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Objection 1: It would seem that fraternal correction belongs to
prelates alone. For Jerome [Origen, Hom. vii in Joan.] says:
"Let priests endeavor to fulfil this saying of the Gospel: 'If thy
brother sin against thee,'" etc. Now prelates having charge of
others were usually designated under the name of priests. Therefore it
seems that fraternal correction belongs to prelates alone.
Objection 2: Further, fraternal correction is a spiritual alms.
Now corporal almsgiving belongs to those who are placed above others in
temporal matters, i.e. to the rich. Therefore fraternal correction
belongs to those who are placed above others in spiritual matters,
i.e. to prelates.
Objection 3: Further, when one man reproves another he moves him by
his rebuke to something better. Now in the physical order the inferior
is moved by the superior. Therefore in the order of virtue also,
which follows the order of nature, it belongs to prelates alone to
correct inferiors.
On the contrary, It is written (Dist. xxiv, qu. 3, Can. Tam
Sacerdotes): "Both priests and all the rest of the faithful should
be most solicitous for those who perish, so that their reproof may
either correct their sinful ways. or, if they be incorrigible, cut
them off from the Church."
I answer that, As stated above (Article 1), correction is
twofold. One is an act of charity, which seeks in a special way the
recovery of an erring brother by means of a simple warning: such like
correction belongs to anyone who has charity, be he subject or
prelate.
But there is another correction which is an act of justice purposing
the common good, which is procured not only by warning one's brother,
but also, sometimes, by punishing him, that others may, through
fear, desist from sin. Such a correction belongs only to prelates,
whose business it is not only to admonish, but also to correct by means
of punishments.
Reply to Objection 1: Even as regards that fraternal correction
which is common to all, prelates have a grave responsibility, as
Augustine says (De Civ. Dei i, 9): "for just as a man ought
to bestow temporal favors on those especially of whom he has temporal
care, so too ought he to confer spiritual favors, such as correction,
teaching and the like, on those who are entrusted to his spiritual
care." Therefore Jerome does not mean that the precept of fraternal
correction concerns priests only, but that it concerns them chiefly.
Reply to Objection 2: Just as he who has the means wherewith to
give corporal assistance is rich in this respect, so he whose reason is
gifted with a sane judgment, so as to be able to correct another's
wrong-doing, is, in this respect, to be looked on as a superior.
Reply to Objection 3: Even in the physical order certain things act
mutually on one another, through being in some respect higher than one
another, in so far as each is somewhat in act, and somewhat in
potentiality with regard to another. In like manner one man can
correct another in so far as he has a sane judgment in a matter wherein
the other sins, though he is not his superior simply.
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