Untitled - Saints' Books

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INSTR. ii.] Good Example of the Priest. 231
The
priest. And according to the Council of Trent,
integrity of those who govern is the safety of the
governed. But, on the other hand, how great the
havoc, how strong the temptations, caused by the bad
example of a priest My people, says the Lord, by the
!
mouth of the prophet Jeremias, have been a lost flock; their
shepherds have caused them to go astray. 3 " God," writes St.
Gregory, suffers from no one more than from priests
whom he has appointed for the salvation of others, and
whom he sees giving bad 1
example." St. Bernard says
that seculars, seeing the sinful life of the priest, think
no more of amending their conduct, but begin to despise
the sacraments, and the rewards and punishments of the
next life."
"Very many," writes the holy Doctor, "be
holding the wicked life of an ecclesiastic, indulge in
vices, despise the sacraments, feel no horror of hell, nor
the smallest desire of heavenly things."
For, like the
man of whom St. Augustine writes, they say: do
"Why
you correct me? Do not ecclesiastics do what I do?
c
And do you compel me to abstain from it ?" Our Lord
At the sight of the bad example of
said to St. Bridget:
the priest the sinner assumes confidence in sinning, and
begins to boast of sins which he before regarded as
shameful." Priests in the Church," says St. Gregory,
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2
c, i.
Propter Oniae pontificis pietatem." 2 Much. iii. i.
Integritas praesidentium salus est subditorum." Scss. 6, de Ref.
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Grex perditus factus est populus meus; pastores eorum seduxerunt
eos."
Jcf. 1 6.
4
Nullum "
majus prsejudicium, quam a Sacerdotibus, tolerat Deus,
quando eos, quos ad aliorum correctionem posuit, dare de se exempla
pravitatis In cernit." Evang. horn. 17.
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Plurimi, considerantes cleri sceleratam vitam, Sacramenta despiciunt,
vitia non evitant, non horrent inferos, coelestia minime concupiscunt."
T. I. s. 19, a. 2, c. i.
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faciam ?"
Quid mihi loqueris ? Ipsi clerici non illud faciunt, et me cogis ut
Scrm. 137, E. JR.
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Viso exemplo pravo Sacerdotum, peccator fiduciam peccandi su.-