Note 1004 — Chapter II · THE TREATMENT OF PENITENTS IN DIFFERENT EXTERNAL CIRCUMSTANCES
Richard F. (Richard Frederick) Clarke translation
On this account the Provincial Council of Bordeaux (Conc. Burdigal. 1556, Tit. III. c. 5, in Coll. Lacens. Tom. IV. p. 711) declares that, in our times especially, solicitude for men constitutes a principal part of the priest’s work. “Sane hoc ævi nostri opus præcipuum reputamus, viros videlicet quam solertissima industria et quovis indefesso zelo provocare, ut ad meliorem vitæ christianæ rationem instituendam, ad exequenda integrius cujusque status et conditionis officia, tandem se recipiant. Non saperet sacerdos, qui laboris difficultatibus solummodo intentus, de divinis promissionibus et virtute gratiæ diffidens, hoc opus aggrederetur segniter aut minus strenue prosequeretur.” This care for men the priest will especially exercise in the confessional. “The divine authority with which the priest is invested, the reverence with which the penitent appears before him, the candor with which he unbosoms himself, the obedience which he shows him, give an efficacy to the confessor’s work in the confessional, such as he is unable to exercise in any other place or occasion.” Göpfert.