“What a tragedy: how many souls are being shut out of heaven and falling into hell, thanks to you!” St. Francis Xavier

A few weeks ago, Jorge Bergoglio the Bishop of Rome said to a gathering of Catholic teachers in Rome:

One cannot speak of Catholic education without speaking of humanity, because, precisely, the Catholic identity is God who became man. To go forward in attitudes, in full human values, opens the door to the Christian seed. Then faith comes. To educate in a Christian way is not only to engage in catechesis: this is one part. It is not only engaging in proselytism—never proselytize in schools! Never!

http://www.ncregister.com/blog/reilly/did-pope-francis-say-dont-proselytize/#ixzz3tG6Pqc91

In his audience yesterday, he stated:

The pope appealed to all young people, calling on them to reflect on their vocation and "to not exclude the possibility of becoming a missionary" and to preach with their lives, not by proselytizing.

"Those who are looking for something else are the ones that (proselytize)," he said. "Faith is preached first through witness then with words -- but slowly." 

http://www.catholicnews.com/services/englishnews/2015/missionary-spirit-means-giving-witness-not-proselytizing-pope-says.cfm

We can add this to his previous statements to Scalfari, publisher of La Repubblica, the only newspaper he allegedly reads, that "proselytizing is solemn nonsense."

When Catholics help the poor as the example he gave in Africa, they do it because they are Catholic not because the people in need are. In Toronto, the hospital that does the most caring and research for people with AIDS is St. Michael's Hospital, founded by the once great and mighty Sisters of St. Joseph. All people are helped, not just Catholics. Nobody has to right a test to receive help from a Catholic charity, Where does he get this idea?

Today is the Feast of St. Francis Xavier, the "second Apostle" to India after St. Thomas the Apostle. When one sees the situation with our Jesuit Pope, and other media talking head and twitterati Jesuits, it is a far cry from the spirit of Francis and Ignatius and Jean de Brebeuf and Isaac Jogues and companions or Paul Miki, these great Saints of God. I wonder what they would think of the above. Oh for Jesuits such as these.

What follows is from Matins today.

Third Reading from Matins according to the 1961 Divine Office:

Francis was born of noble family at Xavier in the diocese of Pamplona. In Paris, he joined the companions and disciples of St. Ignatius, and in a short time became a shining example of austerity of life and untiring contemplation of divine things. Paul III made him apostolic nuncio to India, and he traveled about through countless provinces, always on foot and often barefoot. He brought the faith to Japan and six other regions. In India he converted many hundreds of thousands to Christianity, cleansing many princes and kings in the holy waters of baptism. His humility was so great that, when he wrote to St. Ignatius, his general, he always did so on his knees. By many and wonderful miracles, the Lord confirmed his zealous work in spreading the Gospel. Finally, on the Chinese island of Sancian, he died on the 2nd of December, rich in merits and worn out with his labors. Gregory XV enrolled him among the Saints, and Pius X, appointed him the heavenly patron of the Society of the Propagation of the Faith and of its work.

The Second Reading from the Liturgy of the Hours

A letter from St Francis Xavier to St Ignatius

Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel

We have visited the villages of the new converts who accepted the Christian religion a few years ago. No Portuguese live here, the country is so utterly barren and poor. The native Christians have no priests. They know only that they are Christians. There is nobody to say Mass for them; nobody to teach them the Creed, the Our Father, the Hail Mary and the Commandments of God’s Law.

I have not stopped since the day I arrived. I conscientiously made the rounds of the villages. I bathed in the sacred waters all the children who had not yet been baptized. This means that I have purified a very large number of children so young that, as the saying goes, they could not tell their right hand from their left. The older children would not let me say my Office or eat or sleep until I taught them one prayer or another. Then I began to understand: “The kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

I could not refuse so devout a request without failing in devotion myself. I taught them, first the confession of faith in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, then the Apostles’ Creed, the Our Father and Hail Mary. I noticed among them persons of great intelligence. If only someone could educate them in the Christian way of life, I have no doubt that they would make excellent Christians.

Many, many people hereabouts are not becoming Christians for one reason only: there is nobody to make them Christians. Again and again I have thought of going round the universities of Europe, especially Paris, and everywhere crying out like a madman, riveting the attention of those with more learning than charity: “What a tragedy: how many souls are being shut out of heaven and falling into hell, thanks to you!”

I wish they would work as hard at this as they do at their books, and so settle their account with God for their learning and the talents entrusted to them.

 This thought would certainly stir most of them to meditate on spiritual realities, to listen actively to what God is saying to them. They would forget their own desires, their human affairs, and give themselves over entirely to God’s will and his choice. They would cry out with all their heart: Lord, I am here! What do you want me to do? Send me anywhere you like – even to India.

St. Francis Xavier, pray for us, interceded for the Church.