Untitled - Saints' Books

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CHAP, x.] 1 he Vocation to the Priesthood. 195
whence thou comest, whither thou goest, and what a
short penance thou hast put between thy sins and thy
ordination. However, it is indispensable that thou do
not undertake to purify the conscience of others before
thou purifiest thy
own." Of those daring sinners who,
though full of bad habits, take priesthood, an ancient
author, Gildas, says,
It is not to the priesthood that
they should be admitted, but they should be dragged
to the pillory."
1
They, then, says St. Isidore, who are
still subject to the habit of any sin should not be pro
moted to holy Orders. 2
But he who intends to ascend the altar must not only
be free from sin, but must have also begun to walk in
the path of perfection, and have acquired a habit of
virtue. In our Moral Theology 3 we have shown in a
distinct dissertation (and this is the common opinion)
that if a person in the habit of any vice wish to be
ordained, it is not enough for him to have the disposi
tions necessary for the sacrament of penance, but that
he must also have the dispositions required for receiving
the sacrament of order; otherwise he is unfit for both:
and should he receive absolution with the intention of
taking Orders without the necessary dispositions, he
and the confessor who absolves him shall be guilty of a
grievous sin. For it is not enough for those who wish
to take holy Orders to have left the state of sin: they
must also, according to the words of Alexander III. (si
perfects vita et conversionis fiterii], cited in the preceding
paragraph, have the positive virtue necessary for the
ecclesiastical state. From the words of the Pontiff we
learn that a person who has done penance may exercise
Multi digniores erant ad catastam poenalem, quam ad Sacer-
2 "
dotium trahi." Cast, in eccl. ord.
Non sunt promovendi ad regimen Ecclesiae, qui adhUc vitiis sub
jacent." Sent. \. 3, c. 34.
3 J heol. moral. \. 6, n. 63, et s.