Untitled - Rore Sanctifica

168 Defects and their Remedy in Re-union.
religious life who were not fitted for celibacy.
The nun s is a marriage with which the idea of
any other becomes sacrilegious,
but the same
cannot be said of the priest s ordination. Never
theless, of the two evils universal marriage or
compulsory celibacy, the last is the least so far
as the people are concerned. But by steadily
regarding and treating the married priest
as a
man who has chosen the lower instead of the
higher path, the clergy might easily be brought
to aspire to the life without the injury that
often arises when it is forced upon them. The
theory of a country like England served by
thousands of self-devoted priests whose hearts
and lives are given to their work alone, is of
course very lovely, but impossible to realize,
except perhaps in times of persecution, and even
then, the general tone of society cannot be
hindered from taking effect on the priesthood.
Although with more hesitation, we may yet
venture to doubt whether the extreme stringency
of the rule for fasting Communion might not
be relaxed, or dispensations given with more
facility; and also, whether, as at present
observed, the spirit
of the rule has not been
sacrificed to the letter. Surely its object must
be to prevent the irreverence of communion
soon after a meal, from which every believer in
the Real Presence must shrink ; but there is
nothing in the present Roman rule to hinder a