c) A LINK IN THE HIERARCHY OF THE CHURCH

"The unity of the successors of the Apostles"

Jesus Christ recommended (...) the unity for which he entreated his heavenly Father (ut sint unum) to the successors of the Apostles and ‑- from among these ‑- to the Successor of the Prince of the Apostles, the center from which all the rays emanate and to which they all point; the teacher gifted with God's most special assistance, unappealable judge of all controversies; foundation stone of the mystical edifice built by the Word Incarnate for the salvation of all people; shepherd on whom absolute authority was conferred over all the flock and over all the shepherds that rule the faithful of each diocese.

In homage to this divine plan, the Head of the Shepherds and, with him and under him, the bishops make sure that the Church always enjoys that unity which is one of the most radiant signs of her divinity.  It is true that heresies have arisen in the Church and will continue to do so.  History, however, teaches us that, to point out and condemn the erring, there rose up not people without authority but the bishops ‑- njudges and guardians of the sacred deposit of the faith ‑- and the Roman Pontiff, who, when necessary, ratifies their judgments with his

seal of condemnation and gives the final blow to error.¹⁷

"No mission ever found a place in the Church independently of the bishops"

Please do not say, like the people the Apostle Paul scolded back in his day: I belong to Paul or I belong to Apollos or I belong to Kephas, whereas, in fact, we all belong to Christ.

Remember that in the Church of Jesus Christ every extra-hierarchical mission has been excluded, that "no one can lay a foundation other than the one that was laid, namely Christ Jesus," that no one can set himself up as a teacher in the school of Jesus Christ except the one who is placed there by the Holy Spirit.

Those who refuse to submit to this teaching authority are rash.  Those who rise up against it are apostates.  Those who defy it are proud people, ignorant people, antichrists, who must be treated like heathens and tax collectors.

But this person is a great man!  The other is a great theologian!  That one is a great philosopher!  This one is a great saint!  What does it matter?  Is he an angel from heaven?  Even if he is an angel from heaven but dares teach or write anything different from what the Pope or the bishops teach, we will cry out with the Apostle: anathema sit ‑- let him be excommunicated.

None of you should be fooled by the pathetic myth ‑- which, in our day fascinates and dazzles some people who are not really perverse or mean ‑- the myth that people can still be truly united with the Pope when, breaking the necessary, divinely established bond of the hierarchical order, they are not united in obedience, respect and love with their bishop and with him and through him with the Pope; or when, under the banner of zeal and an exaggerated devotion to the Pope, they have in fact failed in the obedience and respect due their bishop and, on the basis of their own arbitrary views, make a judgment as to whether or not the Bishop is being faithful to papal directives.  Without doubt, this would be preempting the judgment of the Holy See, an attack on the divine constitution of the Church, and a step in the

direction of the most subtle and pernicious liberalism.¹⁸

"Popes are multiplying and lay people are taking the place of bishops"

Things are bad, very bad.  Politics is getting into everything, even into the pilgrimages!  I know many Italian bishops and very many important people would have attended the Congress of Liège if the question of the temporal power had not surfaced.  Czacki spoils everything.  Popes are multiplying every day, and little by little lay people are taking the place of bishops.  Every day the disarray, the confusion, and the chaos increase (...).

We poor bishops don't know what to think, what to say, what to write, what to do.  We are now led along by the hand like kindergarten children, at the mercy of the newspapers, and what newspapers!  Poor bishops!

 Now I am working full-time on the pamphlet I told you about, which might be entitled: The Social Question and the Mission of the Clergy.  As for publishing it.... It seems that some people are very quick to put on the Index those who don't think with ... somebody else's head.¹⁹

"You have redeemed the episcopate"

Holy Father, by now everybody is aware of your sublime plan, of the supreme desire of your heart.  It is the plan of that divine Providence which "reaches from end to end mightily and governs all things well."  It is the desire of Him whose worthy and visible representative you are on earth: namely, that the children of the Catholic Church "all be one" and that "all be one" in the full and unconditional submission of mind, heart, and works to the authority of the bishops whom Jesus Christ appointed to rule the Church here on earth.

Your letter of last June to the Cardinal Archbishop of Paris gives

solemn witness to this concern.  The letter is so beautiful, so perceptive, and so timely that God surely must have inspired it.  I kissed it with tears in my eyes.  Holy Father, I must confess that I cannot find words to tell you, as I would like, all my admiration, all my gratitude.

With this letter you dispelled the clouds of fog raised by the evil spirit to darken the Christian sky.  You have destroyed that entirely new kind of liberalism that day by day was increasingly spreading from the lowest ranks of the Catholic army.  You have redeemed the episcopate, so to speak.  You have freed it from a secret illegitimate power that was trying with the most insidious cunning to bring it under its yoke (...).

Above all, may your name be blessed for having made it so explicitly clear to all that those cannot be Catholics who are not united in obedience, respect, and charity with their respective bishops and ‑- with these and through these ‑- united to you, the head and teacher of all.

May your name be blessed for having opened the eyes of so many poor dupes and for rebuking those who do not shrink from opposing both the bishops and the Bishop of bishops, the Roman Pontiff, with devious methods that are all the more dangerous for their being ably camouflaged under opposite appearances.²⁰

"We do not take sides"

God sees the purity of my intentions, the God who searches hearts and minds, the God before whom we must all soon present ourselves!

God knows that we do not play favorites, that we do not take the side of anybody, of any writer, that we love everybody without distinction, that we do not judge anybody's intentions, that we desire and seek only his glory and the good of souls, that, through his mercy, we are attached only to him, to his Vicar on earth, to his holy Church.

Great are the sufferings we endure seeing Christ's garment torn apart.  Perhaps even greater sufferings lie in store for me.  But with the Apostle Paul I will say: "Yet I consider life of no importance to me, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to bear witness to the gospel of God's grace."

Even now, I find great comfort in the thought that the victory of truth may be delayed but not denied and that the most precious result of this victory will be, I am sure, full liberty for the episcopate and for its supreme head, the bishop of Rome, from which the episcopate draws all its power, all its firmness, all its vigor.

If nothing else, I will go to the grave with the consoling thought that I will have fought the good fight, finished the race, kept the faith and that I will receive from God, the just judge, the crown of righteousness.²¹

Let charity be our badge, our weapon for combat"

Those who refuse to acknowledge sacred authority are outside the Church, as well as those brash individuals who try to arrogate to themselves the office and rights of that sacred authority.

So, I turn to you and I cry out with all the fervor of my heart: safeguard, safeguard the spirit of ecclesiastical discipline!

A spontaneous, sincere, constant, absolute, and inviolable love for this discipline is the reason for our strength, the foundation of our hope, the joy of our lives, and the source of all our blessings.

In the Church, discipline is a sacred thing: woe to him who dares profane it!

Defend this discipline with your lives against all attacks.  Shun all discord, which is the downfall of discipline.  Fear discord as if it were the most enormous crime (...).  Avoid partiality and contentiousness, as well as exclusive and egoistic tendencies.

Let charity be our badge, our weapon for combat.²²

"Obedience holds the hierarchy together; the hierarchy promotes unity; unity gives strength"

If the force of the clergy is in the unity of its members and if there is no unity without the hierarchy, what is it that holds the hierarchy together?  The obedience, the submission of the priests to the bishops and of the bishops to the Supreme Pontiff: "we are children of obedience" (I Pt 1).  We are followers of him who, in St. Paul's words, became obedient unto death.

In our days, when pride and disdain of authority all too often hide beneath words like freedom and independence, there is reason to fear that this unwholesome atmosphere will engulf also the priesthood.  But priests who are real priests, that is to say, who are imbued with the spirit of their state, will not let themselves be seduced by these false appearances (...).

They know that the grace of state does not go beyond the limits of their assignment and that their discernment and power are limited to the portion of ministry entrusted to them.  They know their place and do not arrogate to themselves rights that do not belong to them.  They do not presume to judge the whole while knowing only a part of the situation.  They limit themselves to the task assigned to them and carry it out with success.

The promises they made at the foot of the altar the day of their priestly ordination are not empty promises.  They keep these promises throughout their whole life.  These are the good priests, who, by their spirit of submission, firmly establish and strengthen this great body of the Church; for obedience holds the hierarchy together; the hierarchy, in turn, creates unity; and unity gives strength.²³

"Obedience solemnly promised to the bishop"

After the Pope, the person we owe full obedience to is our own bishop.  We well remember that solemn moment when, clasping our hands in his, he asked us: "Do you promise reverence and obedience to me and my successors?"  And we answered: "I promise."  This was our answer, the solemn vow we took in the presence of the whole Church of God.  This is the promise we must always keep before our eyes, the promise that cuts short all our excuses for disobeying (...).

Oh, if bishops had obedient priests ‑- soldiers like the centurion ‑- and could tell one: "Go and he goes" and to another: "Come and he comes," how much they could do to sanctify their dioceses, But since the bishops of dioceses everywhere run into opposition, belligerency, and reluctance, if not downright defiance and disobedience, most of the time they have to exercise their otherwise full authority to command as little as possible so as not to jeopardize this authority and put somebody's weakness to the test.  By exhorting, coaxing, and indulging

the foibles of their priests, they do what they can, which is infinitely less than they could otherwise do.²⁴

"Our Lord under the appearance of the legitimate superior"

When the Apostle Paul admonishes us: "Obey your superiors," etc., he is not imposing slavery on us but a noble duty.  Spiritual writers tell us there are three mysteries nature rejects with all its power and sense of pride.  The first mystery is that of Our Lord under the veils of the Eucharist; the second, that of Our Lord under the appearance of a poor man; the third, that of Our Lord under the appearance of the legitimate superior.  Just as the priest's unworthiness does not change the reality of the first mystery, nor the poor man's unworthiness that of the second, neither does the superior's unworthiness diminish in any way the reality of the third (we take for granted that this unworthiness is not a figment of the fever-driven imagination of subordinates).  So a "real presence" of sorts is imparted to those who give orders.  We owe them not just external docility but also docility of conscience: propter conscientiam (...).

Undoubtedly, there are sufferings connected with obedience, but there are sufferings of a crueler nature for those in authority.  Every authority is a martyrdom, and every superior is a victim crowned with thorns.  So let us all, superiors and subordinates, be understanding of each other.  Let us make our diocese a school of respect and mutual regard.  Above all, let us banish from our relations ‑- established by God ‑- that unspoken cynicism, namely, that contempt for each other hidden in the heart, which is the wisdom of small-minded people and of proud personages.²⁵