Pastoral Perfection: Cardinal Manning and the Secular Clergy

Abstract

Towards the end of his life Cardinal Manning made some notes on what he called, ‘Hindrances to the Spread of Catholicism in England’. High on his list was the state of the English diocesan clergy: they were, he felt, neither cultured nor ‘civil’, in that they were unprepared to play a part in public life and did not understand English institutions and the outlook of the educated Englishman. One might in passing wonder how the Cardinal squared this criticism with his desire that the seminaries which trained these priests should remain secluded from the world and that Catholics should not be allowed to attend the English universities. But he felt that a stronger failing in the clergy was the low opinion which they had of their own calling and the low esteem in which many of the faithful held them. They were regarded as no more than parochial hacks, not expected to raise their sights beyond the roofs of the slums which they served. They were, according to Manning, compared unfavourably with the regular clergy, as preachers, confessors, directors of souls, judges of vocations, and even advisers in worldly matters, they were held in less esteem. Lay people were too fond of saving, ‘He is only a secular priest’; this judgement had been passed so often that the parochial clergy had come to believe it themselves, and when they were exhorted to higher things too often replied, ‘I am only a secular’.