Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/673

 THEOLOGY

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THEOLOGY

shepherd; pastoral theology purposes to impart the knowledge of these duties and of the treatise known as "pastoral medicine", the medical knowl- edge requisite for the proper care of souls.

Under the head of teacher are treated the duty of teaching, the quahties of the teacher, his training, the models of teaching left us b)' the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, as well as by distinguished preachers and catcchists, and the occasions and forms of instruction suited for the various needs of the faithful, young and old, hterate and ilhterate. The Council of Trent, in the fifth session, lays down a twofold duty of the teacher, to preach on Sundays and festivals, and to give catechetical instruction to children and to others who have need of such instruc- tion. Benedict XIV, in his Constitution, "Etsi Minime", calls special attention to this latter most important duty. Pius X, in his Encycheal on the teaching of Christian doctrine (15 April, 1905), insists once again on theparamount need of catechetical instruction. All parish priests, and all others to whom the care of souls is committed, must teach the catechism to their young girls and boys for the space of one hour on all Sundays and holy days of the year without exception, and must explain to them what one is bound to believe and practise in order to be saved. These children shall, at stated times during each year, be prepared by more extended instruction for the Sacraments of Penance and Con- firmation. Daily instruction during Lent, and even after Easter, will make the young children of both sexes ready for their first Holy Communion. More- over, an hour every Sunday and holy day shall be devoted to the catechetical instruction of adults. This lesson in catechism, in plain and simple language, is to be given over and above the Sunday homily on the Gospel and the children's instruction in Christian doctrine.

As minister of the sacred mysteries, the priest must not only know the nature of the sacraments, 80 far as dogmatic theology explains it, besides what is needed for their valid administration, as taught in moral theology, but must also pos.sess such additional knowledge as may serve him in his spiritual minis- trations — for instance, in attending the sick, in ad- vising what is lawful or unlawful in critical operations, especially in such as may affect childbirth; in directing others, when necessary, how to baptize the unborn child; in deciding whether to confer extreme unction or other sacraments in cases of apparent death, etc.

Finally, as pastor, a variety of duties have to be mastered, which keep growing and varying in number constantly with the complicated conditions of modern Ufe, especially wherever there is a tendency to mass people together in large cities, or wherever migration to and fro causes frequent change. This, perhaps, is the main part of pastoral theolog>'. The organiza- tion of parishes; the maintenance of a church and other institutions that grow up around it ; the manage- ment of parish schools; the formation of societies for men and women, young and old; the vast ninnber of social works into which a priest in a modern city is almost necessarily drawn — all these points furnish material for instruction, which, as the fruit of expe- rience, can rarely be conveyed through books. I"su- ally the priest acquires sufficient knowledge of all these things from prudent directors as he goes through his seminary course, or from his own experience under a competent pastor; but gradually an extensive literature on these subjects has accumulated during the past half centurj-, and it is the systematization of such WTilings that constitutes pa.storal theolog>'.

The cliief authoritic* down to thf time of St. A lphonsfr. Homo opo»Mi>u»(17.">!)). have already been mentioned in the body of the article. Since (17.^)9) have appeared the Pa.itoral Thfologies of CoLivOwiTZ-WiEUEMANN (Ratiabon, I8.'i6); Amberoer (1S50); Stvnq (New York. 1897); .Scholze (Milwaukee, 19f>); Alberti (Rome, 1001-1904); Poey (Montrejeau, 1912); Neumayr. ed. De Aueh, Vir Apaslolicus (Schaffhauscn. 1.S53); Reuter, ed.

Lehmkuhl, S'eo-con/essarius (Freiburg im Br., 1905); Zenner, Instructio praclica con/essani (Vienna, 1840); Fbassinetti, Parish Priests' Manual; Berardi, Praxis con/essarn (Faenza, 1899) ; Heuser, The Parish Pnrsl on Duly (New York) ; Krieo, Wissenscbafl der Seelenlexlung (Freiburg im Br.). For questions on pastoraJ medicine, the following works are of use; EscHaACH, Dispulaliones physiologico-lheolooica- (Rome, 1901) ; Antonelli, De conceplu impolentia- el strrihtalis relate ad matrimonium (Rome, 1900); Debbeyne-Ferkand. La theologie morale et lea sciences medicates (Paris, 18S4) ; Burbled, La morale dans ses rapports atec la medicine et V hygiene (Paris, 1897); Pastoral Medi- cine by SxiiHR (Freiburg im Br., 1878); von Olfers (Freiburg im Br., 1881); Capellmann (Aachen, 1901); O'Malley and Walsh (New York, 1907); Sanford-Dbum (New Y'ork, 1903); Antonelli (Rome, 1909).

Walter Drum.

AscETicAL Theology. — Ascetics, as a branch of theology, may be briefly defined as the scientific expo- sition of Christian asceticism. Asceticism (fio-ztTjo-is, offAetp), taken in its hteral signification, means a polishing, a smoothing or refining. The Greeks used the word to designate the exercises of the athletes, whereby the powers dormant in the body were de- veloped and the body itself was trained to its full natural beauty. The end for which these gymnastic exercises were undertaken was the laurel-wreath be- stowed on the victor in the public games. Xow the Ufe of the Christian is, as Christ assures us, a struggle for the kingdom of heaven (Matt., xi, 12). To give his readers an object-les.son of this spiritual battle and moral endeavour, St. Paul, who had been trained in the Greek fashion, uses the picture of the Greek pen- tathlon (I Cor., ix, 24). The exercises to be assumed in this combat tend to develop and strengthen the moral stamina, while their aim is Christian perfection leading up to man's ultimate end, union with (!od. Human nature having been weakened by original sin and ever inclining toward what is evil, this end cannot be reached excejjt at the price of overcoming, with God's grace, many and serious obstacles. The moral struggle then consists first of all in attacking and re- moving the obstacles, that is the evil concupiscences (concupiscence of the flesh, concupiscence of the eyes, and pride of life), which effects of original sin serve to try and test man {Trid., Se.ss. V, De peccato originali). This first duty is called by the Apostle Paul the putting off of "the old man" (Eph., iv, 22). The second duty, in the words of the same Apostle, is to "put on the new man" according to the image of God (Eph;, iv, 24). The new man is Christ. It is our duty then to strive to become like unto Christ, seeing that He is "the way, and the truth, and the life" (John, xiv, 6), but this endeavour is based on the supernatural order and, therefore, cannot be accomplished without Di- vine grace. Its foundation is laid in baptism, whereby we are adopted as sons of God through the imparting of .sanctifying grace. Thenceforth, it must be perfected by the supernatural virtues, the gifts of the Holy Ghost, and actual grace. Since, then, ascetics is the systematic treati.se of the striving after Christian perfection, it may be defined as the scientific guide to the acquisition of Christian perfection, which consists in expressing within ourselves, willi the help of Divine grace, the image of Christ, by practising the Christian virtues, and applying the means given for overcoming the obstacles. Let us subject the various elements of this definition to a closer examination.

A. Xnliire of Chrislinn Perfection. — (1) To begin with, we must reject the false conception of the Protestants who fancy that Christian perfection, as understood by Catholi''s, is essentially negative ascet- icism (cf . Seberg in Herzog-Hauck, ' 'Healencyklo- padie fiir prot. Theologie", III, 1.3S), and that the correct notion of asceticism was discovered by the Reformers. There can be no doubt as to the (\atholic position, if we but hearkert to the clear voices of St. Thoma.s anil St. Bonaventure. For these ni;i-sters of Catholic theology, who never tired of re))eating that the ideal of asceticism upheld by them was I lie ideal of the Catholic past, of the Fathers, of Christ Himself,