Here you will find texts of Pope Pius X mentioned in the book Paths of Love.
Holy See's Judgment on Cardinal Lahitton's work on Priestly Vocation:
- The book of the eminent man Joseph Canon Lahitton, “La Vocation
Sacerdotale.” is in no way to be reprobated, but rather is is
deserving of outstanding praise in the following points: (1) that no
one has a right to ordination antecedently to the free choice of him
by the bishop; (2) that the condition to which the Ordinary should
look, and which is called a priestly vocation, by no means consists,
at all events necessarily and as a general rule, in some interior
aspiration of the subject or in impulses of the Holy Spirit to
receive the priesthood; (3) but, on the contrary, nothing more is
required in the candidate that he may rightly be invited by the
bishop, than a right intention together with a fitness based on those
gifts of nature and grace, and confirmed by that goodness of life and
sufficiency of learning, that afford a well-founded hope, that he
would be able rightly to fulfill the priestly duties and maintain its
obligations holily. - AAS 4 (1912), 485.
It is important to test candidates to be sure they are rightly motivated
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With the ardor of faith and charity diminishing among the Christian people,
there is also a constant diminution in the number of those who desire to
enter religious communities in order to attain evangelical perfection.
Therefore, let superiors of religious Orders do all in their power to
stave off this danger: but let them at the same time be very much on their guard
not to admit in haste and en masse young people about whom there may be
a doubt whether it is the divine call which is making them choose this
kind of life. Postulants who, after mature examination, have been
admitted among the novices, must carefully apply themselves to
acquiring the characteristic spirit of their Lawgiver and Father St.
Dominic, and to keep it forever. Let them above all offer perfect
submission of judgment; let the virtue of obedience shine in them; let
them never demand the reason for an order, or delay by argument the
execution of a command given. We see it happen all too often that men
shamefully leave the cloister not because they dared to enter the Order
against God’s will, but because during their novitiate they failed to
receive a proper formation, and once the novitiate was over they were
not invested with the character which becomes a man consecrated to God.
Let there be the same prudence and the same discernment required for the
admission and formation of novices when it is a question of the
tertiaries, from whom, certainly, we should be able to expect much for
the Christian name, if they give good example to others and strive to
promote practices of piety and good works. (St. Pius X, Apostolic letter, Cum primum, 4 Aug., 1913, in AAS 5 (1913), p. 388)
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