Saint Anthony Mary Claret
Some Matters Which In My Opinion Should Be Dealt With at the Holy Council
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- Bu səhifədəki naviqasiya:
- Some Evils That Should Be Remedied
- Boys for the Priesthood and Religious Life
- Two Ways to Choose These Boys
- B) Religious Life
- Meetings [November, 1869]
Some Matters Which In My Opinion Should Be Dealt With at the Holy Council Mss Claret, XII, 339-341.
In order to be good, the students must confess and receive Communion every eight days or every fortnight, or at the very least every month, both during their courses and during vacation time. Those experienced in directing youth know this very well. Those studying Grammar should be made to learn their Catechism well. Those studying Rhetoric should do the same, and also Pintón on Religion or another similar work. Those studying Philosophy, Pintón. Those studying Theology, the Holy Bible. * * * Now that the Bishops of the Province of Tarragona will be meeting here, they will have an opportunity to touch on some points of the Constitutions that are read during the four festivities of the year. * * * On mixed marriages. Conditions for the education of their children. On civil marriage. * * *
To petition for the definition of the Assumption of Mary Most Holy as a dogma of faith.1527 St. Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church.1528 * * *
The Spanish Bishops must see to it that they are able to choose personnel for canonries, etc., etc. For good service rendered, and also to stimulate it, remunerate virtue and learning. Also, to avoid simony, ambitions, pretensions, meddling in politics and seeking partisan votes, etc., etc. (see Notes, p. 93).1529 See The Archbishop of Cologne, p. 147.1530 Some Evils That Should Be Remedied MSS Claret XII, 418 1. There should be no mixed marriages. If a certain man or woman wishes to marry, he or she must be obliged to educate the children in the catholic religion. See La Paix, page xxxiii. 2. Catholic children should be educated in different schools from those of the members of sects. La Paix, p. [xxxiii]. Indifferentism arises from [not observing] these two points. 3. It is tyranny to oblige Catholics to attend non-Catholic Institutions or Universities in order to fulfill their course-obligations and be able to be graduated. La Paix, p. xxviii, etc., etc. 4. Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God, the things that are God’s.1531 La Paix, p. 10. The wicked say: “Make the Church fit into the State.” But that would be wishing to make the whole fit into the part. La Paix, p. 17. 2. Notes on Themes for the Council Introductory Note Council topics dealing with seminaries and the religious life sparked a number of ideas in Claret’s mind. He summed them up in these notes, which are a proof of his interest and experience in such matters. They contain a mixture of practical suggestions on selecting and fostering priestly and religious vocations, a few didactic guidelines and some spiritual concerns. Claret would later recall some of these points in his address to the Spanish Bishops who were attending the Council. He vigorously defends certain themes affecting the religious life, such as the spirit of Christ which should permeate it, its reform and means to carry out that reform. We have arranged the Saint’s notes according to the following outline: A) Seminaries – Boys for the priesthood and religious life – Minor seminaries – Boys
– Clerical seminaries – Spiritual director – Clerical dress – Goods
– Liturgical furnishings B) Religious life – Spirit – Reform
– What ought to be done. Text
A) Seminaries MSS Claret XII, 337 On Seminaries. Major. Minor. Latin teachers. A short book of selections taken from St. Bernard,1532 St. Gregory1533 and St. Leo.1534 Care of ordinands. Clerical dress. No cohabitation with women. Obligation to preach. Obligation to catechize. A single author for rubrics, for catechizing.
MSS Claret XII, 440, 419-421 In order to have good boys for the priesthood and the religious life, it would be necessary to hire Latin teachers in towns, as well as a man to direct them.1535 Every year they should make a five-day retreat. Every month they should confess and receive Communion [in a body]. Every Sunday they should serve in choir and at the altar in the morning, and attend Vespers of the Virgin and a talk on Doctrine in the evening. Rubrics and plainchant. Every morning, Mass and fifteen minutes of meditative reading, with pauses, on the Passion. In the evening, fifteen minutes of reading from Rodríguez, or on Feast days a reading about the mystery of the day, or on Saturdays about Mary. The boys most suitable for the priestly and religious life are those brought up in villages and small towns. God saw to it that they were born and bred there so that they might be innocent, God-loving and God-fearing. Of those born and raised in big cities and towns, one could say: erraverunt ab utero.1536 The latter are born and grow up weak. They breathe an atmosphere that is twice bad, physically and morally. What they continually see and hear around them is love for our threefold concupiscence.1537 This truth is taught us by natural reason and historical evidence. St. John the Baptist, Fr. Peter Faber,1538 St. Vincent de Paul,1539 St. John Francis Regis1540 and many, many others were raised in villages. Two Ways to Choose These Boys First way. The Prelate does so when he goes to make his pastoral visit of the diocese. These boys are like forest flowers or stars in the sky. That is how they differ, that is how they shine: by their simplicity, candor, piety and attachment to the Church... This is how Fr. Bartholomew of the Martyrs, the Abp. of Braga,1541 did it; read his life. This was the practice of Fr. Talavera, the Abp. of Granada...1542 Ven. John of Avila.1543 The Well-Instructed Seminarian, vol. I, pp. 17-18.1544 How did they manage to do it? Let us imitate them ourselves, and we will have what they had: many priests and good ones. Second way. Teach Latin to well-inclined boys from villages and small towns, through the services of their pastors, economes, assistant curates or priests, or of those laymen we call Dóminies. For this purpose it would be good to keep at hand a little book I wrote to this end, entitled, The Vocation of Boys.1545 From these schools or docencies, to which, as I have said, only those endowed with good qualities will be admitted, there will emerge young men who will in time become good priests and good religious, like Fr. Granada.1546 Let us all pray to God and the Blessed Virgin Mary that this truth may be realized and put into effect, even if it produce no more than one. Our enemies will be at great pains to see that this truth is not known. Even some of those who do know it will be led by laziness or other pretexts and excuses not to put it into effect. Finally, even some of those who put it into effect will grow weary and abandon it. But despite the efforts of the enemy, we must by all means foster this project, for in this way many boys will at least have the opportunity to learn Latin, which they would otherwise not have. It would also be easier for their parents, who would not have to pay for their maintenance during their studies. And as the boys would be living with their families, they would preserve their innocence and devotion under their father’s, and especially their mother’s shadow.1547 For boys, even among themselves, are like fine crystal, easily in danger of breaking if not handled carefully. To select boys for the clergy, it would be well to visit elementary or primary schools. See the book, The Abp. of Cologne, p. 144.
MSS Claret XII, 423 Besides these schools in villages and small towns, there should also be minor seminaries. In these minor seminaries, Spanish and Latin grammar will be taught to those who do not know them, as well as Rhetoric and Philosophy, in different classes. Christian Doctrine. Religion, by Pintón or another author. The more advanced and talented may be taught mathematics. Plainchant, and on Sundays and Feast days they can help the pastor by singing at Mass, vespers, etc. For this they might use the Little Chant Book. 1548 On Sundays and Feast days they will likewise be able to help the pastor to catechize. Boys MSS Claret XII, 425-428 The boys who study Latin in these schools or in minor seminaries should all have the Little Catechism1549 Also a Book of Devotions, which might be the Straight Path or another such work, or the first volume of the Well-Instructed Seminarian.1550 Every day they will have morning and night prayers. If they live at home, they might say them with one or more others, or even with all the members of the family, as this would be a very useful way to sanctify families. Their professor or teacher should be informed whether and how they are fulfilling this duty. They will also have a period of spiritual reading everyday. Books that might be assigned to them: Govinet’s Instruction of Youth, printed by the Religious Publishing House,1551 or Pintón’s Historical Compendium of Religion.1552 On all Feast days, all of these students will attend morning and evening church services. They will gather at school as on other days, and then go all together to the church. At school, during the week, all of them will learn the rubrics for serving Mass and other services, as well as Catechism and Plainchant. In this way they will be able to be occupied on Sundays. Two of them, or as many as their teacher assigns, will serve the main Mass; the others will sing in choir. In the evening, they will ask one another their Catechism. They will likewise ask one another questions from their Pintón or Compendium of Religion. Clerical Seminaries There will be two classes of Seminaries: minor and major. There can be two or more minor seminaries in each diocese. There will be only one major seminary in each diocese and, if possible, it should be within the purview of the Prelate. Here one would assign the reading of the book entitled Notes...,1553 and also keep in view the Well-Instructed Seminarian, a little work in two volumes. Care should also be taken to avoid one reef on which many seminarians have foundered, namely, that of some Prelates who, with the best intentions but with fatal results, have crammed too many seminarians – in fact, all the seminarians in their Diocese – into one Seminary, only to find that they could not supply them with the sufficiency of confessors needed in order to direct them properly. Thus, when a general Communion is held, they go for confession to the first priest they meet, who neither knows them nor puts any special effort into directing them toward the most holy aim that seminarians have or should have resolved to follow. Their confessions seem more like those of soldiers than of true clerics. For it is one thing to explain a lesson in class, but quite another to hear the confession and direct the conscience of each student. Such a concentration of persons was once practiced in hospitals, but experience has shown that it was most detrimental to patients. It is also detrimental to seminarians, and more so, proportionally, than to the sick.
Every boy needs to have a good Spiritual Director. Read the Well-Instructed Seminarian I, p. 306, and the Manuel de Piété, p. 256.1554 It would be well for students to make their general Communion in groups that go on different days, so that they will be better able to make a good confession.
Mss. Claret, XIII, 431. Those ordained in Sacred Orders, be they priests, canons, Bishops or Cardinals, should all without exception wear clerical garb. They will thus be better guarded, since this clothing is a Guardian Angel to them, protecting them as a rind protects the fruit and as bark protects the tree.1555 They would thus inspire more respect and would in fact be better respected. Children kiss the hand of those they see wearing clerical garb, but not that of others, as I have observed. It is like Samson’s locks.1556 Not to wear it is a lack of virtue and of mortification. What would we say of a religious who did not wear the habit of his Order? What, then, shall we say of the clergyman?
MSS Claret XII, 433-43 Jesus Christ did not have even a stone on which to rest his head.1557 In the Holy Gospel this is one of the things he most strongly inculcates, going so far as to say that anyone who does not renounce all things cannot be his disciple.1558 Therefore they [clergy] should not build or buy a house, lands, a farm, or anything at all. They should not enrich their relatives or servants, etc... What they have, they should invest in doing good... As a punishment, God allows the wicked to rob them and the people to murmur against them. Let them trust in God, and work as hard as they can for the glory of God and the salvation of souls, and they will not lack what is necessary. Church Furnishings We must be more intent on acquiring virtues than on acquiring furnishings for the worship of God. God allowed the temple of the Hebrews to be destroyed twice.1559 God has allowed the wicked to rob temples and church furnishings. I am not saying that there should be no adornments in churches, but it seems to me that they should be of white metal or copper, gilt or silver-plated, and thus they will not call attention or arouse the avarice of the wicked or invite thieves to steal them. How many such adornments have been stolen by wicked governments! How many churches have been looted by thieves! Benedict XIV counseled the same.1560
MSS Claret XII, 371-373, 377-379 Spirit On May 19, 1869, I happened to be in the cell of a wise and holy religious who had been called to Rome as a theologian for the ecumenical council.1561 He told me that around this time he had read a sort of moral tale. It seems that a cart driver chanced to see a man lying in the middle of the road, apparently asleep. He stopped his cart in order to avoid injuring the man. He called, but the man didn’t answer, so he lifted him and tried to make him stand up. But the man leaned now to the left, now to the right, now forwards and now back, so that whichever way the driver tried to stand him up, he fell back the way he had been before. Finally, the driver said to himself: Now I can see that this poor fellow isn’t sleeping: he has no spirit... He’s dead.
A community, a religious order, if it has no spirit, will not last. Qui non habet spiritum Christi, hic non est eius.1562 When God sends a man of spirit; that is the man who must bring about a reform. To reform an Institute is to take it back to resume the first form that God gave it through its Founder, which others have marred through their inobservance or laxity. The spirit is lost through the inobservance of apparently small things which are, however, matters of great consequence. Like Samson’s locks1563 or a tree’s bark. Qui spernit modica... . 1564 Quia super pauca fuisti fidelis, supra multam te constituam… . 1565 God dearly loves a man’s faithfulness in little things. God calls us by inspirations, readings, sermons, confessors, etc., etc. He tells us: Si vis ad vitam ingredi... .1566 Si vis perfectus esse... .1567 When a man is faithful... If he hears God’s voice and does not harden his heart....1568 If he answers: Loquere, Domine, quia audit servus tuus... . 1569
When a man is faithful to his vocation and corresponds with great force of will, he can do very much. And if he is persevering and does not allow himself to slacken in what he has begun, he can do things beyond all explaining – always, however, with the help of God’s grace. Happy the man who is faithful..., who does not presume to rely on himself, but puts all his trust in God; who attributes nothing to himself and all to God; who says nothing of himself either in praise or in blame, but remains silent; who thinks that all he does is done of God, through God and for God. The older Orders should be obliged to live according to the Rule..., and in those [Orders] that do not wish to live according to the primitive Rule, no one should be allowed to enter or profess in them until they die out of themselves. Thus, those who are called by God will always find observant Orders. Objection But someone will say: the greater part of the points of the Rule and Constitutions has fallen into disuse. Response But this is precisely why the holiness of these religious has fallen into disuse. What is to be done? Response: Either keep the primitive Rule of the Founder, or do not allow anyone to enter or profess. Pron. del Stato Religioso, p. 48. When a religious makes his profession, he ought to do so in order to live according to the Rule of the Founder, and not according to customs and relaxations (p. 61).
It is easier to found anew than to reform. In the year 1865,1571 the Holy Father, Pius IX, was speaking to me about an older Order, and he told me: Recedant vetera, nova sint omnia.1572 In a new foundation, those who enter enjoy the first fruits of the spirit, but in an older Order, alas! In an orchard, when trees grow old they become ugly and worm-eaten and bear little fruit. It would seem that those who have a founding spirit should be advised to choose the Rule of St. Augustine and then expand those twelve chapters, each according as God has given him to understand, as so many Founders have in fact done, e.g., St. Dominic, the Order of Mercy, the Hieronymites, etc. It seems to me that there can be nothing better than what is called the Rule of St. Augustine. At present in Rome, the Institutes of St. Liguori and the Passionists founded by St. Paul of the Cross are quite noteworthy. What Ought to Be Done
3. Council Documents and Dates Introductory Note This manuscript is a short catalogue of the documents that the Saint kept receiving during the Council. It is also a short calendar of the sessions, congregations and other acts of the Council. It is not really a diary or daybook; rather, it gives the impression of having been written at one time or another in order to have a list of documents and dates at hand. The style is very sketchy. It was of great interest to Claret, and although many of the items are humdrum enough, it is of interest to us as a familiar and intimate account of dates and events that are only known because of the seriousness of the official documents they deal with. Text
The Ecumenical Council MSS Claret XII, 441-444 Monitum dealing with some working days.1573 Monitum dealing with the first day of the Council.1574 Monitum dealing with the place where we don and doff our cloaks. Monitum dealing with the election of the judges for the Council.1575 Monitum. General dispositions for the Council.1576 Monitum. A notebook called Ordo. 1577 Monitum. A notebook called Methodus. 1578 Meetings [November, 1869] 28th Day Nov. 1st Sunday, in the Papal Chapel, at 10:00 a.m.1579 30th Day. Feast of Saint Andrew.1580 [December, 1869] 5th day Dec. 2nd Sun. with consistorial or fur-trimmed cape. 6th day. All of us Spanish Bishops gathered at the house of His Eminence, Cardinal Moreno, and agreed that we would meet there every Thursday at ten in the morning, if nothing arose to the contrary.1581 8th day. Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. Attended in white cope. The Council was opened. The service lasted from 8:30 a.m. until 3:15 p.m.1582 9th day. Meeting of Spanish-speaking Bishops in the Gabrielli house or palace, the residence of His Em. Card. Moreno.1583 10th day. Feast of the Translation of the Holy House [of Loreto]. A session was held. Attended in rochet and mantle. It lasted from 9:00 to 12:30.1584 Constitutio. In case God should allow the Pope’s death.1585 10th day. Delivery of the works prepared for the Council.1586 12th day. 3rd Sunday of Advent. Began at 10:00 and ended at 12:30. Fur-trimmed cape.1587 13th day. St. Lucy, at 10:30, with rochet and mantle. 14th day. Meeting from 9:00 to 11:00, with rochet and mantle.1588 Delivery of the Constitutio. Contains the censures.1589 Delivery of the names of Cardinals, Abps. and Bps. who have a special assignment in the Council.1590
Notice to attend.1591 Names of those elected for matters of faith.1592 Notice to attend. Notice to attend. Sermon for the opening of the Council.1593 Catalogue of Council Fathers.1594 Those elected for [the Commission on] Discipline.1595 20th day. General meeting at 9:00.1596 21st day. Sermon at 10:00. Rochet and mantle.1597 Invitation. General meeting at 9:00, for the 28th.1598 24th day. Vespers of Nativity, with cope. Signs the list.1599 25th day. Mass with cope, at 9:00. 26th day. Mass with red cope. 27th day. Mass with consistorial or fur-trimmed cape. Sign for the Saint.1600 28th day. Session. Voting for [the Commission on] Religious Orders at 9:00.1601 Sermon for the First Sunday of Advent printed. Notice to attend Mass on January 1, 1870. List of those elected for matters affecting Regulars.1602 To attend Mass on the 6th at 9:00.1603 On the Profession of Faith. The Method. The year 1869 has ended.1604 From 767 to 714 Bishops have attended the meetings. Some of them are sick and four of them – two Cardinals and two Bishops – have died.1605 On January 27, 1870, the Bishop of Veracruz died. On January 31st, the Bishop of Tarbes died.1606 Of Lérida, on February 3rd;1607 of Huesca, on February 12th.1608
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