IV. Monsignor Paul talks about inherent dignity of a child of God


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.