“I think exceptions should be made in favour of those in orders. But I think it would be for the good of Ireland if the secular clergy were married.”
“That’s not my point. My point is that even if the decree were rescinded we should not be able to get wives. You’ve been looking too long in the waste, my dear friend. You’ve lost yourself in a dream. We shouldn’t get a penny. Our parishioners would say, ‘Why should we support that fellow and his family?’ That’s what they’d say.”
“We should be poor, no doubt,” said Father James. “But not so poor as our parishioners. My parishioners eat yellow meal, and I eat eggs and live in a good house.”
“We are educated men, and should live in better houses.”
“The greatest saints lived in deserts.”
And so the argument went on until the time came to sa
