welfare.

The apparently severe opinions of saintly teachers and theologians merely indicate that, in the all-important matter of election to the priesthood, probability is not sufficient, and by no means should a mercenarius be given admission to the sanctuary just to remedy a lack of priests; a doubtful candidate should be rejected rather than approved; for there is no greater harm for the Church of God, no greater curse for the people, than unworthy, undutiful priests. Nor is there a more certain road to misery, in this and the other life, than the priestly state for those without vocation.

P. Agnellus, O. M. Cap.