would receive God's malediction."[1] As Bishop Abelly remarks, they would expose themselves to the great danger of being lost forever: "Whoever deliberately and without troubling himself whether or not he had a vocation would thrust himself into the priesthood, would without doubt plainly expose himself to eternal perdition."[2] Soto holds the same opinion when he asserts, in speaking of the Sacrament of Holy Orders, that positive sanctity in the candidate is of divine precept: "Assuredly," he says, "this sanctity is not essential to the sacrament, though it is altogether necessary by a divine precept. … Now, the sanctity that should characterize the candidates to Holy Orders does not consist in the general disposition required for the reception of the other sacraments, and sufficient in order that the sacrament may not be impeded. For, in the Sacrament of Holy Orders, one receives not only grace, but one is raised to a much more sublime state. Hence in the candidates there must be great purity of life and perfect virtue."[3] Thomas Sanchez, Holzmann, the school of Salamanca, are also of the same opinion. Thus, what I have advanced is not only the opinion of one theologian, but it is the common teaching based upon what is taught by St. Thomas.
- ↑ "Qui enim se ingerit, et propriam gloriam quærit, gratiæ Dei rapinam facit, et ideo non accipit benedictionem sed maledictionem."—In Hebr. v.
- ↑ "Qui sciens et volens, nulla divinæ vocationis habita ratione, sese in Sacerdotium intruderet, haud dubie seipsum in apertissimum salutis discrimen injiceret."—Sac. Chr. p. 1, c. 4.
- ↑ "Quamvis morum integritas non sit de essentia Sacramenti, est tamen præcepto divino maxime necessaria. … At vero, quod de idoneitate eorum qui sacris sunt Ordinibus initiandi definitur, non est generalis ilia dispositio quæ in suscipiente quodcumque Sacramentum requiritur, ne sacramentalis gratia obicem inveniat. … Enim vero, quoniam per sacramentum Ordinis homo, non solum gratiam suscipit, sed ad sublimiorem statum conscendit, requiritur in eo morum honestas et virtutum claritas."—In 4 Sent. d. 25, q. 1, a. 4.
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