This is not fancy, for that has happened in like case in Manila. That is the greatest danger since, because of the great distance, redress moves with very dilatory steps. But in the meanwhile the suits concerning the religious are proceeding from tribunal to tribunal, contrary to the clearly expressed privileges of his exemption. 731. But let us suppose that the regular parish priest is unworthy to persevere in his mission because of secret sins, and that, even if he remain in it, he may run some risk of his salvation. The provincial learns of the matter secretly. In such a case, justice requires two things--one, the punishment of the guilty person; and the other, that the delinquent shall not lose his reputation by the declaration of his fault. Charity urges him to remove his subordinate from danger. If that regular administers without canonical institution and subjection to the ordinary, everything will be settled very easily, and justice and charity will be satisfied without any infamy to the criminal or any dishonor to the order. But if he is subject to the ordinary, the provincial cannot remove him by his own authority; but he must have recourse to the ordinary himself, and to the vice-patron, and then those two agree on the removal. In that case, what can the provincial say to them? If he should say that he will impart to them in all secrecy the [nature of the] crime of his subject, that means is harsh and less safe. The ordinary and the governor, as the father and the master, may correct and punish the faults of their inferiors without the least wound to their honor; and must a provincial do so by dis-accrediting his subordinate with the heads of the community? If it is decided that the superior do not tell the kind of crime, but that he asseverate in general terms that there is cause to remove the religious from that place, the trouble is not avoided. First, they may think that he speaks thus in order to go ahead with his oldtime custom; second, because even though the cause of removing him be not a fault, it can easily be alleged to be one, and the fact that he does not offer more explanation in that case comes to be the same as manifesting its gravity by his silence. Finally, honor is very delicate and is lessened by rumor and suspicion. Since God made the religious exempt from the secular judges, and the apostolic see exempted them from the ordinaries, the religious, when they have not professed as curas, will find themselves without courage to assume that charge with so many dangers and burdens. And will the apostolic see force them to that?