...'tis enough, 'twill serve. Shakespeare
Our series on a new model of priestly training set off a landslide of mail. We expected it would, because we impugned the false narrative scripted by the so-called elites of Sedelandia. (What a state we're in when a pace of braying, jack-pudding, hard-scrabble clergy can even be termed "elite.") Absit!
Several correspondents asked how a two-year program like ours could produce professional clergy. If they understand the word professional to mean fitness for the priesthood assured by many years of formal preparation in a recognized academic institution under the guidance of highly educated, experienced teachers, then the Reader frankly admits that its products will not be professional clergy. They will, however, be professionals, at least in the civil sense, in virtue of their college degrees, which they must possess in order to be admitted. (That's a lot better than most of the laughable completers.)
But, so what if our priests aren't professional clergy, in the sense of the definition above? The current batch of sede seminary Pesthouse completers can't be called professionals in that sense either. Only a few have a real college degree from a recognized university. (Their instructors' late '60s and early '70's "seminary B.A.'s" don't count a bit.) Completers emerge after several years of performing menial labor as janitors, waiters, and scullery drudges with little knowledge, having believed their clerical cheerleaders' chant, "we're the best seminary in the world." Their "teachers" either are (1) unschooled, self-taught nincompoops who embarrass themselves every time they put pen to paper or are (2) recent completers who have been pressed into instructional service because they're unfit, or too scared, to work in a chapel.
Since the sede world is incapable of producing professional clergy, our program emphasizes vocational competence as a practical solution to the problem. In this life, a competent man -- someone who knows what to do, how to do it well, and actually does it -- is the most valuable asset in a crisis. (J.M. Barrie's play "The Admirable Crichton" offers a comic morality tale on that theme.) True, our clergy won't enjoy the same educational prestige as do the alumni of SSPX or FSSP seminaries, but they'll be able to do everything expected of a priest at a sede chapel. That alone renders them far superior to the Pesthouse completers.
They'll know what's a mortal sin and what isn't. The faithful can approach the tribunal of penance in confidence that the seal won't be compromised. If our products don't have a ready answer to a question, they'll look it up, not make it up. The laity will be treated with dignity, not contempt. The chapel's funds will be secure. Our priests will say Mass with practiced ease and definitely will not skip the consecration.
No more patience-numbing 40-45-minute Low Masses scarred by rubrical gaffes. Furthermore, the homilies will be brief, intelligible, well-organized, and spiritually grounded. Insofar as our program will produce priests who can read the Missal fluently, the laity won't have to suffer through all the stumbling, re-reading, and stammering that detracts from the Pesthouse completers' Masses; more to the point, the faithful won't have to worry that their priest may have misread something in the canon of the Mass and thereby failed to confect the sacrament.
With our clergy, there'll no longer be any nagging, lingering doubts about the validity of their priestly orders, since we've made certain that the bishops we use have been ordained to the priesthood with two hands, as the apostolic constitution Sacramentum ordinis requires. We're too scrupulous to take two years of a man's life only to deface his résumé with a badge of shame in the form of a scarlet letter D. (This last point is so important that we'll even arrange for "One-Hand"-ordained priests to receive conditional ordination, as our gift to the laity. They just need to send us an e-mail, which we'll keep confidential.)
The bottom line is this: Today a professional priest cannot be found in the sede world.
But life's hard. In such circumstances, second best is more than good enough. We warrant competence, which no other "seminary" has been able to underwrite. Let the Restoration give back to us the professionals. Meanwhile, let's throw out all the clutter and concentrate on the basics. More on a new way of thinking about the crisis next week.
Since the sede world is incapable of producing professional clergy, our program emphasizes vocational competence as a practical solution to the problem. In this life, a competent man -- someone who knows what to do, how to do it well, and actually does it -- is the most valuable asset in a crisis. (J.M. Barrie's play "The Admirable Crichton" offers a comic morality tale on that theme.) True, our clergy won't enjoy the same educational prestige as do the alumni of SSPX or FSSP seminaries, but they'll be able to do everything expected of a priest at a sede chapel. That alone renders them far superior to the Pesthouse completers.
They'll know what's a mortal sin and what isn't. The faithful can approach the tribunal of penance in confidence that the seal won't be compromised. If our products don't have a ready answer to a question, they'll look it up, not make it up. The laity will be treated with dignity, not contempt. The chapel's funds will be secure. Our priests will say Mass with practiced ease and definitely will not skip the consecration.
No more patience-numbing 40-45-minute Low Masses scarred by rubrical gaffes. Furthermore, the homilies will be brief, intelligible, well-organized, and spiritually grounded. Insofar as our program will produce priests who can read the Missal fluently, the laity won't have to suffer through all the stumbling, re-reading, and stammering that detracts from the Pesthouse completers' Masses; more to the point, the faithful won't have to worry that their priest may have misread something in the canon of the Mass and thereby failed to confect the sacrament.
With our clergy, there'll no longer be any nagging, lingering doubts about the validity of their priestly orders, since we've made certain that the bishops we use have been ordained to the priesthood with two hands, as the apostolic constitution Sacramentum ordinis requires. We're too scrupulous to take two years of a man's life only to deface his résumé with a badge of shame in the form of a scarlet letter D. (This last point is so important that we'll even arrange for "One-Hand"-ordained priests to receive conditional ordination, as our gift to the laity. They just need to send us an e-mail, which we'll keep confidential.)
The bottom line is this: Today a professional priest cannot be found in the sede world.
But life's hard. In such circumstances, second best is more than good enough. We warrant competence, which no other "seminary" has been able to underwrite. Let the Restoration give back to us the professionals. Meanwhile, let's throw out all the clutter and concentrate on the basics. More on a new way of thinking about the crisis next week.
Just an incredibly interesting and thought provoking article. Having had a son in both the CMRI and the St. Athanasius seminaries I have to admit that I find myself agreeing with the writers sentiments. I remain uncertain as to how this program could be given life, or a beginning if you will. Is there a Bishop on board in order to "alliviate validity doubts"? On another note that continues to arouse my curiosity, is there some concrete irrefutable evidence to the suggestion that Dolan has used only one hand during ordinations or is this an idle charge? While I know first hand of the incredible shortcomings of the sede-seminaries I do not know the writer of this post so I cannot determine your motivation accept as to assume good will in charity. Trying times indeed...
ReplyDeleteAs an aside note so you will know who I am, my son's name is Danny and we have been closely associated with the CMRI for some 16 years. Danny was the seminarian who was ousted from the CMRI seminary in Omaha over the NFP issue.
ReplyDeleteThere are actually several bishops available to ordain successful trainees, and all have been consecrated by bishops who were ordained to the priesthood without defect. (Many traditional Catholics don't realize just how many episcopi vagantes there really are out there, and the number is growing.)
ReplyDeleteThe sobriquet "One-Hand Dan" refers to a well-known letter addressed to Dolan, dated September 21, 1990, and signed by nine priests then belonging to the Society of St. Pius V. (The Rev. Donald J. Sanborn was a signatory.) The letter, in part, reads, "Since your ordination was done with one hand, we must hold your ordination to be dubious, unless evidence can be brought forth that one-handed ordination is certainly valid."
Anthony Cekada wrote an article in defense of one-handed ordinations. That article, however, suffers from a grievous mistranslation of the key Latin text of Sacramentum Ordinis; therefore, in our view, no evidence exists that "one-handed ordination is certainly valid," although we grant that there are some anecdotal indications.
Cekada's article is available on the Traditional Mass website, and we have published the irrefutable critique of his translation on Pistrina ("Lost in Translation," at the top of the home page). The linguistic analysis gets a tad complicated, but your patience will be rewarded if you decide to read it through.
As you write, these are trying times for all Catholics. There are so many doubts about so much that the last thing that the laity and future priests need is to worry whether an ordaining bishop has the power to confer holy orders. As we've discussed in several places on this blog, a man must be a valid priest before he can become a valid bishop. Even a scintilla of doubt is too heavy a burden, so it's best to act on the safe side and use bishops whose priestly orders are clearly valid (as long as one accepts the Thuc lineage and the validy of Lienart's conferral of orders, which we, of course, do).
Perhaps someone with genuine theological training and a decent knowledge of Latin will one day demonstrate with the requisite degree of probability that one-handed ordinations are "certainly valid." Until that time, there is too much doubt in the matter for our conscience.