The Indispensable Moral Influence of the Catholic Priest

In Our Christian Heritage Cardinal Gibbons describes the iconic moral power of the Catholic priest to illustrate Christianity's unique positive influence upon morals.


'"Unlike all Pagan religions, [Christianity] made moral teaching a main feature of its clergy, moral discipline the leading object of its services, moral dispositions the necessary condition of the due performance of its rights.' The one great aim of our Christian ceremonial worship, of our Sacraments and Sacrifice, our preaching and priesthood, is the development of personal holiness.

"The moral power exercised by a good priest in his parish is incalculable. The priest is always a mysterious being in the eyes of the world. Like his Divine Master, he 'is set for the fall and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted.' (Luke II, 34) Various opinions are formed of him. Some say of him as was said of our Saviour: 'He is a good man. And others say: no, but he seduceth the people.' (John VII, 12) He is loved most by those who know him best. Hated or despised he may be by many that are strangers to him and to his sacred character; but he has been too prominent a factor in the civilization of mankind and the advancement of morality ever to be ignored.

"The life of a missionary priest is never written, nor can it be...There is no memoir of his private daily life of usefulness and of his sacred and confidential relations with his flock. All this his hidden with Christ in God, and is registered only by His recording angel.

'"The civilizing and moralizing influence of the clergyman in his parish,' says Mr. Lecky, 'the simple, unostentatious, unselfish zeal with which he educates the ignorant, guides the erring, comforts the sorrowing, braves the horrors of pestilence, and sheds a hollowing influence over the dying hour, the countless ways in which, in his little sphere, he allays evil passions and softens manners, and elevates and purifies those around him; all these things, though very evident to the detailed observer, do not stand out in the same vivid prominence in historical records, and are continually forgotten by historians.' (European Morals, I, 152)

"The priest is Christ's unarmed officer of the law. He is more potent in repressing vice than a band of constables. His only weapon is his voice; his only badge of authority his sacred office. Like the fabled Neptune putting Eolus to flight and calming the troubled waves, the priest quiets many a domestic storm, subduing the winds of passion, reconciling the jarring elements of strife, healing dissensions, preventing divorce, and arresting bloodshed.

"He is the daily depository of his parishioners' cares and trials, anxieties and fears, afflictions and temptations, and even of their sins. They come to him for counsel in doubt, for spiritual and even temporal aid. If he cannot suppress, he has at least the consolation of mitigating the moral evil around him.

"We must not overlook the strong inducements that the Christian teacher holds out to his disciples for the practice of virtue in the pressing motives he offers for its due fulfilment. In this respect Christianity has a great advantage over all systems of religion. The Stoic was incited to a moral life by a sentiment of duty; the Epicurean, by pleasure and self-interest; the Mohammedan, by the hope of sensual delight; the Jew, by servile fear; but the Christian is drawn chiefly by filial love...He is far, indeed, from excluding other motives...But his predominant motive for the practice of piety is love for his Heavenly Father, and love is the strongest of all moral forces." (338-341)