§ 1. Some call parish priests paroeci, ἀπὸ δὲ παροικεῖν [from dwelling beside]; for παροικία is a neighborhood, a habitation, and an assembly of men. But I prefer to follow usage rather than Budé, who affirms in his commentary on the Greek language that it ought to be said in that way. I prefer, therefore, that they were so called from providing, ἀπὸ δὲ παρέχειν, because they provide sacred things for the peoples, just as among the Romans we call by the Greek word parochi those who provided for legates and magistrates
Wood and salt.
The same men are called curiones, though more rarely, because in former times those who presided over sacred things were chosen from the Roman curiae. Especially in the Christian state they are called the cure of souls, curiones, curators, and possessors of benefices with cure. The laws also call them rectors and parish priests. Certain men were called perpetual rectors, or perpetual vicars, who were instituted by the Bishop in the place of the rector, so that the principal rector would not be held to continual residence. This practice, introduced from a slight beginning, has now transferred the right to many parishes to wealthy men and substituted vicars who are insufficiently suitable, while the revenues are diverted elsewhere.
§ 2. In the German Churches, provision has been made less suitably for parishes, especially those of towns and villages. There is a deficiency in the support of the parish priest. For although a parish priest must be learned, industrious, and of good life, and although his labors and dangers are great in singing, preaching, exhorting, and visiting the sick, even those infected by contagion, nevertheless his revenue is less than that of canons, and even his dignity is held to be less. This, therefore, is a grave wound of the Church, and it must be healed by a spirited and resolute visitor. This mistake has been made: a canon dies, and immediately twenty men fly to the collator; sometimes they purchase the benefice for a price. To obtain suitable parish priests, it is necessary to establish seminaries. Everything is done in the hope of canonries; most men flee the burdens of parish priests.
§ 3. There is one easy method of establishing parish priests well: that parishes be constituted rightly. That is, let the parishes be of such a kind that they are sought with as great a desire as canonries. Let the fruits not be altogether unequal to the labor. This remedy is more powerful than all others that can be employed. Parish priests are, as it were, little Bishops who truly exercise the office of presbyters among their own peoples; therefore they must be assisted liberally. For they preside in word and deed.
§ 4. That care has been entrusted to the Bishop in such a way that he himself can by no means attain salvation unless he appoints diligent, good, learned, and industrious parish priests; for parish priests are those who instruct the people and go before them by example. All chapters, and the individual capitulars according to their office, Abbots, and monasteries which possess the right of conferring parishes are in the same case. For formerly they administered the parishes; now they substitute others, and yet the care belongs to them, and they are bound to render an account. Therefore, since it is a mortal sin to appoint an unworthy parish priest, or not to punish or remove one,
it follows that not only Bishops, but also capitulars who appoint such a man by their vote, or protect him, or fail to act for his removal when they are able, sin mortally. For since in nearly all those places they receive the tithes, they are bound under mortal sin to provide those places with a suitable parish priest, either by delegating someone from their own body or by allowing the parish priest so much of the revenues that they can have a suitable man. And it is to be feared that many capitulars perish through this negligence. But if people also perish through the negligence of the parish priest, they perish through the fault of those whose duty it is to be vigilant that parish priests perform their office. For truly, just as an Emperor ought to seek brave soldiers who preserve their ranks and industrious commanders, so also the Bishop and the chapters ought to seek out eager and zealous parish priests, and to rouse, visit, and exhort them. It was piously decreed in the First Council of Milan:
That sentence of the Lord has the greatest force and necessity: “I have given you as a watchman to the house of Israel”; and likewise in another place: “Know diligently the countenance of your flock, and consider your herds,” so that Bishops may observe the flock entrusted to them with the greatest diligence they can, and never cast their eyes away from it, taking notice of what it needs, so that, according to the Prophet’s sentence, they may bind up its broken parts, strengthen the weak, heal the sick, bring back the castaway, and seek and recover the lost.
Next it appoints perpetual eyes for him—the vicars forane:
So that the Bishop may more easily behold and care for, as though present, even the flock outside the city, let him choose several approved priests, assign to each a definite region of his diocese, and impose upon him the name of vicar forane. He shall assign that office principally to Archpriests, Archdeacons, and Provosts who are in the diocese, or to others endowed with ecclesiastical dignity whom he judges suitable; otherwise, to other authorities who are fit for an office of this kind.
§ 5. How, then, will parishes be furnished so that they have suitable pastors? Those which possess good revenues are readily accepted—indeed, they are sought of their own accord. Poor ones in cities are easily aided if a rich canonry, a vicariate, or some other simple benefice is incorporated into them. Nowhere are benefices disposed of more religiously; this has been practiced at Cologne and elsewhere, and from this the most select pastors are found in those cities. The prelates, the Pontiff, and the whole world desire this above all: since there are many excellent men in cathedral and collegiate Churches, let parishes not be left destitute. For they deny the parish priest only the distributions for attendance; they grant him everything else. The Fourth Council of Milan says:
But a parish priest who legitimately holds a canonry or dignity, and at the same time a parish church, and performs the duty of parochial residence, as was sanctioned by the letters of Pius V, Supreme Pontiff, shall receive the fruits or revenues either of that dignity or of the canonical prebend. But he shall not participate in its third part, which, by the authority of that same Tridentine sanction, having been converted into distributions, neither can nor ought to fall to him while absent, but shall accrue to others who are present and discharge the offices of the choir, or shall, at the Bishop’s discretion, be assigned to the fabric of the Church or to pious places, according to the prescription of that same Council of Trent.
The Council of Cologne in the year 1536 established the following concerning these matters, in Part 8:
Since the divine law commands that the mouth of the ox treading out grain must not be muzzled—which Christ in the Gospel explains was certainly said not for the sake of oxen, but for our sake, when He says, “The laborer is worthy of his wages”—and Paul confirms it throughout chapter 9 of the First Epistle to the Corinthians: “For who ever serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Who feeds a flock and does not eat of the milk of the flock?” Nor is it a great thing if those who sow spiritual things also reap carnal things. Therefore consideration must be given to providing parish priests, the preachers of the Gospel, with a definite and sufficient supply of food and clothing, and in such a manner that they are not burdensome to their parishioners by exacting something in administering the Sacraments, or compelled to beg food by running from house to house, than which nothing is more shameful or sordid.
First, therefore, those who have received from us the power of governing parish churches through vicars or vice-curates shall assign to those vicars such a portion of the Church’s revenues as will enable them to support life fittingly. During visitation we shall command this to be done according to the circumstances of the places and parishes.
Cathedral and collegiate Churches, and likewise monks or religious, who either have parish churches annexed to their Churches or monasteries, or commit them to others to be governed, or procure their commitment by presentation, sometimes drain away the whole revenue to such an extent that the remaining revenues allowed to the rectors of the churches are exceedingly poor and meager. Therefore it will be our care that such a portion be assigned to those rectors that from it they may pay episcopal dues and possess suitable support.
But where the revenues of the churches are insufficient, we think the counsel of the law must be followed: namely, that two be united; or, if this should seem burdensome, that at least one, or even several, vicariates founded at altars in churches of that sort be incorporated into the parish church, as they say, yet in such a way that, so far as can be done, the parish priest does not at all neglect the office for which those vicariates were founded. Furthermore, there is no doubt that tithes are owed principally to parish priests and ministers of the Church. Now, since in many places laymen usurp a great part of them and they cannot readily be torn from their hands, it must be seen whether by diligent exhortation, or by another way consonant with law, something can be begged from this source for a parish priest whose church revenues are insufficient for his sustenance.
Nor is it unjust that entire prebends should be incorporated even into remote parishes in the diocese: first, by reason of the tithes, because by natural law those who give tithes should experience assistance in spiritual matters; next, because the ministers of the Church ought to have their offices so constituted that the greatest possible provision is made for the people. Therefore whoever truly assumes the care of the flock will turn his mind to enriching parishes, and will wholly abolish the enormous abuse by which wealthy parishes are held either by nobles or by wealthy clerics as whirlpools of benefices, while the vice-curate is sprinkled with a meager little portion. For parishes were made wealthy so that they might support men outstanding in learning and life. But if benefices which can be incorporated into poor parishes are lacking, assistance should be given to the poverty of parish priests from many other revenues.
§ 6. Parishes are not to be conferred upon boys, nor upon anyone unless he has attained his twenty-fifth year, as the Decretals and Councils establish.
Indeed, they are to be conferred only upon learned men and graduates. Thus the Lateran Council, Session 11:
We also establish that parish churches situated in cities or walled towns shall be conferred only upon persons qualified in the manner stated above, or at least upon those who have studied for three years in Theology or in one of the two laws, or upon Masters of Arts who, while studying in some privileged university, have attained the degree of Master. We admonish the aforesaid universities, under penalty of deprivation of each and every privilege obtained from us and the Apostolic See, not to nominate anyone to ecclesiastical collators or patrons except those who have studied for the aforesaid periods and have been advanced to their degrees according to the statutes of those universities, and not by a leap. But if they do otherwise, besides the penalty of nullity, which we declare in the letters of the aforesaid nominations, we suspend the universities themselves from the privilege of nominating for a time according to the quality of the fault. If, moreover, any graduate, or one nominated in the months assigned, has petitioned ordinary collators or ecclesiastical persons for a vacant benefice by virtue of his degree or nomination, and has brought the ordinary collator into proceedings by virtue of the aforesaid degree or nomination, and has molested him otherwise, we decree that, beyond condemnation for expenses, damages, and interest, he is to be deprived of the fruits of his degree and nomination. By the same bond we constrain ordinary collators and ecclesiastical patrons to whom graduates and nominees duly qualified, as above, have presented their degrees and letters of nomination, so that, while the aforesaid duly qualified graduates or nominees are standing and prosecuting their claims, they shall confer benefices pertaining to their collation or presentation, and vacant in the months of ordinary graduates and nominees, upon no others than graduates or nominees, under penalty of suspension of the power of conferring benefices during the eight months in that year which pertain to their collation and free presentation. We likewise establish and ordain that each Roman Pontiff may, only once during the time of his pontificate, grant letters in the form of a mandate according to the form noted below, and no more, in this manner: namely, he may burden a single collator who has the collation of ten benefices in one benefice, but one who has the collation of fifty benefices or more in only two benefices, yet in such a way that he does not burden one collator for the time being with two prebends in the same cathedral or collegiate Church. And so that lawsuits which might arise on occasion of letters of mandates of this kind may be forestalled, we will that mandates of this sort be given under the form noted below, which we command to be published in the Apostolic Chancery and registered in its quinternion for a perpetual memory of the matter; declaring that those prosecuting mandates of this kind are to be preferred, as regards the benefices comprehended under them, to ordinary collators and to ordinary graduates and nominees, and that we and our successors may freely confer by right of prevention dignities, personates, administrations and offices, and other ecclesiastical benefices, secular and regular of whatsoever orders, howsoever qualified, which become vacant both in months assigned to nominees and to the aforesaid ordinary collators and which are also comprehended under the said mandates.
But now most parishes are so poor that grammarians and petty rhetoricians neglect them. Let there be Maecenases, and there will be no lack of Maros.
Therefore, if the constitution of the Council of Trent, Session 25, chapter 15, is observed, there will be no complaint:
The holy Synod establishes that secular ecclesiastical benefices, by whatsoever name they are called, which retain the cure of souls from their original institution or in any other manner whatsoever, shall not henceforth be converted into a simple benefice, even when a suitable portion has been assigned to a perpetual vicar, etc.
Conversely, let simple benefices be changed into benefices with cure and be added to them; and not only those, but so many personates, so many altars, which are held by idle and secular men. Indeed, let the goods of abandoned monasteries, and of those converted to various uses and various tables, be applied to increasing parishes. By this it will come about that not only will many young men gird themselves for studies, but canons and vicars, after resigning their prebends, will pass over to parishes. It is advantageous to the Christian cause that parish priests should occupy that place and possess that authority, learning, and means which the prelates of collegiate Churches now possess; for thus they will perform their office usefully. Now they are frequently despised by their prelates and parishioners.
Here the opponents of parish priests suggest: “The wealth of pastors will make them wanton; poverty is an occasion of virtue.” First, I judge this to be false: more men have fallen through want and domestic difficulties. For there are more poor men than rich among those who live in such squalor. Secondly, the objection is unworthy of an ecclesiastical man. If virtue must be beaten out of parish priests by poverty, if in a more liberal stipend and a studious and laborious life there is a danger of ruin, why do those who take such scrupulous counsel for parish priests not first flee it themselves? Why do they possess several canonries and covet more, while assigning poverty to parish priests for the sake of integrity? But here I stop. From a bad parish priest arises hatred of the whole clergy; hence heresy, fraud in tithes, plunder of ecclesiastical goods, and the overthrow of canons.
Appoint suitable parish priests who are worthy of double honor, who labor in word and deed. Give them liberal stipends like your own, and greater than your own if they labor more than you, and you will see that everything turns out better. Thus much for parish priests; now their office must be discussed.
§ 7. Concerning the life of parish priests I have nothing other than what I said generally concerning the life of Clerics, except that these men must guard still more against scandal, lest they alienate from themselves the men whose souls they ought to capture. For among countrymen also, who are unskilled and weak, people are offended more quickly and reconciled with greater labor; they live their lives deprived of intercourse with others.
§ 8. These are their duties.
1. To reside. The Council of Siena, chapter 11:
The rectors of Churches, whose singular industry was chosen, shall be compelled by our suffragans, so far as can be done, to personal residence; nor shall a dispensation for nonresidence be granted to them unless a probable cause intervenes. And in parish Churches on every Sunday, the parish priests with cure shall, by themselves or their vicars, announce in a clear and intelligible voice and in the vernacular the ten precepts of the Decalogue and the articles of faith. And if there are priests who lack learning or the grace of preaching, on the aforesaid Sunday they shall read and explain one chapter of John Gerson in his Tripartite Work.
2. To admonish everyone of his duty. The Council of Siena, chapter 12:
Let those with cure frequently admonish their parishioners to attend the parochial Mass on Sundays and on feasts occurring during the week, and diligently to attend to all those things commanded in the bidding prayers on every Sunday. But if, in the absence of a legitimate impediment and without the permission of their curate, they have neglected for three Sundays to attend the parochial Mass, let them immediately be reported to the promoters, so that they may be punished according to the measure of their contempt or offense.
3. To teach, and to bar the incorrigible from communion. The Synod of Augsburg in the year 1548, chapter 8:
Parish priests shall teach and instruct the people entrusted to them concerning our faith and religion, administer the Sacraments, explain their mystical grace, canonically rebuke those entangled in public sins, but rebuke hidden offenses privately, and lead them to penance. They shall report the incorrigible to us or to our vicar in spiritual matters, so that they may either be cured through public satisfaction or barred from Catholic communion. At fixed times they shall also teach the little children and all the unlearned of their parish the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, etc., or shall pronounce them clearly from the pulpit on Sundays, so that they may in truth be held worthy of double honor.
4. To teach by one’s life. Pelargus in the Council of Trier in the year 1548:
I, myself also a presbyter, beseech you presbyters: feed the flock of Christ which is among us, exercising care for it not under compulsion, but willingly; not for the sake of base gain, but with a ready mind; and not as exercising lordship against the clergy, but so that you may be examples of the flock. And when the Prince of Pastors appears, you will receive the unfading crown of eternal glory.
Certainly, even from this it becomes clear that it is not sufficient for a suitable pastor to address the people from the pulpit unless he also strives by his life or conduct to impress a definite form of morals upon the minds of others, and does this not from necessity or a scruple of office, nor for the sake of gain, but from a paternal and sincere affection.
But I prefer to present these and other matters in the words of the Archbishop and the Fourth Synod of Milan. It contains the following among its admonitions:
All of you who among the canons possess the name or rank of Provost, Archpriest, or another dignity: just as you excel in honor and dignity, so shine before others by examples of virtues and by vigilant solicitude in discharging the parts of your office or cure.
Parish priests, moreover, and all you others—even Provosts, Archpriests, or others—who bear the cure of souls: besides those matters of which we admonished you all in common with the remainder of the clergy, discharge with every solicitude those also which have been decreed particularly concerning you.
First, the sheep entrusted to you must be known and called by name, and likewise fed and guarded.
Therefore reduce the number of souls to a register according to the written form.
Record the names of those who are baptized, of those who are likewise confirmed, and also of the sponsors who are employed.
Enter marriages in a book.
Investigate the life and morals of the inhabitants of your parish.
Inquire with every diligence whether any are contaminated with or suspected of heresy, or whether there are any who possess, sell, buy, import, or read books of heretics, and report them immediately.
Admonish the people also to perform this same duty according to the prescription of our edict, which you shall promulgate in the customary manner at stated times.
Inquire into the words and deeds of those who come from the territories of heretics.
Examine whether any from the bounds of your parish travel to places where that which is alien to the Catholic faith is preached with impunity; and also whether those who have obtained permission for the journey act according to the prescription of the decree promulgated in the Third Provincial Council. Investigate, moreover, those who teach in your parish, and observe their morals, life, and faith; perform concerning them also the remaining things prescribed or commanded in the Provincial Councils.
See and take care that superstitions, magical incantations, and diabolical superstitions of this sort do not exist among your people.
Identify public sinners, corrupters of others, concubinarians, adulterers, usurers, and blasphemers, and report them.
Identify also the other corrupters of peoples who on feast days serve not God but dice, games, dances, and the devil, and who violate in any manner the observance of feast days, whoever they may be, and observe neither pontifical nor provincial constitutions concerning the observance of feast days, nor episcopal edicts.
Strive by every duty of piety to recall and deter these men from that corruption of evil conduct; then report them also to the Bishop as need shall require, so that a salutary remedy may be applied in fulfillment of the office of episcopal care.
Again, identify also the poor, widows, orphans, and others in need of another’s aid. Assist them both with salutary counsel and consolation and with material means; or, if you are less able, kindle others by exhortation to relieve them.
And if their more grievous poverty demands it, arrange even on feast days that something be collected in the Church from the pious liberality of the faithful, as the Bishop shall prescribe, to be bestowed upon them as alms.
Meet separately also with the wealthy inhabitants of the parish. Set before them the wants of the poor, and show them that riches have been bestowed by God also for this purpose, that they should succor the needy.
But if any have been oppressed in some cause by the resources of powerful men, commend them uniquely and intimately to the protection of those who either ought to provide it by the office they have undertaken, or to whom the Bishop has given this care.
Feed above all the people entrusted to you by the preaching of the word of God, by salutary admonitions, by the administration of the Sacraments, and likewise by example and prayer.
In expounding the word of God, observe fully what has been prescribed in the provincial constitution both to other preachers and to you.
Instruct children on feast days and Sundays in the rudiments of Christian doctrine.
Invite persons of more advanced age to understand the same things.
Admonish fathers and mothers of households that they themselves conduct their sons, daughters, and the others whom they have in the household to the stated schools of Christian doctrine.
Employ for this purpose the labor of the confraternity members enrolled in those schools, and take care that mutual charity and moral discipline are preserved among them.
Render and rouse others also more eager to embrace so pious a work, both by your continual exhortations and by promulgating the spiritual treasury of indulgences granted to those who enroll in those schools and labor in them.
Do not omit on feast days, amid the solemnities of the Masses, to explain to the faithful something from the lessons read in the Mass, to unfold some mystery of that most holy sacrifice, and sometimes to explain the more sacred reasons and meanings of its sacred ceremonies and rites, so that, instructed more diligently from day to day, they may attend that most holy sacrifice more religiously.
Teach likewise how, when the signal for the celebration of Mass has been given, the faithful should prepare themselves with contrite heart to hear it devoutly.
By your continual offices of admonition take care and bring it about that at Mass men are present with head uncovered, women with head covered, and both sexes with knee bent throughout every part of it except at the Gospel.
Instruct them also how religiously they must conduct themselves, not only in the sacred rite of the Mass but also in the other divine offices:
When one must stand, when bend the knees, when rise;
How greatly, while those things are done or celebrated, conversations, talk, walking about, noises, cries—indeed, vain thoughts by which the mind is distracted from pious meditation, contemplation of the mysteries which are being enacted, and religious prayer—must be avoided; and finally, how diligently all other things alien to the sanctity and worship of those offices must be avoided;
Again, how devoutly, religiously, and with how downcast and humble a bearing one must conduct oneself in processions, litanies, and stations;
With what reverence and zeal of piety one must remain in Churches or sacred places, and what things must be kept far from them, according to pontifical sanctions, conciliar constitutions, and, furthermore, episcopal edicts;
And with what inward preparation of a religious mind, and also with what external modesty of worship and dress, with humble genuflection and arms laid aside, one must approach the most holy Communion and also certain Sacraments.
Then teach and admonish how feast days are to be observed and sanctified.
Show that it is most unworthy on those sacred days not only to fail to abstain from wicked works and unlawful business, but also to fail to perform works of religion and piety with all diligence.
And furthermore, that it is impious for sacred days—instituted for honoring the greatest benefits of God, rendering the highest praises to Him, and giving due honor to the Saints—to be diverted to things abhorrent from that worship, such as dances, games, choreographed dances, and spectacles, by whose shameful allurements the devil, the enemy of human salvation, is delighted.
Announce likewise the stated fasts of sacred seasons; teach how one must fast, and what gravity of sin lies in violating sacred fasts;
What duties of Christian piety are to be performed on the vigils of Saints;
How devoutly the Lenten fast is to be observed.
At the stated solemnities of Advent, Septuagesima, or the celebrations of other seasons, forewarn the faithful and instruct them diligently—even by the prescribed reading and explanation of pastoral letters—to celebrate religiously the sacred mysteries of those seasons with holy duties of piety.
And so that they may be instructed in all these matters according to the seasons and solemnities, admonish them frequently to assemble at the parish Church on Sundays and other feast days, as the holy Synod of Trent desires.
In this matter frequently read to the people the general pastoral admonition concerning frequent attendance.
Frequently and diligently teach them how continually one must pray;
How prayer is to be offered both by the silent meditation of a suppliant mind and by stated pious prayers;
How diligently and religiously the institution of common evening prayer is to be undertaken, and how diligently, once undertaken, it is to be piously retained.
Therefore, as you shall often explain at other times in the year the principal points of that manner of prayer with the indulgences granted to it, so especially on the days established by the Third Provincial Council pronounce and publish them from the written text amid the greatest attendance of the people.
On Sundays instruct the people and admonish them for whom they are to pray, as was decreed in that same Provincial Council;
And, moreover, what principal prayers, Christian meditations, and exercises in prayer they may have proposed and ready for themselves on each weekday.
But as often as possible set before the people in your sermons the subjects of perpetual Christian meditation: death, judgment, hell, glory, and the reward of Paradise.
Moreover, diligently and very frequently admonish fathers and mothers of households religiously to instruct their children and household in the discipline of piety and Christian virtues.
Induce fathers of households, moreover, to have in their homes approved books concerning the manner of spiritual life and pious exercises, in the reading of which they may occupy themselves and instruct themselves and their household to act holily.
In the parochial assembly read the constitution concerning the office of fathers of households and the instruction of the household, published in the Third Provincial Council, and explain each of its parts.
Teach, in addition, whatever other things you shall deem opportune, by which they may conform themselves and their household to the institutions and exercises of the Christian life.
Observe also in workshops and shops the rule of discipline and Christian life. If you notice anything being committed by artisans, instructors, or workmen that belongs to dissolute discipline, gravely admonish the masters of the workshops or shops, and show them the parts of their duty in this matter.
You are poor men and partners in the labors and care of the Bishop, and you are laborers in the harvest entrusted to the Bishop. Labor together with him and strive that, with the help of divine mercy, the people whose care is being borne may be gathered as pure wheat into the heavenly barns.
“Guard what has been entrusted to you,” says the blessed Apostle Paul. Consider this to have been said to each one of you, so that you may place every thought, solicitude, care, and zeal in diligently guarding the flock entrusted to your faith and care as a deposit, and preserving it from every stain of sin.
Therefore, each of you must carefully guard the neighborhood of the parish entrusted to him from all other vices, and also take care that there be in it no hatreds, rivalries, enmities, factions, evil customs of rash swearing, cursing, and imprecation, nor even detractions.
But above all rebuke and assail the vices and sins to which you have observed the people to be more inclined.
Do not conceal sins, but announce to the people their crimes; rebuke those who sin publicly before everyone, so that others may have fear.
Do this in the spirit of the Lord’s strength, and as His strenuous soldiers fight the good fight, trembling at nothing whatsoever.
Saint Gregory admonishes you that if you remain silent from rebuke because you fear the hatreds that may rise against you, you are now seeking not the gains of God, but your own.
Do not abandon that office of rebuking or of reproving openly on account of curses, persecutions, calumnies, or insults of any kind, provided that you serve the glory of Christ and the salvation of souls.
Again, do not desist from doing it out of zeal for hunting after men’s favor. “I would not be a servant of God if I pleased men,” says the Apostle.
Woe to you who are silent or dissemble if the flock entrusted to your care perishes: the just and almighty God will require its blood from your hands.
Therefore, if sin is committed, let your words in rebukes not be flattering, but, as was written by the Holy Spirit, let them be goads and, as it were, nails driven deep.
Press on in season and out of season, even with private admonitions, counsels, corrections, and reproofs, so that, with divine grace assisting, you may recall sinners to the way of salvation.
Restore fraternal correction to holy use in such a manner that you not only correct one another in mutual Christian charity, but also rightly teach the rest—especially the inhabitants of the parish—that duty of charity and correction.
To fulfill the parts of sermons, admonitions, and corrections, procure for yourselves passages, especially from the doctrine of the Roman Catechism, in which you can occupy yourselves diligently with great salutary advantage to your peoples.
Nor for this manifold kind of your ecclesiastical conduct neglect the aids which you can usefully obtain from elsewhere.
Accurately perform and execute the other offices prescribed to you by Provincial and Diocesan Councils in the administration of the Sacraments, in constant exhortation to their frequent use, in the care of the fields, and in the other functions of the parochial office; and conform yourselves wholly to the norm of those conciliar constitutions or decrees with every zeal of observance and obedience.
But those parts of the Provincial or Diocesan decrees which pertain to laymen and their Christian discipline—so that they may be observed more diligently, the more frequently they are published and inculcated—frequently set them before your peoples, announce, explain, and introduce them into custom, as occasion shall arise, expressed summarily in the vernacular.
Finally, whatever decrees pertain either to you or to the laymen entrusted to your care, introduce them into complete execution and the practice of discipline with the greatest zeal you can. See and consider above all what and how religious are the parts of your office; and take care that in the duties and functions of your cure you not only commit no wrong, but do not even omit anything, since in priestly life, in proportion to the office which you sustain, faults of omission can be both graver and far more numerous than in other men.