Leadership Quote by Arthur Middleton

“Priesthood is forever” lands like a constitutional claim disguised as pastoral comfort. Middleton, a politician writing in an age when churches were splintering and legitimacy was contested, frames holy orders as an indelible status rather than a job description. The second clause sharpens the point: even when a priest cannot perform “that priestly ministry,” the identity remains. In other words, incapacity, exile, scandal, age, or political pressure can interrupt functions, not ontology.

The intent is strategic. By separating the office from its practical exercise, Middleton protects clerical authority against the era’s volatility: revolutions, shifting state-church arrangements, and local disputes that could “silence” a priest without formally laicizing him. The subtext is about control and continuity. If priesthood doesn’t cease, then the institution retains a claim on the person - and the person retains a claim on the institution - regardless of circumstances. That’s a powerful stabilizer in a world where public roles were being renegotiated and where dissenting movements challenged who had the right to speak for God.

It also carries a quieter warning. If the status is permanent, accountability becomes complicated: removal from ministry is not the same as removal from the priesthood. Middleton’s phrasing defends permanence while sidestepping the messy question of what should happen when a priest should not minister. That tension is the quote’s engine: a political mind arguing for religious permanence because permanence is a kind of governance.