have no other expedite and sufficient means of acquiring this knowledge, except from the lips of him whom God has given them to be their teacher. Happy the pastor who can put his hand upon his heart and say before his God: If there be one of my parishioners who is in culpable ignorance of essential truths: if at Easter there be one absolution sacrilegious or invalid through ignorance of essential dispositions: if one dying person incur damnation because he dies in ignorance of the principal mysteries, or of the conditions of contrition: I can thank my God that this happens through no fault of mine, since I have explained all these matters so simply, so clearly, and so constantly, that no man of good will can possibly be ignorant of them.

In view of this rigorous obligation and of the dreadful consequences which must inevitably flow to pastor and to people from its neglect, it is little wonder if we find the most eminent theologians devoting their earnest attention to this matter, and laying down, with a clearness, which none may escape, what they consider the legitimate and inevitable conclusions to be drawn from the decrees of Councils, and the whole scope of the Church's legislation in regard to religious instruction. Hence, Medina does not hesitate to advance a proposition which certainly cannot be fairly accused of any undue ambiguity. "Advertant quicumque in Christi Ecclesiâ ad pastoralis officii dignitatem assumpti sunt, ad apostolicum prædicationis munus exercendum, naturali divino et ecclesiastico jure ita esse constrictos, ut, nisi id diligenter expleverint, certum subituri sint damnationis supplicium." And from the consideration

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of this general proposition we may profitably descend to others which are at once more precise in their application, and which may probably carry even greater weight with them from the names, characters, and position of their authors.

Curam animarum habentes, per se vel per alios idoneos, si legitime impediti fuerint, diebus saltem dominicis et festis solemnibus plebes sibi commissas, pro suâ et earum capacitate pascant salutaribus verbis . si quis eorum præstare negligat, per censuras ecclesiasticas cogatur. De Reform. Sess. V. Cap. II. Such are the words in which the teaching of the venerable Council of Trent on this matter is contained. But that our practice may be in strict accord with this teaching, it is of the utmost importance to arrive at a correct estimate of the Church's meaning, and of the extent of the undoubted obligation contained in the canon just cited. And in the first place we may remark, that there can be no doubt that the church intends this obligation to be a grave one; an assertion which is sufficiently proved by the fact that Bishops are commanded to enforce obedience to this law even by the infliction of ecclesiastical censures; or, in other words, by a penalty which of its very nature supposes a serious dereliction of duty. Theologians, however, leave us in no uncertainty on this point. Navarre, Collet, Bonacina, Bouvier, St. Liguori, and a host of others have defined with the utmost clearness the extent of this obligation. Whilst they agree that the Divine Law, as interpreted by the Council of Trent, does not oblige the pastor sub gravi for each Sunday

or Festival, they also agree that there is a fixed limit beyond which he cannot go without grave culpability. There is a certain difference of opinion, scarcely however amounting to a disagreement, as to the precise extent of this limit; but all the theologians whom we have just quoted maintain that a pastor cannot, without a grave fault, neglect to preach, per se vel per alios idoneos, four Sundays in succession, or thirteen Sundays during the course of the year, excepting of course the time allowed for vacation. In proof of this assertion it will be sufficient to quote the words of St. Liguori, who affirms that his opinion is in strict accordance with that of the doctors of the Catholic Church. Doctores affirmant" he says "graviter peccare parochum qui per mensem continuum, aut per tres menses discontinuos, concionari omittit, exceptis duobis mensibus in quibus permittit Conc. Trident. parochis, ex justa causâ ab episcopo approbandâ, posse licite abesse."1 And, in another place; “Etenim, parochus, cum non est legitime impeditus, omittendo concionari per mensem continuum, aut tres menses discontinuos intra annum, a doctoribus non excusatur a gravi culpa." "" 2

We might adduce many other authorities to the same effect, but these are more than sufficient for our purpose. And whilst we repeat what we said above, viz., that we most certainly do not presume to say how far these decrees and these opinions of the gravest theologians are to be rigorously interpreted, or how far they are to be modified to meet the exigencies of usage,

1 Praxis Confess. n. 203.

2 Ib. n. 52.

of custom, or of necessity, we also repeat that they are more than sufficient to express, with a clearness and distinctness which can neither be blinked nor overlooked, the whole scope of the Church's teaching on this fundamental point, and the immense importance which she has ever attached to the due discharge of this most interesting and most essential duty. Let the zealous pastor frequently meditate on the advice of his great missionary model, St. Francis Xavier. "Instruct your people," he said, "as often as ever you can: there is no other function which will promote in an equal degree the glory of God and the salvation of souls." Let him reflect, too, no less frequently on the wise maxim of another great saint, who is no less worthy of his closest imitation and his warmest veneration. "Believe me," exclaims St. Francis de Sales, "we can never preach too frequently." "Nunquam satis dicitur quod nunquam satis discitur." Let him take these lessons deeply to heart, and before all and above all, let him strive to realize and to appreciate in all their divine beauty the words of his Master and his Model: "Suffer little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven:" and there will be little need to remind him of the penalties which he incurs, when he presumes to neglect or to despise the interests of those dear little ones upon whom the divine hands of Jesus Christ were laid with such a wealth of loving benediction, and with such an infinite outpouring of the tender and complacent condescension of His Sacred Heart. "Et complexans eos, et manus imponens super illos, benedicebat eos."

SECTION II.

TRUE IDEA OF CATECHETICAL INSTRUCTION-ITS DEFINITION BY THE BISHOP OF ORLEANS ITS UNIVERSAL APPLICA

BILITY.

In the preceding section, we have sufficiently established the truth, that the pastor of souls is rigorously bound to impart to his people the instruction which is necessary for them, in order to save their souls. We have now to show that by instruction, in this sense, is understood, par excellence, catechetical instruction and its true meaning.

As a common rule, it is only through the medium of catechetical instruction-instruction which proposes to explain the fundamental truths of religion in the most simple terms, that this salutary knowledge can be imparted to a flock. As we have explained in another place, the ordinary Sunday sermon is practically useless to attain this object, and can never supply the want of fundamental or catechetical teaching. In their ordinary sermons, preachers do not even pretend to explain elementary truths. They take for granted, that their hearers are sufficiently instructed in all these matters, and hence they do not refer to them, except in such vague and general terms, as can never suffice to instruct the ignorant. The most that preachers can hope to attain by these discourses is, to keep alive in the souls of their hearers that essential knowledge, and those salutary dispositions, which have been already planted there through the means of catechetical instruction.