Dr. Ivan Merz — a firmly formed person of catholic life — lived with the Church. He was permeated with ecclesialisticity and his personal creed included a sense of Church hierarchy.
Ivan lived ...according to papal encyclics and guidelines from the Holy Sea and he had great respect for the Holy Father, bishops and priests. This, in a hierarchic sense, was always the source of his energy and efforts to grow in catholic life. For him, the words of the Holy Father were »Roma locuta, causa finita« concerning not only dogmatic metiers but in every field of Church life.
In his work — eminently catholic — Ivan always aimed at teaching his Eagles the importance of the ideas of the bishops and hierarchy, even when it was a question of some delicate matter or a possibly wrong movement of a bishop. He listened to the problem, then tactfully and politely hinted that it was a question of politics, not a purely catholic attitude...
Ivan never consented to bringing priests to the same level with the rest of the Eagles membership. He insisted on a priest to be the spiritual leader for his Eagles and for himself... Ivan had a deep respect for the vocation of priests and his relationship to the clergy was in accordance with this respect. His attitude resulted from his deep and firm faith. Merz was such a person.
