Priesthood a Calling, no Office - Hubert_Luns

8/6/2019 Priesthood a Calling, no Office - Hubert_Luns

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P RIESTHOOD A C ALLING , NO O FFICE

SOW THE WIND AND REAP THE WHIRLWIND

1 The priest: a civil servant?As noted elsewhere in this journal, the heads of the Dominican province in the Nether-lands, with its headquarters in Nijmegen, published the brochure The Church and theMinistry in the autumn of 2007 and distributed itto approximately 1,400 Dutch parishes. At thesame time and English-language version was sentout via the usual news media. At present (Febru-ary 2008) it is also available in French, German,Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. We could saythat this represents a well-prepared offensive: mi-litant and decisive. A withdrawal or something of

a measure of tolerance towards a more correctRoman Catholic viewpoint it would not seem a justifiable expectation. The intention behind the piece is clear: the priest has to become a civil ser-vant, an official. The writers of this 38-page

brochure are the Dominicans Andr Lascaris, Jan Nieuwenhuis, Harrie Salemans and Ad Willems.Lascaris is the best known. For almost twentyyears he was involved in the Irish Peace Move-ment and has published a great deal on that sub-

ject. He now works at the Dominican Study Cen-tre for Theology and Society in Nijmegen.


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The problem dealt with by the writers is very serious and everyone shares in their burning care regarding the crisis in the Church. The solution they propose is that of thedemolition hammer: the old must make way for the new. Because of the alarming lackof priests, whereby many parishes can scarcely function in the present system, a solu-tion is sought in what is called the centre for faith and spirituality . The bishopwould be obliged to ordain into the office candidates for the priesthood emergingfrom a centre such as this. The brochure speaks deliberately of an upside-down pyra-midal structure and how otherwise? refers to the decisions and discussions of theSecond Vatican Council (1962-1965). As though that particular Council could be incontradiction to all the previous Councils in our church history of the last two thousandyears! The proposal shows a terrible lack of historical insight of which more later.The decisions of the Council must be seen in their entirety and we have to read whatreally is written there. The brochure decrees that if the bishop refuses to lay his handson the proposed candidate, then (and it really does state this): the parishes may beconfident that they are able to celebrate a real and genuine Eucharist when they aretogether in prayer and share bread and wine.

By way of conclusion, the Dominican brothers say the following:

The present shortage of priests is frankly unnecessary and therefore unreal. Inany present-day parishes men and women are active in a heart-warming andstimulating way as persons who initiate and inspire communities in a way adaptedto our time, as Christians people can identify with. () Is it true to say that in ourWestern society unmarried people are per se more suitable to be leaders of a faithcommunity than married ones? And that in our Western cultural pattern men are

per se more suitable to lead and inspire a Christian community than women are?Our answer, and that of very many fellow faithful, to both questions is anunequivocal no () The official church authority in principle opts for a

protection of the priesthood in its present form over against the right of churchcommunities to the Eucharist; in the official view using the approved eucharistic


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prayers and especially pronouncing the words of institution not only is moreimportant than the faith community, but is also seen and used as an exclusive

power which is restricted to ordained priests.

2 Heritage from the turbulent sixties

It comes as no surprise that it just happens to be the Netherlands where this documenthas seen the light of day. The matter landed on a slippery slope under Cardinal Alfrink.He was archbishop in an important time, from 1955 to 1975. He held Modernist opini-ons according to which the supernatural was giving way more and more to the eman-cipation of mankind, the starting point, measure and aim of the economy of salvation.Here the vertical gives way to the horizontal, and that is what they dare call economyof salvation! Alfrink strove to build into the ecclesiastical structure the Dutch poldermodel, based on wide-ranging discussion and room for compromise, as used on the

political field of play. The changes he sought to introduce had to do with bindinginterventions by the faithful in ecclesiastical questions, far-reaching liturgical innova-tions, a great deal of free thinking in ethical questions such as contraception, abortion

and euthanasia, and of course the question of celibacy. And though there weremore rebellious church provinces in Europe in those turbulent years, the Netherlandsstood out because of the unity shown by its bishops and the assumed support of thelarge community of faith. In addition, the continual hammering of the Press put thewhole thing out of joint.

The year 1970 was the turning point. From then on the Vatican took the reins in handagain is such matters as episcopal appointments. This is described in great detail inWalter Goddijns Kardinale kwesties in Katholiek Nederland 1970-1987 (Cardinal

Questions in Catholic Netherlands 1970-1987). The author experienced everything atclose quarters in his capacity as adviser to the bishops. He makes no secret of his dis-taste for the papal actions. The cover of his book carries the following passage: Muchof the present misery within the Catholic Church including the serious shortage of

priests could have been avoided, according to the author, if the central authority of Rome had adopted in 1970 the standpoints of the Dutch bishops, under the leadershipof Cardinal Alfrink, regarding the obligatory celibacy of priests. No doubt this smallvolume is on the obligatory reading list at the faculty in Nijmegen! Rome tried to turnthe tide, but it was too little and too late, as shown by the Church & Ministry initiative.Monsignor Giuseppe Beltrami, Internuncio from 1959 to 1967, warned my father, thenDutch Foreign Minister, that major problems were awaiting the Dutch church. He hadcome to this conclusion after analysing the teaching at seminaries in the Netherlands

and what the Dominican Edward Schillebeeckx and his like were teaching at the theo-


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bration of and the attendance at Holy Mass. Finally a point has been reached where theHoly Sacrifice of the Mass is completely despised. That is the stage we are at now.

There remains the hatred whereby others are prevented from adoring the Sacrament,even if only on the feast of Corpus Christi (shortly after Whitsun). This feast, espe-cially known as Blessed Sacrament Day, was instituted in 1246, on the intercession ofa Belgian nun, by the Bishop of Lige, and 65 years later was confirmed by a generalcouncil. The feast is accompanied by a solemn procession and serves to commemoratethe institution of the Holy Eucharist. Thomas Aquinas wrote a beautiful liturgy for thefeast. The feast of Corpus Christi was needed at the time because the adoration owed toJesus had fallen into severe neglect and the Church was thus obliged to proclaim her

belief in public adoration. Let the faithful Christians take this feast seriously in ourdays, a feast that came into being so close to our Dutch borders, in order to bring abouta restoration in place of the failure to recognise the immense font of mercy that is theBlessed Sacrament, and also of the related insults offered to the Giver, He who espe-cially gives Himself.

Down in adoration falling, Lo! the sacred Host we hail; Lo! o'er ancient forms departing, Newer rites of grace prevail;Faith for all defects supplying,Where the feeble senses fail.

4 A piece of dj-vu

The amazing thing about the Church & Ministry initiative is that it is a resurrection ofLa constitution civile du clerg (The civil Constitution of the Clergy), though now

proceeding from the bosom of the Church itself. This piece of legislation was passed by the French parliament on 12 th July 1790 (less than a year following the storming ofthe Bastille). This was to be the anvil on which papist belief was to be broken: craserlinfme ! (crush the infamy). It was supposed to be an administrative ruling, as is alsosuggested to us by the authors of Church & Ministry. The following sentence from theCivil Constitution is especially worthy of mention: Parish priests should be electedby the electoral assemblies of the districts. That was the heart of the matter. It would

be extremely naive not to assume that Freemasonry, that currently plays a stronger partthan during the French revolution behind which it was the driving force is directlyor indirectly involved in the Church & Ministry initiative. And that is why the initia-

tive bears within itself the seeds of the destruction of Christs Church on earth.

After the introduction of the civil Constitution of the clergy, almost all the bishopsstuck to their guns. Their public declaration ended by saying that people should not beof the opinion that the same is true of Church discipline as applies to state structures,and that Gods edifice is such that it can be changed by man. (5) How up to date thatsounds! Almost half the clergy gave way and swore allegiance to the new regulations.Anyone who refused was declared schismatic (rfractair) and was to be deported with

but one sure outcome: death! Pope Pius VI said the following in his sermon on theoccasion of the death of the pious King Louis XVI, who died on the scaffold:

Who would ever doubt that this monarch was sacrificed first of all because of

religious hatred, because of a ferocious spirit against the Catholic doctrines? For along time the Calvinists had been conspiring in France for the ruin of the Catholic


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faith. (6) () The main reproach levelled against this Prince, pertained to hisunflinching firmness in his refusal to approve and sanction the decree for thedeportation of priests and his letter written to the Bishop of Clermont to whom heannounced his decision to re-establish in France the Catholic religious practice assoon as circumstances would permit. Is not this sufficient proof to conclude anddefend that Louis was a martyr indeed?

The people of La Vende (Anjou, Brittany, Poitou), faithful to their belief and to theirmonarch, refused to accept that priests chosen by Rome had to go underground. Themilitary conscription of March 1793 was the starting shot for a regular war, includingmajor field campaigns and the besieging of towns. On the side of the regulars (lesBleus) no prisoners were taken: everyone possible was hounded to death, includingwomen and children. They were drowned, strangled, suffocated or simply left to die ofhunger in prison, according to the most convenient manner and that which cost less.Wherever possible the harvest and food stocks were destroyed. Leather made of humanskin was fine for the higher officers riding breeches but that was unable to depress thecosts. The fat dripping from the burning bodies was collected and used in the hospi-tals

After a more than terrible time, Paris had to admit defeat. Even the hellish columnshad to call a halt, those who had been ordered by parliament to specially kill pregnantwomen, those breeding grounds of highway robbers. On 10 th November 1799

Napoleon took over power. He was sensible and knew his priorities: an exhasting warserves no good purpose. On 29 th December he declared freedom of religion for all, andit stuck; a first step on that road dated from as early as 1795. And yet Napoleon was no


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friend of the faith, since he was excommunicated in 1809 (also the signal for hismilitary defeats). The Concordat between Napoleon and the Pope, signed on 15 th July1801, was in fact the direct result of the heroic struggle of the people of the Vende.The Concordat confirmed the Catholic faith as primary, which meant an end to thefiasco of the civil Constitution of the clergy. The toll was high. La Grande Guerre dela Vende, with its two million inhabitants, ended in February 1795, having cost400,000 lives: 180,000 regulars (les Bleus) and 220,000 Vende people (les Blancs).

5 Nothing can stop Gods triumph

What we are now going through is worse than at the time of the revolution or underCommunism. Gods Kingdom on earth and his flock are no longer threatened directly,

but faith is being smothered within the Mystical Body of the Church until a flame burns only here and there. Divine Love has to make more and more space for worldlylove. Cardinal Pacelli saw it coming. Before he became Pope Pius XII, he warned thata day would come when the civilized world will deny its God, when the Church willdoubt as Peter doubted. She will be tempted to believe that Man has become God, that

his Son is only a symbol and, in the churches, Christians will look in vain for the redlamp where God awaits them.

The Church is now suffering its own Golgotha. And yet no demonic or human actionwill halt Gods triumph. Never is God more of a conqueror than when his cause ap-

pears lost, and never is the devil more radically conquered than when he seems to havewon the game. These are the words of professor Jean Vaqui, that great French post-conciliar fighter for the ecclesiastical tradition, who also said: In the same way as onCalvary, when the Son of God hung nailed to the wood of the Cross as willed by the

princes, the priests and the chosen people, Satans triumph seemed complete. And yet! His defeat was total, for the work of redemption of the human race was consummatedby the sacrifice of Our Lord.

6 A torrent of grace

If the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass has been turned into pure ritual, a fine stage play,who then will want to become a priest? Desacralisation reaching even further cannever be the solution for lack of priestly vocations. The solution must be found in a re-valuation of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. A solution of this kind is offered to us bythe venerable Conchita Cabrera de Armida (1861-1937), often called the Great Con-chita of Mexico. This woman wrote a great deal about the Holy Eucharist, encouragedin this by a lively dialogue with Christ.

She was mother of nine children, living at a time of major persecution of the faithful,with the period between 1910 and 1921 can be directly compared with the time of theFrench Revolution. By order of the state, churches were closed and priest murdered.The Ten Tragic Days of Mexico run parallel to the French reign of terror (Le Rgnedu Terreur). In the first 15 months of the God-hating regime in Mexico 80,000 peoplewere killed. The number was to increase to 900,000 for a total population of 15 mil-lion! In 1926 the so-called Calles Law forbade under severe sanctions the celebrationof the Mass. Critics were given a two-year prison sentence. Education in particular hadto suffer. Anyone wishing to teach had to sign a statement that they were an irreconci-lable enemy of the Catholic faith. Calles declared: We need to get hold of the con-

sciences of the young people because they are part of and must be part of the revolu-tion. We must absolutely banish the clerical and conservative enemy from all levels of

society where it is hiding I mean from education. It is within this context that Con-


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chita wrote about priests and the Holy Eucharist. She also gives a remedy for the pre-sent crisis, one that is far from being over. (7) I quote from her extensive work (8) :

In the modern world the preoccupations and the problems that people have toface are so numerous and so anguishing that they often feel the need to find asolution as soon as possible. This is particularly the case with priests, who run therisk of drowning themselves in a multiplicity of activities. And when distracted bythe innumerable duties of their ministry, they torture their minds to know howthey will manage to reconcile their life of prayer with that involved in the tasksthey have to fulfil. This unity in their life, this (purely external) putting in order oftheir ministry, and even the simple practice of pious acts, is impossible toaccomplish from a human point of view, even if the latter favours it. In order tounify their life and their ministry, priests should imitate Christ, whosenourishment consisted of doing the will of the One who sent Him to perfect hiswork of salvation.

How should you search for and find the love of God? You will find it in theBlessed Sacrament: His Love is exposed there to adoration. He wishes to giveHimself there. It is there that the angels in stupefaction see the spectacle of theexcess of the love of Jesus. If at least Jesus were to come into a human heart as beautiful and pure as the angel; but Jesus comes it pleases Him to come intoan imperfect heart, filled with venial sins and defects. At this sight, the most beautiful angels cannot sufficiently wonder at what Jesus does in His infinitelove.

Father Paul, pray for us

Taken from the book on Pre Paul de Moll (Belgian Benedictine) a miracle-worker inthe 19th century by douard van Speybrouck (2007, Transiit Benefaciendo, p. 126).

Here we see a present-day problem in the exercise of the priestly office. The way inwhich the document The Church and the Ministry is drawn up fits in there andmakes us think of a cry of despair. The pastor carried his parish. What a burden! Butdo the parishioners in their turn carry their pastor? Do they pray for him? To myshame, I must confess that in earlier times I scarcely prayed for the priests in my pa-rishes (I have moved house several times). Jesus said to Conchita:

I wish that in all dioceses the faithful should offer up their Sunday communionfor the priests, for they have a great need of the Holy Spirit. And I promise that the

beneficial effects will not be long in showing themselves in the Church.

And yet the priests are not devoid of blame, for Jesus says:

If the devil has gained ground in my vineyard, it is because of a lack of saintlyworkers labouring there. Instead there are only tepid, dissipated, worldly priests,


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assimilated into the spirit of the world and who have allowed themselves to bedragged along by the prevailing atmosphere, without showing any resistance, norfighting against it, while neglecting the essential part of their task which is totransform themselves into Me.

Conchita goes on to explain how the priest becomes one with Christ in a careful andtrusty celebration of the Mass. This is known as in persona Christi, since it is Christwho, through the priest, brings about the sacrifice of the Mass. In this way the priestreceives all the graces he needs to fulfil his sacred duties. Just as the bread is transub-stantiated, explains Conchita, so also God wishes to transubstantiate the priest which,in the latter case, is brought about not by a single word but which has to be expressedmore and more in his whole life. Building on this theme, Jesus says:

You must understand that this desire to transubstantiate the priests into Me isnot a more or less great and simple devotion but an essential point which has not

been taken into account, and yet it is the most important for the victory of theChurch. The time has come for a profound renewal of the hearts of priests, inorder to respond to the desires of My heart, without which the Church will notdevelop spiritually towards sanctity as I would wish.

The priests are much too keen on following the traits of their human naturewithout raising their eyes upwards. They remain stuck to the earth and to thematerial things that tarnish and dishonour the things of God. That is why I wishthe life of priests, their entire being, their heart, their soul and their life should

become more spiritual. In short, I desire everything in them to be transformed intoMe

May I tell you the secret of my heart with regard to priests? Yes, I shall tellyou: I wish to make rich men of my priests, filling them not with vain andtransitory riches but with Myself, with everything I am, with everything I have, sothat even on this earth they should be united to the Blessed Trinity.

Ah! If only you knew how much I desire to unite priests to Myself! My soulcannot stand to see them so far off and so lost. And their indifference, theirdisloyalty, their coldness towards my Church, their indifference to spiritualmatters and to souls this is what causes me the greatest pain. This is what I wishto see disappear, less for my pleasure than for their own sanctity. This is what willrestore joy to the face of the Father!

Oh! My daughter! Demand this spiritual renewal of the priests, something thatwill happen only if they do truly welcome the Holy Spirit and transformthemselves into Me.

If the priests represent Me in a dignified way on earth, if they transformthemselves into Me, a torrent of grace will descend on humanity. It will be likeopening a door to let God in so that he can flood and start distributing new gifts,

new charismas, unsuspected lights and treasures which will be received first bythe purified and sanctified hearts of priests. It will be as if a new breach has beenopened to allow the Father to pour out his graces on his divine Son, his unique

priest, in whom He sees all priests.

Finally, the following admonition, which fits well with the crisis in the present Church.It means that churchgoers must wait before further disturbing unity with merciless andstubborn criticism:

You must understand that everything designed to destroy this work ofunification between Me and the priest is diabolical, and that everything nottending to construct unity is false and does not lead to Heaven.

Hubert Luns


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Published in De Brandende Lamp, 1st quarter 2008 (no. 113).Published in Positief, February 2009 (no. 389).

See also the subsequent article: The Church Victorious .

Illustration at the beginning of this article :Patriarch Bartholomew I of the Orthodox Church assists at Papal Holy Mass in theRoman Catholic Church of the Holy Spirit in Istanbul on November 29, 2006,during the official visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Turkey.

Programme:

28 Nov. Pope arrives in Ankara, meets Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan; visits mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern republic; meetsPresident Ahmet Necdet Sezer.29 Nov. Pope goes to Ephesus to celebrate Mass at site where Virgin Mary be-lieved to have died; goes to Istanbul to meet Patriarch Bartholomew I, spiritualleader of the Orthodox Church, for first of series of encounters.1 Dec. Pope visits Haghia Sophia (6th-century Christian church converted intomosque in 1453 and a model for all other mosques built afterwards. It was trans-formed into museum in 1935; Pope also visits the Blue Mosque.

Notes Schillebeeckx: enfant terrible(1) Edward Schillebeeckx O.P. (1914-2009) has not always been progressive. Brilliantas he was, by the time he was 29 he was lecturing on Thomism at the University of

Louvain, surely not a subject that would appeal to Modernists. In 1958 he was appoin-ted professor at the University of Nijmegen. Although there were already clear signs ofa turn-around, the break with traditional Christian belief was not definitive untilSchillebeeckxs critical review of John A.T. Robinsons book (1963): Honest to God.His review unleashed a storm of criticism, apparently too much for his sensitive nature,and he wrote a new review under the titleHonest to Robinson.

My aunt Agnes Luns, my grandfatherssister, was a sort of Golda Meir-like figure, but then representing traditional Catholic belief. As city councillor in Amsterdam she was well able to stand her ground. Her oppo-nent was Mrs. Weissmuller (PvdA), who wasalso a strong woman. At one point Agnesasked a question of Schillebeeckx, after hehad just given a lecture somewhere in thecountry. But Madam , he answered, youcant say that!! O which my aunt replied, with her typical Luns voice and to the greathilarity of the audience:Oh, so thats whatyou think? Well, then, Ill say it again!

In Honest to God Robinson proposesabandoning the notion of a God out there,existing somewhere out in the universe as aCosmic supremo, just as we have abandonedalready the idea of God up there, the notionof the old man up in the sky. In its place, heoffered a frankly and openly atheistic reinter-

Edward Schillebeeckx O.P.1914 - 2009


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pretation of God, whom he defined as Love, spelled with a capital L. (pp. 63, 75, 105,115-116, 127, 130)

Noticeable in this caricature by David Levine, which appeared for the first time in1980, is that Father Schillebeeckx is wearing an ordinary mans suit, giving expressionto the wish on the part of many priests to be a simple human being among human beings. A priest may be someone with simple human traits, but that no more makeshim an ordinary human among humans than is Queen Beatrix because of her royalfunction.

Alfrink wished to have Princess Irenes marriage declared invalid(2) In 1980 my father intervened in the imminent separation of the Spanish PrinceCarlos Hugo of Bourbon-Parma from Irene Lippe-Biesterfeld (sister of Queen Beatrix).Cardinal Alfrink was planning to annul the marriage, which would mean a de facto dis-solution. When my father got wind of this, he immediately contacted the Pro-NuntiusBruno Wstenberg and advised him to have Rome intervene to let Alfrink know that astatement about the validity of the marriage lays outside his competence, because ithad taken place in Rome in Santa Maria Maggiore (a beautiful basilica!) and that itthus fell under the jurisdiction of Rome. Which is the reason why Alfrink failed to gethis way.

According to the Roman Catholic Church a marriage celebrated in church can only be dis-solved by the death of one of the spouses; but a marriage can be declared invalid or annulled if atthe time of the marriage the conditions of marriage were not fulfilled for instance if one of thepartners had already been married in church. In normal circumstances a separation of table and bed can be granted, but the partners cannot re-marry with each other.

Note by the editors of the journal "De Brandende Lamp"

In our circles too, action in the direction of Rome was taken at the time. Our firstchairman, ex-parliamentarian Klaas Beuker, had received inside information on theplan to declare Princess Irenes marriage invalid. Together, Klaas Beuker and myself(Jan Leechburch Auwers, Beukers closest colleague) visited various Curial bodies inRome to find out more about the matter. On our side the main emphasis was placedon the fact that in matters regarding persons of royal blood any statements as to in- validity of a marriage belonged to the papal competence and not to that of the local bishop.

(3) On 21st November 2003 the 8th of May movement was officially discontinued.Her following was greatly reduced because of the secularization and ageing of its mem- bership.

Priests must be carried by their congregation(4) Testimony of Gloria Polo from Columbia, giving her witness with the permission of

the bishop of Bogot:Who did you think you were, making yourself God and judging My anointed? They are human, and the holiness of a priest is built by his community,that prays, loves, and supports him. When a priest sins, his community is questioned,not him. (see http://www.gloriapolo.net )

The bishops reaction(5) enfin quon ne crt pas quil en tait de la discipline de lglise, comme de lapolice des tats, et que ldifice de Dieu tait de nature tre change par les hommes.This is taken from the famous Exposition des principes sur la Constitution civile duclerg, a statement signed by 149 bishops and which enjoyed enormous support inFrance and abroad.

Because of a ferocious spirit against the Catholic doctrines

(6) With this remark, Pius VI was undoubtedly referring to the horrible massacre of theCatholics of Nmes, on June 13, 14 and 15 of the year 1790, committed by the Calvinists


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(Huguenots) backed up by the Assemble Nationale. This act, perpetrated on the citi-zens of Nmes, was their punishment for having pleaded with the king to prevent theacceptation of the civil Constitution of the clergy, which the Assemble adopted themonth following, on July 12th.

The religious fights in the department of the Gard, where Nmes is situated, have along and painful history. The revocation in 1685 of the Edict of Nantes, under the reign

of Louis XIV, provoked powerful reactions by the Protestants in the region (war of theCamisards), which called for repressive measures by the royal forces, known as theDragonnades. The 18th century happened to be quiet and peaceful until the days that were the preamble to the Revolution when the old contentions regenerated. The subse-quent reaction during the second Restoration period, by the Royalists, was bloody andcounts in the general history among the darkest periods of the White Terror (July- August 1815).

The breakdown goes on(7) Although the Vatican is putting up a good fight, the crisis is far from having blownover. Thus on 15th March 2008 a book by Jrgen Mettepenningen, working at theFaculty of Theology of Louvain University, was published: De Kerk bloost - pleidooi voor een gedurfder beleid (The Church blushes a plea for a more daring policy).

Mettepenningen makes a plea for the Church to show a major desire to give itself a pro-file (een grote profileringsdrang). The language of the Eucharistic celebration should be freshened up:This language is no longer todays normal speech. You cannot pro-claim a message of life in a dead language. According to Mettepenningen it cannot bethat no Masses be offered in certain places because there is no priest. And too manychurch services are organised for people who otherwise never see the inside of achurch. Hence, according to the theologian, society itself must organise rituals for cru-cial events in life. And the priesthood of women is, in his opinion, a dated problem thatthe church authorities themselves have created and is a constant source of self-impoverishment. May I ask Mettepenningen a question: If the sacrifice of the Mass isin persona Christi , a man, how can the priest be a woman?

(8) Reference: The quotes from the works of the Great Conchita are taken from

Conchita Cabrera de Armida au cur du Mystre Eucharistique, by Juan GutirrezGonzles, published by Pierre Tqui, Paris 2004. (pp. 108-109, 301, 295-97)

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Priesthood a Calling, no Office - Hubert_Luns

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