Publisher's Notices

The little works published by Rev. Fr. Merkelbach, O.P., in the collection "Pastoral Questions" were everywhere received with a grateful mind and approved with many praises. Concerning this, let certain testimonies be reported:

I. On Chastity and Lust

The purpose of our Review does not permit us a detailed examination of this little work. But the importance of the subject, and the truly masterly manner in which it is treated there, induce us to recommend it also to the Italian clergy. All know that questions of this sort are, as St. Alphonsus de Liguori wrote, the more frequent and more abundant matter of confessions, and that because of which the greater number of souls fall into hell, and therefore that for all confessors there is an extreme necessity of being perfectly instructed in them.

(Civilta Cattolica, 1926, p. 450.)

A work of great exactness in its terminology, of true solidity in its pastoral and penitential practice, and in which we find - what too often is lacking in similar works - the physiological and moral notions necessary for the confessor.

(P. Hourat, Bull. Circulaire, August 1927.)

...His chapter on the causes of and remedies of carnal sins is well-timed, and will be especially valuable for confessors and directors of youth.

(The Month, 1926, p. 476.)

Brief, clear, methodical: the first qualities of a summary which the author wished, so far as possible, to be complete in order that it might be practical. Happy choice of the preliminary anatomical and physiological notions: one finds here details ordinarily passed over in silence, and nevertheless indispensable. We cannot note all the particular points worthy of praise in this work: we would not finish.

(Collationes Namurc., 1927, p. 213.)

The treatise de castitate, while complete, remains brief, as befits a work having above all a pastoral purpose. Its object is chastity in marriage as well as in celibacy; it does not omit studying the causes and remedies of lust.

(Collationes Tornacenses, 1927, p. 47.)

II. On Embryology and on the Administration of Baptism

This volume gathers and develops, somewhat more than the general treatises of morals do, the questions relating to abortion, to surgical interventions, and to the administration of baptism. In these matters, which give rise to so many distressing cases of conscience, one will learn with great interest the opinion of the eminent professor, whose fineness of analysis and rigor of reasoning are well enough known. He solidly proves the strict solutions proposed by the Church; he very happily refuses to proclaim a certain obligation when it does not allow itself to be proved in a sufficient manner.

(J. Salsmans, S.J., Nouv. Rev. theol., 1928, p. 71.)

We do not doubt in the least that we should warmly recommend the acquisition of this beautiful fascicle to all priests, for whom it will be a sure guide in all the difficulties which can come to meet them in the exercise of their sacred ministry.

(Estudis Franciscans, 1927, p. 118.)

A succinct treatise, but complete and well adapted to the needs of parish ministry.

(Rev. Liturg. et Monastique, Christmas, 1927.)

One will be glad to find gathered there all the practical questions having relation to embryology and which are usually scattered in various treatises of moral theology, for example the questions relative to abortion, to embryotomy, to the caesarean operation and to other surgical interventions of the same order, those which have regard to the administration of baptism foetibus immaturis or else in utero matris.

(Collationes Tornacenses, 1927, p. 47.)

Here again are found the qualities which we noted in the first volume of these quaestiones pastorales (see Collat. Namurc., XXI, 213). Exact recalling of the scientific data indispensable for understanding the moral problems relative to the existence of the "not born"; clear statements of the principles from which the solutions must be inspired; the solutions themselves firmly expressed; manifest concern to avoid everything that would resemble an evasion, where others seem to wish to turn aside ... so many reasons which recommend this work to the attention of serious readers.

(Collationes Namurc., 1928, p. 321.)

III. On Various Categories of Penitents

Most Reverend Father,

I am eager to thank you for sending your new work Quaestiones de variis Poenitentium categoriis. After having rapidly gone through it, I am happy to express to you my congratulations and my gratitude. It will be most useful for directors of souls and for all priests, being very practical, very clear, and at the same time so truly theological.

May the good God bless the book and its well-deserving author...

19 January 1928. † J. E. Card. Van Roey, Archbishop of Malines.

The mere reading of these dense pages leaves the impression of a considered work.

...The doctrines are clearly set forth, the arguments summarily but solidly proposed, the solutions frankly given. Everything is almost sinewy in this work. We shall not complain of it. And we shall open it with the certainty that we shall find what we are seeking. For everything is there which ought to be there, and there is more than one thought to find. All kinds of penitents are reviewed, from children, the simple, those in occasions, relapsers, those bound by custom, the sick, etc., etc., up to the abnormal, the devout, contemplatives, etc., etc. The author profits from these various questions to sketch little special treatises: thus he sets forth a whole doctrine on contemplation and its degrees; elsewhere, a note on the morality of dances and clothing; elsewhere, a brief view of the absolution of the excommunicated; elsewhere, a word on temperaments. How many instructive things professors of pastoral theology do not have time to develop before their students! Here it is done by a master. Let confessors consult it: they will not regret it.

(G. Kiselstein, Revue Eccl. de Liege, March 1928.)

We recommend this work to the clergy, not for its originality or the novelties which it does not contain, but for the wisdom and prudence of the counsels which it contains. There are several questions which all young priests should absolutely read. Let us note the confession of children, of young people, of persons of the sex, and of the abnormal. All these questions, little developed in the manuals, find here a more complete exposition, always clear and precise. The author rightly insists (p. 101) on conditional absolution "if thou art capable" and not "if thou art disposed."

(Collationes Namurcenses, 1929, p. 99.)

IV. On the Minister of Penance and His Duties

Most Reverend Father,

... It is with lively gratitude that I have received your book De Poenitentiae Ministro; thank you for having sent it to me, and thank you also for having published it. I am persuaded that it is worthy of your earlier works.

Your studies of pastoral theology will thus constitute a whole of the first value. I wish for your books the widest and most lasting influence.

25 April 1928. † J. E. Card. Van Roey, Archbishop of Malines.

The learned author, professor of Theology at Louvain, sets forth there with profundity and clarity, both from the speculative side and from the practical, the questions of moral and pastoral theology which concern the jurisdiction and duties of the confessor, most important questions which are wont to be treated too succinctly in the common scholastic treatises of Moral Theology.

(Osservatore Romano, 9 March 1929.)

They are both Pastoral treatises, and will be acceptable to all shepherds of souls. The former deals with the confessor's treatment of various classes of penitents, much as St. Alphonsus did so well in the Homo Apostolicus. The chapters on Contemplatives are, we think, particularly helpful to confessors, and Father Merkelbach has given us the benefit of wide reading and a long experience. The second monograph deals with the confessor himself, his powers, jurisdiction, reservation, the Seal, etc... Though the Seminarist will hardly have time to read them with all his other work, the priest on the mission should find time to do so. We look forward to other works on the subject, promised by the scholarly author.

(The Month, August 1929, p. 184.)

The Manager. P. RUTTEN.

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