DAMNED
PRIESTS?
“I
speak here with all the sincerity of my heart, and I say that few pastors are
saved...., the majority are damned, because pastoral responsibility demands
heroic virtue”.
(St. John Chrysostom,
Homilies on Acts, No 3, Section 4, par. 5).
“Negligent
religious leaders are often afraid to speak freely and say what needs to be
said – for fear of losing favour with people...
These are the people whom the Lord is reproaching through the prophet
when he says, ‘They are dumb dogs, they cannot bark’... They flatter sinners with empty promises of
safety but are afraid to correct their faults... Now the way to expose this sinfulness is to
denounce it, because a word of reproof points out the sin that even the guilty
party himself often fails to recognise.
For it is a fact that anyone entering the priesthood accepts the office
of herald and must, by his words, prepare the way for the terrible judgement of
the one who follows. If then, the priest
neglects his preaching, what sort of a warning cry can a dumb herald
give?”
(Pope Gregory the Great,
Divine Office, III, p.609f).
“We
see around us a world full of priests, but it is very rare to find a labourer
in God’s harvest, because we are not doing the work demanded by our priesthood,
although we accepted this office... For
preachers are often prevented from speaking because of their own
wickedness;... and the more we seem to
busy ourselves with external affairs, the more spiritually insensitive we
become”.
(Pope Gregory the Great,
Divine Office, III, p.354*).
“Yes,
to be trodden underfoot by men as if they were the vilest dirt will indeed be
the lot of the clergy if they are impure and immoral, if their lives are rotten
with foul vices or entangled in the chains of their misdeeds. Then they will indeed be good for nothing,
either to themselves or to others, because as St. Gregory remarks: ‘If a man’s life is despicable, his preaching
will be despised’”.
(St. John of Capestrano,
Divine Office, III, p.354*).
“Is
your duty preaching and teaching?
Concentrate carefully on what is essential to fulfil that office
fittingly. Make sure in the first place
that your life and conduct are sermons in themselves. Do not give people cause to purse their lips
and shake their heads during your sermons, since they have heard you before,
preaching one thing, then seen you doing the exact opposite”.
(St. Charles Borromeo,
Divine Office, III, p.383*).
