12041948 Pius XII Letter to the General Chapter OFM Cap
To our beloved son Clemente of Miwaukee, General Minister of the Capuchin Franciscans.
Beloved son: Health and apostolic blessing.
Apostolate in the humble classes...
As we already let you and yours understand in the audience that was granted to you on the occasion of the congress of almost all your provinces recently held in Rome, we were not a little pleased to see you so fervently determined that your Institute - which already in the past He gave such beautiful proofs of himself both in tending to the perfection of the religious life and in dedicating himself to the works of the apostolate - take an ever greater and vaster increase.
Such initiatives of the apostolate, as you well know, are in our days not only opportune, but absolutely necessary. They need, in fact, more and more numerous and more informed preachers of the Gospel who spread every day the teachings of Jesus Christ and his reign of peace, not only among peoples not yet initiated into the Christian life, but in their own homeland; that is to say: also in those regions that for a long time have enjoyed the advantages of religion and civilization that the divine Redeemer brought.
Because it is known that in many social classes the Christian faith languishes to the point of frequently producing in the souls boredom and forgetfulness of divine things. On the one hand, those who are provided with goods for a long time do not seek anything other than to abandon themselves totally to the pleasures and enjoyments of present life; and on the other hand, on the other hand, those who, anguished by indigence, must procure with sweaty fatigue a little food for themselves and for their own family, seduced by false promises and false doctrines, are moving away from the Church, as if it ignored or neglected his miserable fate, when, on the contrary, with all his means he tends not only to illuminate their minds with the truth, not only to elevate their spirits with the hope and encouragement of heavenly goods, but to provide as much as is in his power your present life needs.
For this reason it is absolutely necessary that the Church does not lack those who with effort and generous promptitude help her to develop such a fruitful ministry and beneficial activity. This is what the enormous masses of the proletariat especially demand, who, because of more painful poverty and a less elevated education, are more easily led into deception by artful trifles and too often deviate from the straight path of truth, with very grave danger. for society and for religion.
Now, the Capuchin Franciscans, from their origin, always had as their particular mission that of promoting and supporting initiatives of apostolate and charity in favor of humble people. How, then, could they not intensify this evangelical activity with a quicker zeal today, today that the needs grow immeasurably? That they put more effort into it is demanded by our times, and this not only in the churches -where frequently those who most need to enter do not enter-, but on all occasions when, as priests, they are presented with the opportunity to exercise the sacred ministry in the fields, in the offices, in the factories, in the hospitals, in the prisons; in short, in the midst of the masses of workers, made brothers towards brothers to win them all to Christ. That they unite their own sweat with that of the workers, that they dispel the darkness of error from their minds and drag them into the light of truth, that they strive to sweeten the spirits embittered by hatred and factiousness, instilling in them charity divine. And especially, that they make them understand well that the Church is their true mother, a mother who is concerned not only with their eternal salvation, but also with alleviating their miserable fate, raising them to a better and higher condition of life, not with fallacious ideologies. , not with riots, not with violence, but with justice, with equity, with a friendly pacification between the social classes.
But above all it is necessary to educate them in the observance of Christian precepts, encourage them to profess religion properly, to frequent the sacraments and to restore the goodness of customs, both in private life and in public life; because, as you know, everything wavers, decays and sooner or later collapses miserably when evangelical truth is abandoned and that tenor of virtuous life to which the divine Redeemer has called all mortals is eliminated. Engage yourselves, then, in all this without forgiving fatigue and with a soul inflamed with divine love; Penetrate in the midst of the masses as mediators of peace, teachers of truth, nurturers of Christian piety and of the most holy religion. Shine before everyone by example, with which you will be able to reconcile more easily and, therefore, win their souls for Jesus Christ. Because only in this way will it happen that, with the inspiration and with the help of divine grace, emulating the glorious and holy deeds of your predecessors, you will reap more and more copious fruits of salvation.
...without weakening the proper tenor of religious profession
Also consider it certain and proven that in order to undertake similar and intense activities of the apostolate as those that the new times require of you, the tenor of life proper to your religious profession must not be weakened in any way, much less radically modified; Rather, it is necessary that he become more and more imbued with such an evangelical spirit and that you all shine with that brightness of poverty that is in accordance with your Institute, that you stand out for your kind simplicity and humility and, above all, that you maintain in your traditional austerity of discipline, in such a way, however, that this does not serve as an impediment to the action of the sacred ministry and permeates you with the sovereign joy that derives from the awareness of the fulfilled duty; and likewise that you burn with that seraphic love towards God and towards your neighbor by which the Patriarch of Assisi was devoured during the entire course of his life.
Only by remaining faithful to these principles and intensifying every day the ardor of piety and of the interior life, will your external works be able to reach that divine force that dominates all difficulties and overcomes them happily. This we wish you. We exhort you with paternal encouragement to do this and to continue forward with effort, while we implore for you the necessary heavenly help from God.
May the Apostolic Blessing be her patronage and mediator, which, as a pledge of our particular benevolence, we impart with an outpouring of encouragement to you, dear son, and to the entire family of Capuchin Franciscans.
Given in Rome, next to Saint Peter, on December 4, 1948, the tenth year of our pontificate.
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