Sacerdotal Sanities

The Roman Catholic priests of Spain had better climb off their motor scooters, put out their cigarettes, and stay away from soccer games and bullfights. So decreed Spain's primate, Enrico Cardinal Pla y Deniel, 80, in the bulletin of the Archbishopric of Toledo. "In the middle of the giddy life of the present time," wrote the cardinal, priests should preserve the "sacerdotal sanities." This means, in Spain at least, that they should always wear their long, skirted cassocks and "in cities of importance" must add the mantle (sotana) or at least the short cape (esclavina).

They must also shave the tops of their heads in an open tonsure and should not be seen smoking on the street. Scooters and motorcycles may be used only with special permission and on church business--and never with a female passenger. And he reminded priests that they "are prohibited from all those public spectacles in which scandals are seen--theaters, cinemas, modern dances, professional football, bull rings, etc."

Priests with permission to use motorcycles or scooters will be permitted, however, to substitute a beret or crash helmet for a clerical hat, and the cardinal's letter urges them to take out insurance with Mutual de Clero (Clergyman's Mutual).

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