Untitled - Saints' Books

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164 Material for Sermons. [PARTI.
priest that does not take care of the clerics or of
the people should be punished, and if he perseveres in
his carelessness, let him be deposed." Why, says St.
Leo, should you take the honor of the priesthood if you
will not labor for the salvation of souls ? 2
The Council
of Cologne declared that if a person take the Order of
priesthood without the intention of performing the
office of vicar of Jesus Christ, or of saving souls, a great
and certain chastisement is reserved for him, as for a
wolf and a robber, which he is called in the Gospel. 3
St. Isidore does not hesitate to charge with mortal
sin the priest that neglects to instruct the ignorant and
to convert sinners. 4 And St. John Chrysostom says,
on account of their own, but on account of the
sins of others that they did not prevent, priests are
often condemned to
r
hell." St. Thomas, speaking of
a simple priest, says that the priest that fails either
through negligence or ignorance to assist souls, renders
himself accountable to God for all the souls that are
lost through his fault/ St. John Chrysostom says the
same: If priests take care only of their own souls, and
1 "
Presbyter qui cleri vel populi curam non gerit, segregatur; et si
in secordia perseveret, deponatur." Can. 57.
"Qua
conscientia honorem sibi debltum vendicant, qui pro animabus
2
sibi creditis non laborant."
Ep. ad Ttirrib. c. 16.
3 "
Sacerdotio initiandus non alio affectu accedere debet, quam ad
submittendos humeros publico muneri vice Christi in Ecclesia. Qui
alio affectu sacros Ordines ambiunt, hos Scriptura lupos et latrones
appellat. Quod ingens ultio tandem certo . . . subsequetur."
4 Sacerdotes "
pro populorum iniquitate damnantur, si eos aut
ignorantes non erudiant aut peccantes non arguant." Sent. 1. 3, c.
46.
5 "
Snepe non damnantur propriis peccatis, sed alienis quae non
coercuerunt."
6 "
Si enim Sacerdos, ex ignorantia vel negligentia, non exponat
populo viam salutis, reus erit apud Deum animarum illarum quse sub
De Officio Sac.
ipso perierunt."