Case 10. A Negligent Parish Priest

Titius, a missionary priest who alone has the care of souls in a certain English town, being somewhat fatigued, decided to spend the last three days of the week at the seaside, since nothing of great importance detained him at home. Returning home on Saturday evening, he found a message that called him to Patrick, who was gravely ill. He knew from experience that such parishioners often call the priest, especially on Saturdays, to settle quarrels between spouses and others; hence he decided to remain at home. On the next day before dinner he received an urgent message from an honorable friend of Patrick that Patrick was placed in most grave danger. Nevertheless, he calmly ate dinner and afterwards set out for the sick man’s house. He found that Patrick was already dead; since, however, the fact of death is difficult to know and he thought that perhaps Patrick was still alive, he absolved him conditionally and returned home anxious. Afterwards, to quiet his conscience, he asks:

1. Do the obligations of parish priests and of our missionaries differ?

2. What is the obligation of residence, and what excuses parish priests from it?

3. To what is a parish priest bound toward sick parishioners, and under what obligation?

4. What is to be said of the case?

1. This question was answered above, p. 44.

2. What is the duty of residence, and what excuses parish priests from the duty?

The first part of this question was answered above, p. 40.

The second part may be answered in the words of the “ Manual of Moral Theology,” (vol. i, p. 631).

“ For some good reason, and the need of relaxation is sufficient, a parish priest may, by the common law, absent himself from his charge for a period of two months every year. The exigencies of modern parish duties rarely permit of so long an absence every year. Parish priests may be absent from their parishes for a longer period than the two months allowed by the common law when it is made necessary by Christian charity, urgent necessity, due obedience, and the evident advantage of Church or State. The approval of the bishop is always required in these cases.”

3. What are the duties of the parish priest toward the sick, and how serious are those duties?

The principal duty of a parish priest toward a parishioner who is in danger of death is to administer to him the last rites of religion. As he is under a grave obligation to administer the sacraments to his parishioners when they ask for them reasonably, the obligation to administer them to one in danger of death when they are specially necessary is still more grave. The priest should not be satisfied with administering the sacraments, but he should repeat his visits, and strive to console and help the sick in their trials and temptations, as the Ritual directs. The Ritual also prescribes that the priest should do what he can to assist the temporal necessities of the sick poor.*

4. The case. Provided that he did not absent himself too often, Titius did not do wrong in going to the seaside for a short holiday inside the week when he felt tired. He should, however, have some arrangement with a neighboring priest so that in his absence an urgent sick-call may be sent on to the nearest priest. Unless Titius had good reason to think that Patrick was one of those who send for the priest without necessity or reason, he should not have neglected to go at once. Better go without necessity many times than miss a real case once. When he got an urgent message next day from a respectable friend of Patrick saying that he was in the greatest danger, Titius should have put off his dinner and gone at once to the sick man. He can not be excused from a grave dereliction of duty in not doing so. On finding Patrick apparently dead he did well to absolve him conditionally, and he might also have administered Extreme Unction conditionally. Apparent death may precede real death for an hour or two, as modern authorities hold.

1 Ritual, De Visit. et Cura Infirmorum.