PRIEST-WORKERS: GRAVE DANGERS . .

But Cardinal says there are also great hopes and opportunities
HE dangers and the opportunities now facing the priest-workers in their lonely apostolate among the de-Christianised working masses of France took up the whole of Cardinal Feltin's conference at the Paris clergy's pastoral retreat last week.
"We are in the presence of currents of thought and attitudes of mind which arouse at once lawful anxieties and great hopes," declared His Eminence.
But we are also face to face with a deep generosity which, properly guided, can yield magnificent apos
tolic results." • Despite the efforts of the Young Christian Workers and other organisations, said the Cardinal Archbishop, the extent and depth of the separation of the working class from the Church has only increased.
"The expression, 'France, a mission country,' has been greatly exaggerated in the country at large, but it is true of certain regions. including Paris."
That fact, he said, explains the real need of the priest-workers' apostolate —a novel form of apostolate, right outside the traditional lines of evangelisation followed by the Church, but approved and encouraged by the French Hierarchy.
First danger
The priest-workers, the Cardinal told his clergy, "have far more need of prayers and affection than of criticism."
Describing the first grave danger— that of erring about the character of the priest-workers' apostolate—Cardinal Feltin remarked that there are some who consider priests who go to live and labour among the workers cannot dissociate themselves from the struggles of the workers. including the class-struggle.
"That is a pitfall for the priest." It is a situation which risks not merely his ministry but threatens also to make him a partisan, the agent of a party, even the supporter of a Movement which—through its atheistic materialism—is a peril for the Faith and the Church."
The role of the priest is first and last a spiritual role, a supernatural and a sacramental role. "He cannot substitute for these supernatural means, human, material or political means."
Priests who ignore or overlook this, and throw themselves into the working-class struggle "commit the Church herself to a sphere where she will not and cannot allow herself to be committed."
A brisk attack
Here the Cardinal made a brisk attack on Communist methods and aims without naming Communism.
"The overthrow of capitalist society, the political battle to set up a society which hard experience in several nations, and the doctrines of its leaders prove to be incompatible with the Church's mission and the Gospel message. These things arc not true missionary activities. Our Lord did not overthrow Cresar."
The second "grave danger," said the Cardinal, is "erring about the idea of the Church" and her role. He showed the false position of those who hold that the Church can be distinguished both as "a sociological reality" and as "a community for salvation," thus enabling the priestworker to throw off all ties binding him to the Hierarchical organisation of the Church.
As a matter of doctrine, he pointed out, "no distinction of two Churches can be admitted." And he remarked on the curious parallel of thought between this false conception and that now being worked out in Communist countries where attempts are being made to set up "national churches" detached from the Holy See.
The third "grave danger" is that of erring on the law of charity. Some people, said the Cardinal, sometimes forget the universal nature of charity, extending to all men, all classes and all races. "Charity can have its preferences but never its exclusions," he warned.
The Cardinal then referred to Catholics—"somctimes even priests" —who under the pretext of justice take part in a class-struggle with its inevitable consequences of overthrowing capitalism.
"For them the great evil is the capitalist regime and to overthrow it is a worthy act. The class-struggle is thus destined to make that great collective evil disappear."
But the Christian's job is to be an apostle of charity between all men and work for peace.
A certain spirit
The fourth and final danger confronting priest-workers is that of erring about the vocation of the secular priest. The Cardinal said : "One meets sometimes among us a certain spirit of independence which betrays itself in all spheres to the detriment to that spirit of obedience which should characterise a priestly soul after the example of Our Lord."
"They forget that a characteristic of the secular clergy is to be at the Church's disposal — through the Hierarchy, and not the Churcl) at the disposal of particular ideas and viewpoints."
"It is the Church's business to decide on how best individuals should be employed.
"The individual priest is not infallible. It is his duty to submit himself to the judgment of the Church, assured that by his docility he is on the right path, however difficult it may seem to him, and that his ministry is thus guaranteed if only by his spirit of obedience."