THE BUILDER, APRIL 1927

AN APPEAL TO THE CRAFT
BY HUGH MANITY

When the following communication came into our hands we confess to having a
good deal of doubt as to its bona fides. In consequence certain inquiries were
made which resulted in convincing us that the writer was all that he claims to
be, and that in addition he is an exceptionally well educated and intellectual
man. The name given is of course an assumed one. Ed.]

Humanitarianism being a basic tenet of Masonry, permit me to call your
attention to a class of people whom your organization might help without
incurring a heavy sacrifice. I mean the clergy.

I am a Roman Catholic priest. There are a good many of my confraters who would
like to quit the priesthood. They are discouraged from taking that step by the
problem of gaining a livelihood. Their vocational training is of little value
for industrial and commercial pursuits.

The reasons for their desiring to leave the priesthood are various.

Forced celibacy is one of them. It means the repression of a strong natural
instinct. Frequently it is accompanied by a loneliness that may become
exceedingly oppressive.

Financial worries form another. Parish work usually implies an unceasing
appeal for funds for the erection or maintenance of church, school, rectory,
school sisters' convent and for the current expenses. since the World War,
with its inflated prosperity also, a veritable epidemic of diocesan "drives"
has set in, for a new seminary, cathedral, orphanages and what not. Sacerdotal
life is just one continuous begging performance, necessitating at times high
pressure methods, regular hold-ups. The Peter's Pence has become a national
Derby, the American bishops racing with each other. The one who sends the
fattest purse to Rome wins the prize. He may expect to rise in the hierarchy,
with the cardinal's hat as the ultimate goal. Th priests have to squeeze the
money out of the people. Many a pastor becomes worn out.

While many bishops are prudent, just and kind there are others who lack in
these qualities. Some are unreasonable tyrants. The canon law is no protection
against them. An American priest is at the mercy of the bishop.

The American Catholics have no voice in the appointment of their bishops. They
have to accept whomsoever the Italian autocracy, known as the Vatican, place
over them. Money has nearly always talked rather loud at the Vatican. Many an
American ecclesiastic with no other attainments to his credit than a sinister
dexterity in courting the Italian autocracy--sometimes by soothing its itching
palms with the right kind of balm -- is promoted to a prosperous bishopric. It
is exactly that type of man who is most liable to prove a tyrant.

In the thinly populated districts in the South and West, where the Catholics
are few and far between, many a priest has to struggle with hopeless poverty.
Take the case of a certain confrater in South Dakota whom I recently met. The
church and rectory stand alone in the windswept prairie. The nearest railroad
station is thirty-seven miles away. His widely scattered congregation consists
of about twenty families, nearly all of them poor homesteaders. Of course he
cannot afford any household help. He himself has barely enough to eat. He
cannot keep any chickens, dog or cat, for when he goes away to make the rounds
in his second-hand flivver there is nobody near by to feed the animals. "I am
the only livestock around my place," he jocosely commented. This is a lonely,
dreary life for a cultured young gentleman who has been twelve years to
college and university. He has no prospect of obtaining a better place in the
next decade or two. For the large diocese has only two or three comfortable
pastorates.

Such poverty forms a vivid contrast to the luxury some of our bishops and
pastors in the metropolitan cities are rolling in. This social maladjustment
could be easily rectified by an interdiocesan exchange of the clergy. Before
an assistant pastor in a prosperous metropolis is promoted to a pastorate, let
him first serve three years in the southern and western missions. It will be a
valuable experience for him in every way. But our espicopate has not thought
of this.

To be alone, one has either to be a saint or a fiend, an old adage avers. To
be a saint is not so easy. Nor could every saint sustain prolonged solitude.
He is likely to become moody and gradually drift into insanity. To be a fiend
is not congenial, least of all to a man with a sacerdotal training.

Such a dreary existence easily leads to despondency. Despondency again often
entails the loss of moral courage and strength; thus such a solitary priest is
in danger of tumbling from the pinnacle of spiritual idealism into the very
depths of moral degradation. Corruptio optimi pessima, "the corruption of the
best becomes the worst," says the old maxim. He becomes a moral derelict,
possibly behind a facade of respectability and virtue. He tries repeatedly to
climb out of the mire, only to slide back more deeply.

Whatsoever the reason be, for which a priest wants to quit the priesthood, it
would seem to me a worthy charity if American Freemasonry, the largest and
most resourceful organization in the country, assisted him in finding a
suitable position as teacher at a college or high school, or some such
occupation.

When a priest steps out of the presbyterate there is automatically a steel
curtain set up between himself and his Catholic relatives and friends. Not
that they would hate or reproach him. But it would cause mutual embarrassment
to meet again. It is considered an honor to have a priest in the family. It is
a mortification or stigma to have an ex-priest. He will even stay away from
the funeral of his parents to avoid embarrassing the living.

Thus a priest who renounces the priesthood suddenly finds himself all alone in
the world. He will appreciate a kind lift from good fellows in the new
environment.

Such an ex-priest should not be expected to denounce the church and defame his
former confraters. Those defrocques who have stooped to such a course are
almost invariably bad eggs.

A priest who has become dissatisfied with his calling and is anxious to
relinquish it is rarely ever an asset to his church. It will be to the best of
all concerned if he step out of the priesthood altogether. I trust that every
Catholic bishop will support me in that.

I am not familiar with the inner workings of the Protestant ministry. I
suspect, however, that there are some ministers who for various reasons would
like to abandon the ministry to pursue some secular avocation. It would he all
around for the best if the desired change were facilitated and accelerated.

Now here is the suggestion: Could not American Freemasonry establish a
bureau call it the Clergy Redemption Bureau--that would assist such
prospective ex-priests and ex-ministers in finding suitable secuiar positions?
Said bureau could send out circulars to the clergy offering help to such as
contemplate quitting the ministry. It should assure them of the strictest
secrecy.

There are about 25,000 Catholic priests in the United States. I hazard the
guess that annually a couple of hundred of them would avail themselves of such
an offer.

One ex-priest, one ex-minister and a typist would probably constitute a
sufficient personnel to conduct such a bureau. The annual upkeep would
probably not exceed ten thousand dollars. This expense should assuredly not
prove a heavy burden on an organization of the size and wealth of American
Freemasonry.

If the plan works in the United States it might be given a trial also in other
countries.

The beneficiaries would be a well educated class of people who, moved by the
highest ideals, had in youthful enthusiasm embraced a noble calling. Somehow
they have become disillusioned, or for other reasons no longer desire to be
identified with it.



When thou seest the great Prelates with splendid mitres of gold and precious
stones on their heads and silver crozierS in hand; there they stand at the
altar chanting those beautiful vespers and masses, thou art struck with
amazement....

Men feed upon the vanities and rejoice in these pomps, and say that the Church
of Christ was never so flourishing as at present.... Likewise that the first
prelates were inferior to those of our own times. The former, it is true, had
fewer gold mitres and fewer chalices, for indeed what few bhey had were broken
up to relieve the needs of the poor; whereas our prelates for the sake of
obtaining chalices will rob the poor of their sole means of support.

But dost thou know what I would tell thee? In the primitive Church the
chalices were of wood, the prelates of gold; in these days the Church hath
chalices of gold and prelates of wood. [Savonarola. 1498.]

