PRIESTS'
422
PRIESTS'
Sacrament. Each member is to spend each week
one hour without intermission in adoration before
the Blessed Sacrament, and to celebrate one Mass
yearly for deceased members, to whom he is also to
apply once monthly the plenary indulgence granted
for each hour of adoration. The official organ,
"S. Eucharistia", is published in six languages;
the membership is about 7000 in Germany. Among
this class of associations may be also mentioned the
" Priesterabstinentenband " (with its organ "So-
brietas") for promoting total abstinence, and the
Katechetenvereine in JSIunich, etc.
There are three important associations for priests with the primary object of the rendering of assist- ance to members in temporal matters. These are (1) the " Priesterverein zur Untersttitzung kranker Mitglieder " ; (2) " St. Josephs-Priesterverein " in Gorz ; (3) the "Pax". The first, which is essentially an insurance society, pays to sick priests three marks daily, provided they have been members for at least one year. The entrance fee varies from 2 marks to over 100 marks according to the age of the ap- plicant; the annual tax is 10 marks. Founded in 1882 it paid 127,192 marks to 513 members in 99.5 cases of sickness in the first twenty-five years of its ex- istence. The association has almost 1000 members (600 in the Archdiocese of Cologne). St. Josephs- Priesterverein in Gorz (primarily an Austrian associa- tion) was founded in 1876 by INIgr Filipp in Meran, and was transferred in 1882 to Gorz; its object is to secure places in sanatoria for sick priests who need to take a cure to recover their health. The fee for membership is three Kronen yearly (about 60 cents), or a single paj'ment of fifty Kronen. The "Pax", or the " Association of the Catholic Priests of Germany ", was founded in 190.5 to supply good and cheap insur- ance for ecclesiastical corporations; the foundation of a pension fund, the affording of legal protection, and the procuring of abatements at sanatoria and hotels are also in contemplation and to some extent attained. Spe- cially favourable terms have been secured from the life insiu-ance company "Concordia", at Cologne, and the fire insurance company "Rhineland", at Neuss. Any priest who takes an insurance with either of these companies becomes thereby a member of the association. The members (about 1500) come from aU parts of Germany, although the southern and eastern dioceses (except Fulda) are not equally well represented. The Polish priests have founded a sepa- rate insurance societv, the "Unit as".
Krose, KiTchlichcs Ha'mlbuch. II (Freiburg, 1909), 377-79.
Henry Pakkinson.
Priests' Communion Leagrue, an association of prie.'its <sl:il)lisln'(l at Home on 20 July, 1906, in the Church of San Clauilid, m charge of the Fathers of the Blessed Sacrament, and raised by Pius X to the dig- nity of an archconfraternity ten days later. Its object is to spread the practice of frequent and daily Com- munion among the faithful in conformity with the Decree " Sacra Tridentina Synodus " of 20 December, 1905. The conditions for joining the league are: (1) To have one's name inscribed on the register of the league; (2) to pledge oneself (though under no obliga- tion of conscience) to promote zealously the observ- ance of the Decree upon frequent and daily Com- munion by the apostolate of prayer, of preaching, and of the press; (3) to subscribe for the monthly period- ical "Emmanuel", published by the Fathers of the Blessed Sacrament. The members of the league begin their work by explaining to the people what the Eucharist is; when, how, wherefore, and with what love it was instituted by Jesus Christ; what are its lefTects, whether (considered as a sacrifice, as the real, perpetual presence of God among us, and, above all, as the nourishment of our souls. They endeavour strenuously to dissipate the fear
by which many of the faithful are prevented from
frequenting the Holy Table, and teach them that
to communicate lawfully every day nothing more is
exacted than what even j-early Communion requires,
namely, the state of grace and a right intention, al-
though it is desirable that they should be free also
from deliberate venial sins. As the best means to
spread the practice of daily Communion is daily
attendance at Mass, they exhort the people to hear
it every day. They should give their parishioners,
during a period of not less than three days, a series
of instructions dealing especially with the practice of
and preparation for daily Communion. IVI embers of
the league take care to prepare children for the recep-
tion of Holy Communion at an early age. Priests
belonging to the league enjoy the right of a privileged
altar three times a week, provided they have not that
right already; they may celebrate Mass an hour
before sunrise and an hour after midday, and may
distribute Holy Communion till sunset; they may
gain a plenary indulgence on all the first-class feasts
of the mysteries of faith, of the Blessed Virgin, and
the Apo.stle8; and an indulgence of 300 days for every
work they perform for the intention of the league;
they may impart at the end of the triduum, after
the general Communion, the papal benediction with
the plenary indulgence attached. Lastly, penitents
confessing to priests enrolled in the league may
gain a plenary indulgence once a week, if accustomed
to communicate very frequently.
A. Letellier.
Priests' Eucharistic League. — I. Object.— The
Priests' Eucharistic League (Confraternitas sacerdo- talis adorationis Sanctissimi Sacramenti) was estab- lished in Paris by the ^'ene^able Picrre-Julien Eymard, founder of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament. Already in 1857 he had been deeply impressed by the necessity of such an adaptation of his work of Euchar- istic adoration as would attract the clergy to a more intimate and constant intercourse with the sacramen- tal Lord. Still it was not until 1867 that the plan of a distinct confraternity was matured, and the Blessed Cure d'Ars was among the first to enrol his name on the Ust of members. The association assumed its pres- ent form in 1879, received the approval of Leo XIII on 25 Jan., 1881, and six years later, on 16 Jan., 1887, was definitively approved and canonically erected by Car- dinal Parocchi, cardinal vicar, in the church of S. Claudio in Rome. To this church is attached the Archconfraternity of the Most Holy Sacrament, and it is the canonical centre of the Priests' Eucharistic League; but the office of the central administration of the league is at the house of the fathers of the Congre- gation of the Most Holy Sacrament, Brussels.
The primary object of this confraternity is the fre- quent and prolonged worship of the Blessed Sacra- ment by priests. As Christ is truly "God with us" in the Eucharist, it is His desire that priests should ap- pear often in His presence and remain for reverent and affectionate intercourse. From this close intimacy a higher spiritual life must ensue. At this source priests will learn how to adore Him in spirit and in truth and draw light and power to carrj- out more fruitfully their apostolic mission. Its next object is to extend the Kingdom of Christ by forming apostl(>s of the Eucha- rist. Reverent and docile eonii)anionship brings knowledge, love, and a desire to share with others the precious treasures of this suiircinc sacrament. Hence the devout iid.ircr will lalicmr a.-^sidudusly to revive faith in the Holy Eucharist, and will encourage 1;he faithful to partake of the life-giving banquet. A third object of the confraternity is to band together priests as apostles of the Eucharist who "will i)ledge them- selves to take up and defend on all occasions the cause and the honour of Jesus Christ, and promote by every means in their power frequent visits to the Blessed
