The True Priest by Cardinal Michele Pellegrino (review)

174 BOOK REVIEWS It is easy to concur with E. L. Mascall's judgment: this book of Chenu's could hardly be bettered as an example of the way in which real theology is relevant to real life. Providence College Providence, R. I. PAUL PHILIBERT, O.P. The True Priest. The Priesthood as Preached and Practised by St. Augustine. By CARDINAL MicHELE PELLEGRINO. New York: Philosophical Library, 1968. Pp. 184. $6.00. The Cardinal Archbishop of Turin has given us in this book not a treatise on the priesthood but a series of valuable reflections on some of the problems of the priesthood as he has seen them in the light of his readings in St. Augustine. His method has been for the most part to allow his distinguished mentor to speak for himself, adding his own observations as they seem to correspond with the demands of the particular circumstances in which the chapters of the book were originally composed. Cardinal Pellegrino's immediate concern in the publication of this book has been the spiritual growth of the priests of his own archdiocese. His view of the priesthood has not been distorted, however, by scientific surveys or by tensions generated within specific areas of priestly activity. The true priest, as the Cardinal sees him, is one who responds humbly and unselfishly to the demands of his priestly environment. From the deep wellsprings of an enlightened interior life the charity which spreads God's mantle over his works of zeal finds intelligent and meaningful direction. The Cardinal is especially concerned about the priests of his archdiocese who have been led away from the priestly family by "painful happenings whose inner meaning is known to God alone." His burden, as he thus reflects upon it, is that of every episopcal ordinary. His plea for the priestly holiness that will overcome defections is timeless in its validity. He never loses sight of the eternal reality of the priesthood as Christ instituted it as he ponders the disastrous consequences of passing events. The first seven chapter headings, each a direct quotation from St. Augustine, serve as starting points for the Cardinal's reflection and analysis. "Taken by surprise and made a priest." In this chapter the Cardinal draws from two of St. Augustine's sermons the guiding principles which seem to have led the future Bishop of Hippo to renounce the promising worldly career which was opening up to him. Augustine did not go apart from those who love the world merely to vie with those who hold rule over the people. He did not aspire to become a priest. These words do not imply, of course, the kind of unwillingness that was evident, for BOOK REVIEWS 175 example, in Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, who never should have been allowed to enter the seminary, much less to be consecrated a bishop. What Augustine really means is that his commitment to pursue the ideals of priestly holiness encountered the deadening pressures of worldly realities. He experienced a healthy dread of administrative responsibility. Yet he saw the hand of God behind it all, and he willingly sacrificed the joys of heavenly contemplation as the immediately urgent problems of his position commanded his attention. Augustine sees the priesthood as a call to the service of the Church. And the Cardinal adds his own observation that " Augustine would certainly not have agreed with those who boast loudly of the illustrious contributions made by priests and bishops of various eras to the arts and sciences, when theological studies and the care of souls may have been badly neglected." Cardinal Pellegrino finds Augustine's concept of the core of the priestly ministry in a phrase formulated in two of his early letters and recalled shortly before his death in a conversation with his biographer Possidius: the priest is a man who administers to the people the Mystery and the Word of God. The Cardinal notes that the word" mystery" embraces the various liturgical aspects of the episcopal office. Augustine, he says, was inclined to meditate on the inner truth of the Word of God and its meaning for the Christian life. He had some misgivings about " rapturous reflections on, or...