…judges Francis’ idea on reforming the Church
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To reform the world, we need good priests
He who does not wish to dedicate himself to form good priests is deceived, and greatly so. […] The Church’s necessity for good priests to order to repair so much ignorance and so many vices covering the earth, and tear the Church from this lamentable state, ought to make good souls shed tears of blood. One wonders if perhaps all of the disorders we see should be attributed to the priests. This may scandalize some, but the topic requires that I show, through the extent of the evil, the importance of the remedy. […] It has been shown that the worst enemies of the Church are priests; proofs of this, are the heresiarchs, Luther and Calvin, who were priests; and if heresies have prevailed, if vice has reigned and ignorance has established its throne among the humble people, it is through the fault of the priests, for their own disorder, and for not having opposed these three torrents that have inundated the world, with all of their might as was their duty. What sacrifice do you not offer to God, working in his reform, so that the priests may live in keeping with the height and dignity of their condition and the Church may thus see itself freed from the opprobrium and desolation in which it lies! (Jose Herrera. Works and writings of Saint Vincent de Paul. 2nd edition. Madrid, BAC, 1955, pg. 808)
