where are the priests?

I argued earlier that in Catholic culture the source of morality is religion mainly through natural law and the Scriptures. In Protestant culture, by contrast, the source of morality is man through positive law.

One of the signs of the progressive Protestantization of Portuguese society is observable in TV debates. Until some ten years ago there was virtually no serious public debate on TV about such issues as drugs, criminality, family, organ transplantation, divorce, youth, etc. in which a priest was not present. Some priests were literally public figures, such as priest Feytor Pinto, priest Vítor Melícias, priest Vaz Pinto and several others.

Priests have now disappeared from public debates on TV. They have been replaced by lawyers. There is now virtually no public debate on Portuguese TV about the same issues where a lawyer is not present. Lawyers occupy in those debates the same position that was formerly occupied by priests, namely, the position of arbiters of public morality.

The difference, a big difference in my view, is that priests do report to the Pope and ultimately to God, whereas lawyers do report in the first place to their own private interests, occasionally to their political and corporative interests, and ultimately to Mr. Marinho Pinto. For this reason, I would prefer to see priests as guardians of public morality. With lawyers performing this role, soon there will be no public morality at all in the country.