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"Those who understand the true nature of the Christian priesthood see the practical necessity of clerical continency. The very thought of a married clergy has something repugnant in it to the Catholic instinct, or as Brownson puts it vigorously: "There would be a sort of bigamy in it, for the priest is weeded to the Church, his true spouse and our spiritual Mother.: We do not claim an absolute necessity for clerical celibacy; but as the temporal power is ordinarily necessary to the Pope for the full and free exercise of his spiritual mission, so the celibate priest may be said alone to possess that complete freedom of self-sacrifice and devotion in the exercise of his sublime mission, by which he seeks to subject men to the dominion of Christ, teaching and sanctifying them, and thus leading them to seek the one thing necessary through which they are to attain eternal happiness. To be a priest means to replace Christ, to be guided by His spirit, and to live solely and directly for Him.

Priests do not marry, because it is the will (not the command) of our blessed Lord and the doctrine of His Apostles that they should lead single lives, unreservedly consecrated to the service of God. The Apostles, the first priests of Christ, abandoned home, and those among them who had been married previous to their being called to the apostolate left their wives to follow Him with undivided affection. And the divine Master was pleased with such a renunciation, and showed them as recompense for it their heavenly thrones near His own in His kingdom, making at the same time the like promise to all who would follow their example. (St. Luke XVIII, 29) St. Paul, that faithful exponent of Christ's doctrine, shows the preference of the celibate state to that of marriage: "It is good for them (the unmarried) if they so continue, even as I " (I. Cor. VII. 8) He would that all men to whom it has been given were even as himself, single. Why? In order to be free, to escape the troubles of family life, and to attend, without care for wife, to the service of Christ.

It is an unquestionable fact that clerical celibacy existed both in the East and West, every since days of the Apostles. If there was no written law for the priest, it was because it was deemed unnecessary. The idea of marrying would hardly suggest itself to the minds of those who gave up all and followed the example of Christ. Pope Gregory VIII did not introduce clerical celibacy. Before him more than two hundred councils and synods had upheld its obligation. He simply enforced the old rule with characteristic energy and perseverance.

There is not to be found a single instance in all history when the Church recommended marriage to any of her consecrated ministers. Yet she honors and reverences the Sacrament of Matrimony, and her priest is the guardian of its sanctity. But her mind is that priests should love Christ more than all the world. It is this love of Christ that inspires him to lead a chaste and continent life; and the Master gives the needed grace. Those who say it is impossible for man to lead a pure and single life are a lecherous crew, unworthy of attention; they would deliver man to the curse of a beastly necessity and bring human nature down to the level of the brute. Even pagans honored chastity and believed it possible for man to live continently. In nearly every sphere of life we find men devoting themselves to the carrying out of some great and noble design and foregoing the ties and the attractions of married life. The greatest theologians, philosophers, historians, and painters were men who led single lives. They had, so to speak, no time to marry; they lived in a clearer atmosphere than the ordinary mortals; they had higher ideals than " the female form divine." Thoughtful men, such as Leibnitz and Bohmer, considered single life the proper one for a man who devotes himself to the higher studies of philosophy and history.

No Candidate for Holy Orders is forced to pronounce the vow of chastity, and the Church never obliged any one to lead a single life. But none will deny that the Church has a perfect right to prescribe the conditions on which a man wishing to consecrate his life to God in the priesthood may find the realization of his desires. No one is compelled to become a priest; consequently no one is forced to take up the life of celibacy. The Church even warns the candidates for the priesthood against acting hastily; she tries them severely, puts them through a long and arduous course of studies and discipline, and when the final step is taken throws around her consecrated ministers a wall of protection in her canonical statutes. But in spite of all these precautions and safeguards a priest may and occasionally does take a low view of his sublime calling and defile the garb of sacerdotal holiness. Among the twelve Apostles of the Lord there was a traitor who thought more of money than of his exalted office. We do deny, however, that marriage is the best and only means to offset the concupiscence of the flesh. Does anybody dare maintain that there are less offenses against the marriage vow among the married ministers than there are against the vow of celibacy among Catholic priests? There are other means far more efficacious than marriage to neutralize and curb the evil inclinations of human nature, and these means are prayer, sacraments, mortification, and the avoidance of all dangerous occasions.

The man who consecrates himself to God in the priesthood and who devotes his whole life to works of religion, charity, and education, must be free from the trammels of family life, and from the engrossing cares of domestic obligation. "He that is with a wife is solicitous for the things of the world, how he may please his wife; and he is divided." (I. Cor. VII. 33)

A man who enters the Catholic priesthood does not take upon himself its obligations for money or money's worth. Those who flippantly assert that the priest makes money out of his profession, "like any other professional man," are "beating the air." He who would become a priest for money of a good living would be a fool. The priest's life is a trying one, full of care and privation. He is not "paid" for his labors, nor does he receive a salary in proportion to his talents and work. His education, his mental and bodily exertions, would demand a remuneration higher that that of any lawyer, physician, or surgeon in the land; he receives, generally speaking, a scanty support. The majority of the priests in America are poor, even penniless. A young man prepares himself for the priesthood because he feels a calling from God, and he desires to consecrate all his faculties of souls and body to Him. He has no intention "to make money like other men." He wishes to live poor like his Master. And as a priest he becomes the father of the orphans and widows. The bereaved and afflicted look up to him as their dearest and most generous friend. Look around you and count the number of orphan asylums, hospitals, and schools for the poor which Catholic priests have established and maintained within the last fifty years. (written in 1902) No earthly father is required to make such sacrifices as is the priest who devotes himself to the temporal and spiritual welfare of his flock. His purity and detachment are the secret of his priestly strength and influence. And those who refuse to love him are forced to respect and admire him as a man of God and of the people.

Source: Spiritual Pepper and Salt for Catholics and Non-Catholics, by Bishop William Stang

Nature and Necessity of Tradition.

Tradition embraces all those teachings concerning faith and morals imparted by Christ Himself, or by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, to the apostles, and which they preached orally although they did not commit them to writing.

Christ did not put His teachings into a written form, neither did He order the apostles to do so. He went about preaching and teaching (Matthew iv.23). To His apostles He simply said,"Go ye into the whole world and preach the Gospel to every creature...But they going forth preached everywhere, the Lord working withal, and confirming the word with signs that followed" ( Mark xvi. 15, 20). It was preaching, therefore, that is, the verbal expounding of the doctrine of Jesus, which, in conformity to the will of God, was to be foundation for faith, and not simply written forms. if some of the apostles wrote a few pages, it was always done to meet certain exigencies and for some personal and local purpose, and not, by any means, wit a view of giving even a summary of totality of the doctrines to be believed by all men unto salvation. This truth is explicitly laid down by St. John. He had written his Gospel later than the three other Evangelists, and partly with the intention to supply many things overlooked and omitted by them. yet at the end of his work he said, "Many other signs also did Jesus in the sight of His disciples, which are not written in this book. There are also many other things which Jesus did, which, if they were written every one, the world itself, I think, would not be able to contain the books that should be written" (John xx. 30; xxi.25).

Thus it is not difficult to discover that the apostles, their disciples, and the faithful generally, never depended on any writing as the only and exclusive rule of faith. On the contrary, hear what St. Paul says of communication by word of mouth, or Tradition. Writing to Timothy, he exhorts: "Thou, therefore, my son, be strong... and the things which thou hast heard of me by many witnesses, the same command to faithful men who shall be fit to reach others also" (2 Timothy ii. 1,2).

Moreover the Church of Christ could not have existed, nor would it exist today, if deprived of oral Tradition; for there was no written rule of faith for full ten years after the coming of the Holy Ghost. Then, too, Holy Writ is silent concerning many important doctrines, such as the number of the sacraments, their administration, the baptism of infants, the observance of Sunday instead of Saturday, the lawfulness of oaths, the inspiration of the Scriptures, and others. Again, doctrines mentioned in the Bible are not fully and satisfactorily explained. Necessarily the Holy Scriptures must be not only corroborated by Tradition but also made clear and intelligible.

The assumption that the Holy Scriptures are the only rule of faith from which every man must draw his belief, involves and produces countless absurd consequences. For instance, what is to become of those persons who cannot secure a copy of the Bible? before the invention of printing, a modern event, such persons were counted by millions. Others can not read, and no man is sure that his translation is true and exact.

The recognition of Tradition as a source of belief when combined with the written word, is as ancient as the Catholic Church itself. Fathers of the apostolic times, such as  St. Ignatius and St. Polycarp, who lived in the first and second centuries, exhorted the Christians of their day to preserve faithfully their religious traditions and preaching. In the second century we find St. Irenaeus complaining of the heretics, that they rejected Holy Scriptures and Tradition, although the latter had come from the apostles and had been sacredly preserved in the Church through all succeeding bishops. (Adv. Haer., 1,3.) Beside these there are countless other testimonies to the same effect.

In the course of times these ancient oral traditions were gradually committed to writing by the Fathers and were carefully handed down in the Church from generation to generation.

Sources of Tradition

The various sources whence ecclesiastical Tradition is drawn and then imparted by the Church-teaching, are, first, the decrees and definitions of Councils; secondly, the writings of the Fathers; thirdly, the recorded acts of martyrs and confessors; fourthly, the ancient books containing the history, teachings, and discipline of the Church; fifthly, the different rites, ceremonies, and prayers of the Church.

Whatever is laid down in these writings as universal doctrines of the Catholic Church, is, after the Sacred Scriptures, our second source of belief. Such it has been, too, from the earliest times. As early as the fifth century St. Vincent of Lerins wrote," We hold fast to that which has been believed by all, everywhere and in every age, for such is truly and undeniable Catholic."

Source: An explanation of the Apostles Creed 1907

To the souls which are faithful to Him, God promises a glorious victory over the powers of the world and of hell.

"If the divine action is hidden here below under the appearance of weakness, it is in order to increase the merit of souls which are faithful to it; but its triumph is none the less certain.

The history of the world from the beginning is but the history of the struggle between the powers of the world, and of hell, against the souls which are humbly devoted to the divine action. In this struggle all the advantage seems to be on the side of pride, yet the victory always remains with humility, shown in a dream to Nebuchadnezzer, is nothing but a confused medley of all the actions, interior and exterior, of the children of darkness. This is also typified by the beast coming out of the pit to make war, from the beginning of time, against the interior and spiritual life of man. All that takes place in our days is the consequence of this war. Monster follows monster out of the pit, which swallows, and vomits them forth again amidst incessant clouds of smoke. The combat between St. Michael and Lucifer that began in Heaven, still continues. The heart of this once magnificent angel has become, through envy, an inexhaustible abyss of every kind of evil. He made angel revolt against angel in Heaven, and from the creation of the world his whole energy is exerted to make more criminals among men to fill the ranks of those who have been swallowed up in the pit. This mystery of iniquity is the very inversion of the order of God; it is the order, or rather, the disorder, of the devil.

This disorder is a mystery because, under a false appearance of good, it hides irremediable and infinite evil. Every wicked man, who, from the time of Cain up to the present moment, has declared war against God, has outwardly been great and powerful, making a great stir in the world, and being worshiped by all. But this outward semblance is a mystery. In reality they are beasts which have ascended from the pit one after another to overthrow the order of God. But this order, which is another mystery, has always opposed to them really great and powerful men who have dealt these monsters a mortal wound. As fast as hell vomits them forth, Heaven at the same time creates fresh heroes to combat them. Ancient history, sacred and profane, is but a record of this war. The order of God has ever remained victorious and those who have ranged themselves on the side of God have shared His triumph, and are happy for all eternity. Injustice has never been able to protect deserters. It can reward them only by death, an eternal death.

Those who practice iniquity imagine themselves invincible. O God! Who can resist You? If a single soul has the whole world and all hell against it, it need have no fear if, by abandonment, it takes its stand on the side of God and His order.

The monstrous spectacle of wickedness armed with so much power, the head of gold, the body of silver, brass, and iron, is nothing more than the image of clay; a small stone cast at it will scatter it to the four winds of Heaven.

How wonderfully has the Holy Spirit illustrated the centuries of the world! So many startling revelations! So many renowned heroes following each other like so many brilliant stars! So many wonderful events!

All this is like the dream of Nebuchadnezzer, forgotten on awaking, however terrible the impression it made at the time.

All these monsters only come into the world to exercise the courage of the children of God, and, if these are well trained, God gives them the pleasure of slaying the monsters and sends fresh athletes into the arena.

And this life is spectacle to angels, causing continual joy in Heaven, work for saints on earth, and confusion to the devils in hell.

So all that is opposed to the order of God renders it only the more to be adored. All workers of iniquity are slaves of justice, and the divine action builds the heavenly Jerusalem on the ruins of Babylon.

Source: Abandonment to Divine Providence, by Fr. Jean-Pierre Caussade, S.J.

23. " Take great care not to violate the command of our Divine Master, namely:" Give not that which is holy to dogs; neither cast ye your pearls before swine" (Matt. 7.6). Let no unworthy person, no public sinner approach the holy table; withhold absolution from those unworthy of it, particularly those who persist in living in the proximate occasion of sin or constitute themselves such occasions for others; those, too, who live at enmity with their fellow men, refusing all attempts at reconciliation; those who remain constantly in the state of mortal sin without purpose or desire of amendment.

Be solicitous for the sanctity of the Sacrament of Matrimony, being particularly careful that non shall enter that holy state unless they are free from all canonical impediments and are thoroughly familiar with the obligations of marriage as well as its rights.

Regarding the Sacrament of Baptism, likewise be on guard against permitting unworthy godparents to assume the duties of sponsors, for these spiritual fathers and mothers cannot discharge the duties of their high office unless they are properly instructed and fitted for the task."

Source: The Priest his dignities and obligations, St. John Eudes

" Unless your justice abound more than that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven" — Matt. v. 20.

At all times men have had ideals of goodness which they looked up to and admired, and which the best among them have had the ambition to imitate. The popular ideal of the Jews when Christ came, was represented by the Pharisees, — men orthodox in faith, correct in life, ardent in the love of country, strict in the observance of the Law. Such men could not fail to win influence and popularity; and they enjoyed both in a high degree. The people who gathered round Our Savior on the Mount did not conceive of any form of life higher or better than what they had hitherto looked up to in their accredited teachers; yet He tells them plainly that their qualities were entirely insufficient to secure admittance into His kingdom. What a shock it must have been to them to hear this for the first time! But if they will only wait, the divine Teacher will show them how incomplete, and in most cases how hollow, were the lives they so admired.

From the facts of the Gospel narrative, and still more from the unsparing denunciations of Our Lord himself (Matt, xxiii. 13, and foll., Luke xvi. 39, and foll.), we may easily gather what were the shortcomings and vices of the Pharisees. Their "formalism" first of all, their exaggerated concern for externals, for the minutiae of the law, united with a practical disregard for its fundamental principles. Next, "their pride" and self-importance, revealing itself at every step, and leading to hardness of heart, and contempt for others. Finally, " their ostentation " and constant display of whatever in their lives and actions could win them the admiration of the people.

The Gospel is the opposite of all this. It leads men back to fundamental things, to the indestructible principles of justice and of love. It teaches them to act righteously for righteousness' sake, to look to God for approval, not to man. It keeps their weaknesses before them, humbles them, and makes them think more of others than of themselves. In a word, the Christian type is the exact opposite of that of the Pharisee, and something incomparably nobler and higher, even in the most unpretending of those who follow it. 

Indeed, the Pharisaic type, in its crude, unmitigated form, has become unbearable to the modern mind, fashioned by Christian traditions. But because it is, after all, true to man's natural instincts, it has not entirely disappeared from the world. Something of it may be found even in the life of a priest. He may be good, faithful, zealous ; yet, at the same time, self-important, exacting, sedulous in cultivating public opinion, eager for praise. His composed demeanor and his devotional practices may conceal even from himself much that is mean and selfish. In his concern for minor objects, he may "neglect the weightier things of the law : judgment, and mercy, and faith ; " and while " cleansing the outside of the dish" overlook the impurities it may contain.

A priest, too, may select and follow false ideals; nor is the thing at all uncommon Thus he may not fully believe in the purely Christian virtues, — such as humility, gentleness, self-denial — or in the special requirements of the priestly character. He may not even believe in the higher forms of natural virtue, all based on self-sacrifice. His ideal may be practically that of the popular priest, the successful priest ; that is, successful in doing external work, or in reaching positions of honor or emolument. His principal ambition may be to secure what will lighten, and lengthen, and sweeten existence — just like any man of the world. And yet, " unless his justice abound more than that " of those men to whom he looks up with envy, he is unfit for the work of the  priesthood; and, if he has assumed its responsibilities and fails to bear them, he is unfit for the kingdom of heaven.

The truth is, the ideal of the priesthood is not an open question at all. What sort of man a priest ought to be, what is implied in his sacred character, what he is really pledged to by the reception of orders, is determined almost as precisely as the doctrines of faith, and has varied as little in the course of Christian ages. It can be gathered from the Gospel; it is found in St. Paul ; it is spread out in the pages of the Fathers, in the enactments of councils, in the teachings of the Saints ; and everywhere it is visibly and unmistakably the same.

Source: Daily thoughts for priests, Rev. Fr. John Hogan, 1899

 Answer: They are of use in saving souls! Certainly, here is an employment which is at least as good as many others.

The mechanic works upon matter; the priest works on the soul. As much as the soul is higher than matter, so much is the priest's work higher than all the labors of the earth.

The priest continues the great labor of the salvation of mankind. Jesus Christ, his God and his Model, began it; His priests continue through all ages.

After His example, the priest goes about doing good. He is a man who belongs to all; his heart, his time, his health, his diligence, his purse, his life, belong to all; above all, to the lowly ones of the earth, to children, to the poor, the neglected, those who weep, and who are friendless. He expects nothing in exchange for this devotedness; most frequently, indeed, he receives only insults, abominable calumnies and ill treatment. True disciple of his Divine Master, he replies only by continuing to do goo.

What a life! What superhuman abnegation!

In public calamities, civil wards, contagious diseases, in times of cholera, when the Protestants ministers and philanthropists think of personal preservation, the priest is to be seen exposing his life and health to relieve and save his brethren; such was Monseigneur Affre, Archbishop of Paris, on the barricades; such were Belzunce and St. Charles Borromeo, in the time of the plage at Marseilles and Milan; such, during the cholera in 1832 and 1849, all the clergy of Paris and so many other towns, who made themselves the public servants of the whole people.

Msgr. Affre

This, then, is the use of priests! I should like to know if those who attack them are of more use.

The ungrateful wretches! They are never weary of loading with insults him whom they summon to their bedside in time of sorrow or privation, who has blessed them in their earlier years, and who never ceases to pray for them.

All the miseries of our country arise from our not practicing what the priests teach. And unfortunate France, torn with civil discords and political commotions, may apply to herself the language addressed to the chaplain of one of the Paris prisons by a poor convict, who had returned to God with all his heart. The priest had given him a little Christian's manual. "Ah Father!" he said one day, showing the little book, "If I had known the contents of this, and had practiced these maxims all my life, I should not have done what I have now done, nor should I have been where I now am!"

If France had always known, and if she now knew what priests really do teach, and if she had always practiced those doctrines, and continued doing so, she would not have been tossed about by three or four revolutions in the space of fifty years, and be reduced to ask herself in the present day, Am I about to perish entirely? Can I still hope to be saved from destruction?

She may hope to be saved, if she will again be truly Catholic! She may hope to be saved if she will but take heed to the ministers of Him who SAVES the world.

The priesthood is then the safety of France! For without religion society would be destroyed.

Her children, then, owe honor, veneration, gratitude, more than ever to the priestly character. Those who repulse the idea have not the intelligence of our age or country.

Away with these worn-out prejudices, then. Away with these coarse and injurious epithets, with which the blind impiety of Voltaire and his followers have so long assailed the Catholic Priesthood!

 Let us respect our Priests. If we see imperfections, even vices occasionally, among them, let us remember that we must ascribe to the man all that belongs to frailty.

Let us endeavor, in those cases, not to look at the man, to see nothing but the priest; as a priest, he is always worthy of respect, and his ministry is always a holy one; for he is the perpetuator of the office of Jesus Christ, the great High Priest, through successive ages, and it is of him that the Savior has said, " He that heareth you, heareth Me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth Him that sent you."

Source:  Short Answer to Common Objections Against Religion, by Louis Gaston Adrien de Segur

The faith of the Curé of Ars was his whole science; his book was our Lord Jesus Christ. He sought for wisdom nowhere but in Jesus Christ, in His death and in His cross. To him no other wisdom was true, no other wisdom useful. He sought it not amid the dust of libraries, not in the schools of the learned, but in prayer, on his knees, at his Master's Feet, covering His Divine Feet with tears and kisses; in the presence of the holy tabernacles, where he passed his days and nights before the crowd of pilgrims had yet deprived him of liberty day and night, he had learnt it all.

Source: The Spirit of the Cure of Ars by John E. Bowden 1865

"Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice's sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Matt. V.10

There is nothing for which Christ seems more concerned to prepare His Apostles than the active, violent opposition of the world. He warns them repeatedly that they must not expect to fare better than Himself; that they will have to suffer all manner of ill treatment on His account; that they will be taken up and dragged before unscrupulous judges, cast into prison and tortured; that their very friends and relatives will turn against them and betray them; finally that they will be an object of universal distrust and hatred among their fellow-men.

Subsequent events abundantly verified the Savior's prediction. The lives of the apostles, so far as we are acquainted with them, seem to have been full of suffering and trials, and all ultimately crowned by martyrdom. St. Paul, the apostle whom we know best, tells the Corinthians what he had to endure. "Of the Jews five times did I receive forty stripes, save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned; thrice I suffered shipwreck; a night and day I was in the depths of the sea. In journeying often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils from my own nation, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils from false brethren. In labor and painfulness, in much watching, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. " 2 Cor. ii. 25....

For three hundred years the history of the Church is a history of persecutions; nor did they cease with the conversion of Constantine. Under many of his successors, confiscation, exile, prison, and death were the lot of Christians true to their faith. In deed it may be said that at all times the good have had to suffer, and to suffer "for justice's sake;" that is, because of their very goodness. The dishonest, the corrupt dislike them, as interfering with their pursuits and their pleasures, and because the very life of the just man is a protest against their methods. It is thus that they are described in the book of Wisdom: (ii.12), "Let us therefore lie in wait for the just because he is not for our turn (he is of no use to us), and he is contrary to our doings, and upbraideth us with transgressions of the law, and divulgeth against us the sins of our way of life. He is become a censurer of our thoughts. He is grievous to us, even to behold, for his life is not like other men's and his ways are very different."

And so will it be, St. Paul tells us, to the end of the world. "All that will live godly shall suffer persecution." At the hands of the evil-minded, the good will be made to pay the penalty of their goodness; the faithful and fervent will have to bear the criticism of those who choose not to follow in their footsteps; converts to the true faith will forfeit position or fail to reach it because they have not closed their eyes to the light; born Catholics will seek in vain for what they might easily reach if they were known to be indifferent to religious truth, or to have eschewed all belief; men of integrity who hold office or fill positions of trust will be driven from them because they refuse to share in the dishonesty of others or interfere with their crooked ways; at every turn of life the conscientious will have to suffer for conscience's sake.

The priest does not escape the common law. He too has occasionally to suffer for justice's sake. He may be led by a simple sense of duty or by the impulse of zeal to a manner of action which is not approved of by all. He is often found fault with, criticized, not only by the ignorant, the thoughtless, and the wicked, but sometimes by good people, and even by his fellow-priests. But he finds an encouragement that never fails in the voice of his conscience and in the promise of his Divine Master: "Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven." Yet, he must be sure that what he has to endure is not of his own making. With the best intentions a man may be injudicious in his action, indiscreet in his methods. His firmness may degenerate into obstinacy, his zeal into intolerance. He may, under the name and cover of duty, become self-righteous, narrow-minded, impatient of contradiction, thus awakening opposition and leading to trials hard to bear, but for which there is no reward.

"It is good for us sometimes to suffer contradictions, and to allow people to think ill and slightingly of us, even when we do and mean well.

"These are often helps to humility, and rid us of vain glory. For then we more earnestly seek God to be witness of what passes within us, when outwardly we are despised by men and little credit is given to us. " Imitation i, 12.

Source: Daily Thoughts for Priests, Very Rev. J. B. Hogan S.S., DI president of St. John's Seminary Brighton, Mass 1899

The Church is the spouse of Christ, but the priest is her guardian. The Church is an army in battle array, but the priest is her general. The Church is a vessel sailing through the storms of persecution, but the priest is her pilot. The Church is the mystic body of Christ and the faithful are its members, but the priest is the principal member of this mystic body. By the eyes of the priest Jesus Christ watches over His flock; by the feet of the priest Jesus carries to every nation the gospel of peace; by the heart of the priest our Lord diffuses everywhere that divine charity without which all is dead. The Church is the people of acquisition, bought at a great price; but the priest is the leader, the teacher, the prince of this chosen generation. The Church is the sacred edifice, built by divine Wisdom itself; but the priest is the administrator of this palace; he is the pillar of the Church upon which rests the whole world. God the Father created the world without the priest, but it is only through him that he saves it. God the Son has redeemed the world without the priest, but is is only by him that he applies His blood to the souls of men, and secures the fruits of His copious redemption. You can hardly name a single blessing of the Holy Ghost of which the priest is not the chosen instrument. Indeed, as St. Bernard declares that all graces come to us through Mary, so we can say in truth that all happiness, all graces, all heavenly gifts come to us through the priest.

Source: The Catholic Priesthood, by Fr. Michael Muller, 1885

It is the priest who preserved society from corruption and utter destruction. Far better a few good priests filled with zeal and self- denial than a crowd of worldly-minded priests who seek only themselves. Where the priests are few and virtuous, the priesthood is respected and the people are well-disposed. Where, on the contrary, the priests are numerous and worldly-minded the priesthood is but little esteemed, grace is abused, and the people become indifferent, and hardened. and easily take scandal.

Source: The Catholic Priesthood, Rev. Fr. Michael Muller 1885