Yesterday, 05:30 PM
Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Short Answers to Common Objections Against Religion - 1908
TWENTY-SIXTH OBJECTION. PRIESTS ARE MEN LIKE OTHERS; THE POPE AND THE BISHOPS ARE MEN; HOW CAN MEN BE INFALLIBLE? I AM WILLING TO OBEY GOD; BUT NOT MEN LIKE MYSELF.
Answer. That is as if a soldier were to say, "I am willing to obey the king; but I will not obey my general, nor my colonel, nor captain: for they are the king's subjects as much as I am."
Would you have much difficulty in answering him?
Nor have I any in answering you.
The Church, it is true, is composed of men; the Pope, the bishops, and priests are men.
But they are men whom Jesus Christ Himself has clothed with spiritual power and divine authority.
And on this account, they are not men like others.
The apostles, who were the first bishops of the Church, were sent to men by Our Lord Jesus Christ, to be like another Himself. To obey them, was not to obey men, but God, and Jesus Christ. To disobey them, and despise their teaching, was to disobey God, to despise Jesus Christ. "Whosoever despiseth you, despiseth me."
It is not to the man that I submit myself, it is to God, who exercises His authority over me through him.
The sole difference then between the commandments of God and the commandments of the Church, is that the first are directly addressed to us by God, the latter indirectly by His envoys; but it is always God who commands.
Neither is it, properly speaking, the man who is infallible in the Pope, it is Jesus Christ, it is God who clothes him with His truth, so that he may not be able to teach error to Christian nations.*
Therefore, in a matter of religious obedience, we must not take heed to the personal qualities of the Pope, the bishop, or the priest, who administers holy things to us, but only to his legitimate authority, to his character of pope, of bishop, or of priest.
This is why the defects, sometimes even the vices of priests (which, thank God, are rare), should not diminish in our minds the respect, faith, and love due to religion.
These weaknesses are attributable to the man, and not to the priest. They cannot attack the divine, sacerdotal character with which he is invested. Did the crime of Judas stain his ministry?
It is also the reason why the Mass, or the absolution, of a bad priest, are as valid as the Mass, the absolution, of a faithful priest. The consecration takes place by the words of one as much as the other; sins are remitted by both equally, because these actions belong to the priest, not to the man, and the sins of a priest do not take from him the indelible character of the priesthood.
The bad priest is highly culpable; but his sacerdotal character remains always the same; it is, indeed, that of Jesus Christ, which nothing can ever alter or destroy.
TWENTY-SIXTH OBJECTION. PRIESTS ARE MEN LIKE OTHERS; THE POPE AND THE BISHOPS ARE MEN; HOW CAN MEN BE INFALLIBLE? I AM WILLING TO OBEY GOD; BUT NOT MEN LIKE MYSELF.
Answer. That is as if a soldier were to say, "I am willing to obey the king; but I will not obey my general, nor my colonel, nor captain: for they are the king's subjects as much as I am."
Would you have much difficulty in answering him?
Nor have I any in answering you.
The Church, it is true, is composed of men; the Pope, the bishops, and priests are men.
But they are men whom Jesus Christ Himself has clothed with spiritual power and divine authority.
And on this account, they are not men like others.
The apostles, who were the first bishops of the Church, were sent to men by Our Lord Jesus Christ, to be like another Himself. To obey them, was not to obey men, but God, and Jesus Christ. To disobey them, and despise their teaching, was to disobey God, to despise Jesus Christ. "Whosoever despiseth you, despiseth me."
It is not to the man that I submit myself, it is to God, who exercises His authority over me through him.
The sole difference then between the commandments of God and the commandments of the Church, is that the first are directly addressed to us by God, the latter indirectly by His envoys; but it is always God who commands.
Neither is it, properly speaking, the man who is infallible in the Pope, it is Jesus Christ, it is God who clothes him with His truth, so that he may not be able to teach error to Christian nations.*
Therefore, in a matter of religious obedience, we must not take heed to the personal qualities of the Pope, the bishop, or the priest, who administers holy things to us, but only to his legitimate authority, to his character of pope, of bishop, or of priest.
This is why the defects, sometimes even the vices of priests (which, thank God, are rare), should not diminish in our minds the respect, faith, and love due to religion.
These weaknesses are attributable to the man, and not to the priest. They cannot attack the divine, sacerdotal character with which he is invested. Did the crime of Judas stain his ministry?
It is also the reason why the Mass, or the absolution, of a bad priest, are as valid as the Mass, the absolution, of a faithful priest. The consecration takes place by the words of one as much as the other; sins are remitted by both equally, because these actions belong to the priest, not to the man, and the sins of a priest do not take from him the indelible character of the priesthood.
The bad priest is highly culpable; but his sacerdotal character remains always the same; it is, indeed, that of Jesus Christ, which nothing can ever alter or destroy.
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre