Joseph McCabe

“ A neighbouring convent will always demand their services, and even country families often prefer to bring a friar down every Sunday for a couple of guineas than to have a chaplain haunting the premises all the week.
With so many external attractions of a lucrative and congenial character the friars are sometimes tempted to neglect their own parish, which is, or should be, their principal care. The superior of the monastery is always rector or parish priest, [1] and several of his inferiors act as curates ”

“ Much discretion is, however, shown by the priest in visiting, and an excellent control is exercised over all by a comprehensive system of jealousy; the priests are jealous of each other when they intrude in each other’s district or parish, the ladies honoured with a visit are jealous of each other, and a numerous non-Catholic population is jealously surveying the whole. ”

“ In a monastic house, even in England, there are always more priests than in a secular presbytery; more, indeed, than are necessary for the administration of the parish which is committed to their care. Many of these priests, however, are travelling missionaries whose work lies almost entirely outside their convent. It is customary in Catholic churches to hold a mission, or series of services somewhat akin to the revival services of the Methodists, every few years ”

“ The horse is still gravely prohibited—to ride, that is to say, for in Belgium we more than once had the pleasure of eating it; the ass and the camel are not to be patronised without necessity; a ship may be entered when the friar has not to pay for his sail; even the railway is a matter of serious doubt, but the majority are of opinion that it may be used when necessary—which is a very convenient solution. In point of fact the friar takes his cab, or bus, or train, without a thought of his rule. ”

“ Every three years a general election is held at which the General from Rome is supposed to preside. The usual course is for the General (whose real name is ‘general servant’ of the fraternity, but it is usually preferred in the abbreviated form) to send a deputy to the province which is about to hold its elections. The deputy or visitator visits all the monasteries in succession and affords each friar an opportunity, in private conversation, to submit his personal grievances or his knowledge of general abuses. ”

“ Another form of outside work which is less understood is the practice of giving ‘retreats’ to monasteries, nunneries, and other religious establishments. A retreat is a period of recollection in which the inmates of a convent suspend all study and secular occupation, and occupy themselves exclusively with religious exercises ”

“ The ‘obedience’ or formal order to travel is also a mark of identity for the friar on arriving at a strange convent. For he is always bound to seek hospitality from his own brethren if they have a convent in the town, and the superior’s first care is to demand his obedience, on which his destination is marked. This is enjoined as a precaution against apostates and especially against frauds. For even monastic hospitality has been taken advantage of by impostors. ”

“ In olden times anybody who presented himself was admitted to ‘the habit of probation’ without inquiry, and it is a well-known fact that women have thus obtained entrance into the monastery and remained in it until their death. ”

“ In any case, the poor and the uninteresting are forgotten, the favourites are visited weekly or oftener, and the visits sometimes protracted to two or three hours; much jealousy ensues amongst the favourites (who watch each other’s houses just as they watch each other at confession) , and counter visits, teas, dinners, parties, &c., have to be accepted. Thus the week is easily and not uncongenially absorbed, and a priest often finds that he is scarcely able to prepare a sermon for the Sunday. ”

“ In the afternoon there are numerous minor ceremonies, baptisms, catechetical instructions, &c.; and in the evening another long sermon with Vespers and Benediction. Speaking from experience I may say that for one man it is as severe a day’s work as can be found in any profession.
Here, however, the monastic clergy have the advantage of numbers. Indeed to the ordinary priest it is not so serious a hardship, seeing that, as will appear subsequently, he has six days to rest in from his one day’s labour, but to monks even the Sunday is not very formidable. ”

“ The guardians then disperse and the newly-elected council proceeds to appoint new guardians with their subsidiary officers. Everything is conducted with the utmost secrecy, the voting papers being burned and pulverised in presence of the voters, and every friar present being put under oath not to reveal the proceedings. Public prayers are also commanded for weeks in advance, and the election opens with a solemn High Mass to the Holy Spirit: an oath is also taken by the electors that they will choose those whom they consider the most worthy. ”

“ In every question the priest is found to be ignorant, antiquated, tyrannical.
Hence it is natural that the conversations with their parishioners which occupy most of their time are of a very desultory character. In the morning the friar rarely visits, except in case of sickness, but he is much visited. In every monastery there is a certain section marked off near the door, usually the hall and a few small parlours, to which ladies are allowed access ”

“ The amiable and polished Jesuits are much in demand for retreats, especially by the equally amiable and polished congregations of teaching nuns, but our friars were entrusted with a large number every year amongst the less aristocratic congregations of nuns. A retreat, after a slight experience, is not at all a disagreeable task, and many even of our professors used to spend their vacation in preaching them. ”

“ Their life differs entirely from that of the ordinary monk; even when they are at home they are exempt from community services, from which the constitutions release them for three days after returning from and three days before starting for a mission. They frequently travel long distances, especially to Ireland, and are sometimes absent from their monastery for months at a time. They are, as has been said, the great bread-winners of the community ”

“ As they are men of high authority and influence, their victims find it expedient to submit patiently to their constant flight of rudely fashioned shafts for a year or two; in the end they usually find themselves elevated to some position to which their intrinsic merit could hardly have aspired. ”

“ Their sense of humour seems to have undergone an extraordinary degeneration; the more rational of them frequently express their disgust at the character of their ‘recreation.’ There are one or two powerful characters who habitually tyrannise over the friaries in which they are found, and even contrive at the elections to keep near them one or two less gifted brethren whom they may bully and banter at will. ”

“ Impostors find great difficulty in penetrating into the order as novices in modern times, for there are numerous formalities to comply with. Not only are his baptismal certificate and a letter from his bishop necessary, but inquiries are made as to whether there is any hereditary disease, or insanity, or heresy in his family, whether he is single, legitimate, and a host of other qualifications. ”

“ The manner in which they exercise their usurped responsibility is trying to the patience of the ordinary layman. The priest, especially the friar, has very little acquaintance with fiction, still less with science or philosophy, and very wrong ideas of history ”

“ In the Franciscan rule besides the vow of chastity there is a special grave precept commanding the avoidance of suspicious intercourse with women, and it is not uncommon for a superior to publicly denounce an inferior for that fault. ”

“ Since most of the visits are paid in the afternoon and on week days, it follows that they are almost exclusively to ladies; one result of which is that our English friars are found to be much less misogynous than their Continental brethren who have no parishes to superintend, and indeed many Protestant husbands forbid the admission of a priest into the house in their absence. ”

“ They say that they do not find any advantage for the better performance of their duties in study, and, since most of their ‘duty’ resolves itself into visits to the sick and chattering with ladies over afternoon tea, their contention is plausible enough ”

“ Such is the edifying theory, but the fact is that the more agreeable task of attending to their parishioners absorbs most of the priests’ time. There are few friars who, after they have once entered upon parochial duties, give more than a sporadic and careless attention to study. ”