The Unique Fraternity

by Leonard Feeney

"There happens to be in this world of strange social conventions one friendship that transcends all conventions and knows no rules.

It is the brotherhood of Catholic Priests.

There is not, I swear it, under the stars an intimacy more reckless or more profound than the bond between one Catholic levite and another.

It needs no coaxing, no prelude, no ritual. It is subject to no formality. We meet and possess one another instantly. There is not the shadow of a barrier between us, neither age, nor antecedents, not nationality, nor climate, nor color of skin.

Ours is a blunt, rough-hewn affection. It almost forgets to be polite. I can sit as his table without invitation; sit in his study and read his books before I have ever met him; borrow his money or his clothes with no security.

His home is my home; his fireside, my fireside; his altar my altar. I can give him my confidence promptly and without reserve. I can neither edify nor scandalize him. We can quarrel without offense, praise each other without flattery, or sit silently and say nothing and be mutually circumvented.

How and why all this can happen is our own precious secret. It is the secret of men who climb a lonely drawbridge, mount a narrow stair, and sleep in a lofty citadel that floats a white flag.

Singly we go, independent and unpossessed, establishing no generation, each a conclusion of his race and name; yet always companioning one another with a strange sympathy, too tender to be called friendship, too sturdy to be called love, but which God will find a name for when he searches our hearts in eternity."

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