Clericalism is destructive and provokes the reaction of an irrational and even murderous anticlericalism. In attempting to get the laity to pay some attention to what priests are telling them (not a bad idea), the Church has made some wild claims about the clergy.
Innocent III claimed that scripture called priests gods: “‘Diis no detrahes,’ [Ex. 22:28] sacerdotes intelligens, qui propter excellentiam ordinis et offici dignitatem nomine nuncupator” (You shall not revile gods, meaning priests, who are called by the name of gods because of the excellency of the order and the dignity of the office).
This sort of rhetoric gave the clergy a severe case of the notions. St. Alphonse de Ligouri, a doctor of the Church, taught that “in obedience to the words of his priests – HOC EST CORPUS MEUM – God Himself descends on the altar, that He comes wherever they call Him, and as often as they call Him, and places Himself in their hands, even though they should be His enemies. And after having come, He remains, entirely at their disposal.” In 1907 the Rev. Pierre Chaignon told his fellow priests that they were like Mary “for the Word of God made flesh puts Himself under our control as He had put himself under hers and obeys us as He deigned to obey her.” In 1974 in The Faith of Millions: the Credentials of the Catholic Religion (Our Sunday Visitor) the Rev. John O’Brien claimed “The priest speaks and lo! Christ, the eternal and omnipotent God bows his head in humble obedience to the priest’s command.” Such incredible pretensions could go to a priest’s head.The Rev. Edward Donelan of the Santa Fe diocese was the ultimate clericalist. Someone who heard his Holy Thursday sermon reported that Donelan preached:
that a priest carries a terrible burden and responsibility in that they, from and above all other men, have been chosen by God as His priests; that during the consecration, the priest had the authority, and the terrible responsibility, to command God to be present at the altar; that God, because He had allowed this man to be a priest after the order of Melchizedek, must obey the priests and transubstantiate the bread and wine; and that we, the miscreant parishioners, must do everything we can to support our priests as they face this experience daily. Some of that sounds like good Catholic doctrine. Some of it sounds dangerous.”
It was very dangerous. Donelan thought that if he could control God, he could certainly control the bodies of the boys at his reform school, La Casa de los Muchachos. He sexually abused the boys until one ran away to escape the abuse and froze to death in the New Mexico Mountains.
As Montes warned, divinizing a priest has catastrophic consequences. I also believe there is the matter of the First Commandment.
One can accept the Catholic theology of the ministerial priesthood – yes, the priest is ontologically different from the laymen, because he receives a sacramental character which, like the baptismal character. Changes his soul permanently and therefore cannot be repeated. But the far greater sacrament of baptism does not have all the effects that clericalists claim for the lesser sacrament of orders. When a priest performs a sacrament, it is Christ who performs it – Augustine made that clear, in his controversy with the Donatists. And the church, like any organization, needs a government and good order and reasonable obedience. But Catholics seem to have a thirst of idols, and the clergy, including the popes, are too willing to be made into idols.
The ministerial priesthood is given to a man so that he can serve God’s people. It is for them (and for the glory of God) that one is called to be a priest, not for one’s self. I always thought it was good that the washing of the feet immediately follows the homily on Holy Thursday. It reminds the priest that his role is to serve. Well, at least ideally it should do that.
Mr. Podles dont’ forget that you don’t need to wear those clothes to be part of the clerical way of life, many liberal priests have that bad habit? disease ?
There are NO elites in Christ. We are all on the same raft!! Not on the same “boat” because on a ship there are higher and lower decks and different “classes” of passengers. We are NEVER told who celebrated the Eucharist when the follower of Jesus met BECAUSE there was no one “special” person with “magic” words and fingers!!
Self-promoting rhetoric aside, what kind of god do these men worship – a god who can be here instead of there, more instead of less, now instead of then, more present inside a box than outside? The anthropomorphizing of God, elsewhere described as limitless in space, time, and other ways, is as bad as the self-supernaturalization involved. If these notions are in fact currently held by some clerics, it’s time for serious re-education in Ontology 101 or their prompt dismissal for cause. The cause is considerably more profound in its implications than, for example, whether or not both males and females should be included in that priesthood.
We have always been told to pray for clerics because of the grave responsibility that rests on their souls as Shepherds of the flock. I fear for the Bishops especially. They have led individual souls into the darkness of theological confusion, given their Impramaturs to catechisms which were later condemned as heretical, opened the doors of the seminaries and Orders by approving the apointments of sodomites as vocation directors, disregarded the need for Exorcists and now allowed any priest the appointment. Meanwhile, amongst their own ranks, they have kept silent about their brother perverts and those derelect in their duties.All in the name of ,”Unity”. When Christ returns will He find any Faith on earth?
I am from New Mexico and we all knew about Father Donelan and his “boys”. We have had so many pedophile priests dumped here in our mountain area , that whole generations of Hispanic children have been ruined.
Wonderful post. However, we must be careful using the word “ontologically.” It means something that truly exists, not something that is at the level of one’s act of being, or esse. Confusion here has led to the problem of priests being thought to be a higher order of being. They are given a real and permanent grace of a character, which is a habitus or capability – NOT a level of being. When JPII and others returned to speaking of the “ontological character”, they opened a can of worms. Yes, it is ontological in that it is not analogical or symbolical. But it is not a quality of the person’s being, but a permanent quality of a person’s soul. Yes, the soul is the principle of being, the act, but the quality is a quality, a habit, a disposition, a capability, a modification of functionality. I am just so tired of this being misunderstood I had to post it somewhere. Thanks for the opportunity.
You know, Leon, I now understand why I never heard any mention, let alone discussions, about God’s “sovereignty” in Catholic sermons or in any Catholic context. That “sovereignty” would conflict with the whole idea of a priest commanding God or His Son. Leon, if what you say is true and has been a part of popular Catholic piety for centuries, no wonder that Pope Leo XIII had the vision he had. If you don’t know what that is, just Google it.
I’m sorry, but I find these words from the mouth of priests and of a saint (!) not only to be dangerous, but heretical. It is not the apostles who commanded Christ to give them His Body and Blood, rather it is Christ who freely gave Himself and then commanded them to continue the ritual. We are at the mercy of a loving God who continues to be good to us even when we are not. God save us from our pride!
Father Michael, thank you for your humble reflection on the priesthood.
I look at pictures like that and I wonder if in order to be a good priest y0u had to play with dolls as a kid.
I mean … seriously. What is it with the dress up stuff?
I think Benedict should require all bishops and priests to wear Dickies work clothes and volunteer some of their time with the local fire department. It might flush some of the estrogen out of the system.
Croyhill, I think the dress has medieval roots. It reflects how powerful figures in monarchies dressed at that time, and the Church was trying to project an image of power.
A friend’s daughter attended Easter Mass at Sts Peter and Paul Basilica in Philadelphia last Sunday. Cardinal Justin Rigali was the celebrant. The media did not report the incident of the old woman screaming at the Cardinal and being removed by security guards.”You are not God!”
……..and no it was not me, although……..
Good for that old woman! May there be many more like her, old and young! The revolution against this clerical dictatorship that mocks God and usurps His place in the hearts and minds of many Catholics must begin post-haste!
Very sane post.
And I have to agree with Crowhill. I find it very distatesful, reradless of how it started. What kind of man would want to dress up like that? It does make you wonder.
To most simple, uneducated Hispanic farmers and sheepherders in my village, the priests were like “gods”. No one questioned their decisions. One of the priests fell in love with a local teen-aged girl and had to marry her when she got pregnant. The rest were more interested in young boys who hung around the rectory, seeking attention.
Father Gerald Fitzgerald s.P., the founder of the Servants of the Paraclete said in “A Prophet for the Priesthood by Father John Hardon S.J.” that Jesus would not be here unless a priest had consecrated a Host at Mass. (page 24). I joined the Servants of the Paraclete in 1965 and I was given the name “Father Pius” because they needed to have someone “in authority” to sponsor the “Father Pius Apostolate” to collect money for the “guest priests” who were being taken care of by the Order. A lot of my “dogmatic sayings” were printed on holy cards and one day a Mother Superior showed up to see the saintly Father Pius to ask if he would give a retreat for her young novices. I assured her that Father Pius was in deep contemplation, deep in the woods meditating on the mysteries of the Most Holy Trinity and couldn’t possibly be disturbed!
Jacobo, would you say the problem of boy loving priests was/is as serious as here? This goes against the image many of us have of clerical culture in Latin countries.
Father Ed Donelan was a sick man! HE was at my church in Torreon!!!