Last year we
had at our seminar one unpleasant fellow, said master Adalbert pulling open a
can of corned beans - who once said to his colleagues, all of them newcomers as
himself, in the first month in the novitiate: "I am all in one piece. You
cannot offend me, because I have inherent dignity of a child of God. "This
said this boy of twenty to his colleagues quite seriously.
- Of
course, that his declaration brought quite deplorable effects and they did all pranks
to him, putting a smoked herring in his sneaker, fastening buttons in the cassock
by the wrong holes, etc. - continued master Adalbert. – A gang of jerks. And
what happened to him next, I do not remember. My colleague Theodor was their
master at that time, not me. I just remember the words of this boy that you could
not offend him, because he had inherent dignity of a child of God.
- Once, as
I was a vicar for the first time - said Monsignor Paul - I had such a situation,
that I was running a Bible group for students, because it was in a university city.
And well, it happened once to me that a girl of twenty-some came, a philosophy
graduate, a little bit disordered I would say, and she began making all sorts
of proposals, that we go to cinema to see Almodovar, to theater to see something
and then she wanted me to come to her place to read Habermas.
- I was
twenty-seven years then, taking my vocation and celibacy very seriously. And well,
instead of maneuvering gently out of this situation, I took the girl aside and
told her: "Do you really think that I’ll give up all these years of
sacrifice, study, lifetime choice, to see your breasts?"
- O God, -
said father Hyacinth.
- Well -
said Monsignor Paul. - She then blushed as a beet plantation, I thought she
would cry, but she only said: "You insulted me immensely." And off
she went.
- Well, and
what happened next? – asked master Adalbert.
- I went to
my spiritual director of a kind - said Monsignor Paul - and he gave me a piece
of his mind. - "You're going to apologize or you’ll no longer have this
group," - he said to me. What an indignation. I have to apologize? After
all, it was she who wanted to seduce me! A priest! And in the end I did not
apologize, and they really did take this group from me and gave me younger
altar boys instead.
- Well, what
does that mean – inquired master Adalbert.
- Probably
nothing, but it came to my mind when you told us about inherent dignity of a child
of God. - said Monsignor Paul. - Today it seems to me even that my confessor treated
me gently. Because if I would have been in his place I would have me to go with
her to see Almodovar, read Habermas at her place, or everything else.