THE Bishop of Birmingham [Henry Russell Wakefield], writing to
the Times, has defended the position taken by the
Archbishop of Canterbury on the question whether a priest should be
allowed to serve as a combatant in the war. His Grace maintained
that a priest's vows pledge him to a different kind of service, and
the Bishop of Birmingham, following his Grace's lead, reminded his
clergy that unless they might be called upon as military chaplains,
their duty is to stay with their people at home. Dr Paterson, the
Professor of Divinity at Edinburgh University, not, however,
disputing the right of the Archbishop and the Bishop to issue
disciplinary orders to their clergy, challenges them to say how it
offends against Catholic authority that a priest should bear arms.
He even goes so far as to quote a saying of our Lord, which, he
argues, justifies such action. The Bishop of Birmingham's rejoinder
to the Scottish Professor seems to us to meet his argument from
Holy Scripture. Everyone, we suppose, could imagine circumstances
in which even a priest might lawfully join the combatant ranks, but
such circumstances would be utterly exceptional, and, in the
present case, they have not yet arisen, and, we hope, will not
arise. Clearly, the first consideration with a priest must be the
nature of his vows, which are so explicit that there is no possible
misunderstanding of them. His business is to lead in the spiritual
combat with the powers of evil that assail the Church and the souls
of men and women; and the faithful discharge of his duty in that
capacity should be enough, and more than enough, to employ all his
energy.
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