531. April 29, St Catherine of Siena (II)

Meditations no. 463 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

St Catherine of Siena loved the Church of God and the Pope truly and with deeds.

In 1964, our founder was speaking about the feast of St Catherine of Siena, whom we were then beginning to honour in this way as an Intercessor of the Work. I wish to have the feast of this saint celebrated in each one’s spiritual life and in the life of our houses or Centres. I have always had devotion towards St Catherine, because of her love for the Church and the Pope, and because of the courage she showed in speaking out clearly whenever necessary, moved precisely by that same love.

St Catherine of Siena was very roman. Impelled by her supernatural sense and by her love for the Church and the see of St Peter, she moved to Avignon and spoke to Pope Gregory XI, asking him to return as soon as possible to Rome, the city from which the Vicar of Christ ought to govern the Church. Her prayers, her sacrifices and her strength made it possible for the long exile of Avignon to come to an end.

Many a downturn affects the life of the Church. And the attendant concern and vigilance weigh down in a particular way upon the Roman Pontiff, charged as he is by Jesus Christ, in a singularly special way, with the task and the responsibility of bringing to a safe port that centuries-old ship which He himself wanted for this world.

Instantia mea quotidiana sollicitudo omnium ecclesiarum (2 Cor 11: 28). There is the daily pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churches, wrote St Paul. And the Apostle’s sigh reminds all Christians of the responsibility which the faithful have to feel, so as to place what we are and what we have at the feet of the Spouse of Jesus Christ, of the holy Church, loving her ever so faithfully, even at the cost of possessions, of reputation and of life.

That is why, upon beginning these considerations, wrote our founder, there comes to my memory the heavy weight that bears down on the Pope and on the bishops, and I feel urged to remind you of the veneration, the affection and the help that you ought to give them with your prayer and with your life of dedication.

Our love for the Church and the Roman Pontiff has to be shown in the reality of our prayer, in the joy of our obedience, in the vibrancy of our concrete acts of service. This is the way followed by the Pope, the sweet Christ on earth, the Vice-God, as I like to call him, who says of himself that he is servus servorum Dei, the servant of the servants of God. And if the Supreme Pontiff is a servant, my daughters and sons, it is intolerable for there to be Catholics who do not want to be.

St Catherine of Siena’s life was an outpouring of love and service on behalf of the Roman Pontiff. That is why our founder wanted to designate her as an Intercessor of ours, and he had the following inscription placed upon the holder which conserves a relic of the saint in Villa Tevere: Dilexit opere et veritate Ecclesiam Dei et Romanum Pontificem. She loved the Church of God and the Roman Pontiff truly and with deeds.

Our love for the Church ought to grow in the face of the possible weaknesses of her servants.

I have taught you to love the adjective roman, with which we children of the one, only and true Church adorn ourselves, and I am prepared to preach it and to romanise all the souls I can. How keen I am, our Father wrote in 1950, for people, so many daughters and sons of mine, to be able to pass through Rome soon, in a constant and ordered way, so as to return to their Regions with their hearts more on fire with love for the Church and more roman!

We have to romanise ourselves, I tell you, but part of this work lies in preparing our souls not to allow any miseries of which we are witnesses make us weaken in the faith.

The Church is holy in herself, and holy also in her life, of which all-too-evident tokens are being provided continually by the Spirit of God, because Jesus Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her… that he might present the Church to himself in splendour, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish. But we cannot forget that, while she is in herself holy, she gathers sinners into her bosom. The Church, which is divine, is also human, because she is made up of men and we men have defects: omnes homines terra et cinis (Sir 17: 31), all of us men are dust and ashes.

This is a reality that Christian souls have suffered throughout history, and which St Catherine of Siena sorrowfully felt in her heart. No member of the Church on earth is exempt from personal weaknesses. They can all be mistaken in their judgments and err in their behaviour. For this reason, the knowledge of the weaknesses that the servants of the Church can have, as our Father also wrote, will help you never to get scandalised if you should hear news items of this kind. And it will help you also to grow in love for the Church, the Spouse of Jesus Christ. It will move you, as with the good sons of Noah, to cover over with the cloak of charity and discretion the defects you may observe in persons that form a part of the People of God.

Although we ardently desire all people to be saints, our serving the Church is not conditioned by the personal sanctity of her members. Our service and our love are directed to the spotless Spouse of Christ. This is the reason for our not allowing in ourselves the least doubt or suspicion regarding the Church. Nor do we tolerate it in others without protesting. We do not seek out the vulnerable points of the Church, brought about by the action of men in her, so as to level criticism at her, as some do who seem to have neither faith nor love. I cannot conceive of being capable of loving a mother and speaking about her coldly.

A concrete manifestation of love for the Church is a concern for coming to -and spreading abroad - a knowledge of the living conditions and work of Catholics around the world.

For more than a century now, the Roman Pontiffs have spoken of a campaign that tends to obscure the truth, to consign to oblivion the sufferings and the upright works of Catholics throughout the world. And our founder specified: It would be enough to think of what has come to be called the conspiracy of silence. They do not allow the voice of those who teach the truth by word to be heard: annuntiabo veritatem tuam in ore meo (Ps 88: 2). They do not allow the example of those who preach with deeds to be seen, because those works bear witness to Jesus Christ (John 5: 36). They stamp out every trace of good doctrine because they cannot stand it, sanam doctrinam non sustinebunt (2 Tim 4: 3)…

The effect of this policy of silence… is also usually the almost complete ignorance of Catholics, not only about the teaching of the Magisterium, but also about those things that have to do with the lives of their brothers in the faith who live in other nations, and even of those who, while being their own compatriots, nevertheless hail from other social areas.

They are not aware of their pious customs, their apostolic activities, the fruits of their announcing the Gospel, their struggles and difficulties, and, at times, the persecutions to which they find themselves subjected. It was precisely this that led the Holy Father Pope Pius XI to speak of a conspiracy, that is to say, of a patent manifestation of bad will.

Unfortunately, this reality is repeated time and again in so many parts of the world. We cannot remain oblivious to it, for an almost immediate effect of this barrier of silence raised up among Catholics by certain means of communication has been the loss of a sense of vision and brotherhood that ought to rise above any difference in race, mentality, customs, political regime, or standard of living.

And so, one frequently sees Catholics who feel an ideological affinity with other men, even enemies of the Church, much more strongly than the very bond of the faith with their Catholic brethren. And, whereas they overlook the substantive difference that separates them from persons of other religions, or of no religion at all, they are incapable of bringing out to good effect the common denominator they have with other Catholics, so as to live side by side with them and not accentuate possible legitimate differences of opinion in contingent matters.

In point of fact, one of the apostolic activities of the Work is the clear and objective dissemination of the truth. We also try to get people in each country to know about the climate of religious allegiance, of work, as well as the scientific and social activities of Catholics in all the other countries, not only in their collective works, but also in their individual tasks.

In the Magnificat, the Blessed Virgin echoed the wonderful things that God had done for the good of men. Let us ask her to obtain for us from our Lord the grace to love the Church of God and the Roman Pontiff truly and with deeds, and to contribute to spreading abroad the Christian message.