The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1919-01-11
CLERICAL SOLDIERS DEMosILlz,
ING IN EuRoPE-PoPE TAKES
ACTION ON IRREGULARITIES
OF WARFARE.

No sooner was the first glimmer of
peace appearing on the horizon than
the Church began to take measures
to remedy one of the greatest evils
the war has inflicted on her discipline.
The Church does not dip her hands in
blood, but nevertheless iniquitous civil
laws have obliged hundreds of her
ministers to take up arms and face
the dangers of the battlefield
1t is inevitable that the clerics
thus drawn away from the ministry,
the seminary, or the cloister, and
made to take their place in the ranks
and fight like ordinary soldiers, have
not all preserved the spirit of their
vocation in all it's integrity Amidst
the din of arms and the daily dan
gers of military life even religious
hearts become soiled with the dust of
the world
Irregularities and impediments have
been contracted by these cleric sol
diers, and now that they are to return
from the war their own good, the sal
vation of the faithful and the utility
of the Church demand that their Or
dinaries should attend to their state.
The Pope Takes Action.
In view of this fact the Holy Father,
while he deplores together with all the
| bishops Of the Catholic world, the deep
wound inflicted on ecclesiastical dis.
cipline by forcing clerics into military
| Servlce-a measure which has de-
prived so many parishes of their pas
tors and SO many seminaries of their
students-seeing that peace appears
to be in sight and these clerics are
soon to return, has, with the holy pur.
/ pose of renewing the ecclesiastical
/ spirit in them and repairing the dam.
i ages they have incurred, after consul.
tation with several Archbishops of the
/ belligerent nations, and with the ad
vice of a Special Committee of Car
dinals, issued a decree on the matter
The decree comes through the Sacred
Consistorial Congregation. AS its pro
visions are calculated to give an idea
of the solicitude of the Church for the
integrity of her clergy resume is
given of them.
Bodily Defects.
| First, as regards Irregularities: all
| Ordinaries of religious or secular
clergy have the faculty of dispensing
from the irregularity of bodily de
feet in priests of their jurisdiction
returning from military service as
often as they are assured by the writ
ten testimony of a master of ceremon
les, who has examined the priest. that
| the priests bodily state does not pre-
4 vent his being able to perform all the
rites necessary in the celebration OF
the Mass without help and with suit
| able decorum. The Ordinary is under
a conscientious obligation of attend
ing to this matter, and in more diff
cult and doubtful cases, as also wher
there is question of clerics not yet or
dained priests, recourse must be hal
to the Holy See.
Il Defects of Lenity.
Ordinaries are likewise granted thu
faculty of dispensing, at least for eau
2 tion's sake, from the irregularity pro
ceeding from what is known as de
fects of lenity-when a person ha
split human blood. The faculty, how
ever, only applies to cases in which
the priest or sen1inarist or religious
4 has been compelled to do militar,
service, and thus perhaps kill O
wound a fellowman. Whenever .ther,
is question of clerics in major orders
;. who have taken up arms of their owl
) free will dispensation from the irreg
ularity incurred can only be had from
the Holy See. Such a cleric is ais,
supposed to have renounced any &c
clesiastical office he formerly held.
f Necessity of Dispensation.
The Ordinary is supposed to ex
l -~ ~ a =. ilp.5E