{"id":25676,"date":"2010-06-30T13:00:49","date_gmt":"2010-06-30T17:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2010\/06\/saint-joseph-cafasso-patron-fo\/"},"modified":"2010-06-30T13:00:49","modified_gmt":"2010-06-30T17:00:49","slug":"saint-joseph-cafasso-patron-fo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2010\/06\/saint-joseph-cafasso-patron-fo\/","title":{"rendered":"Saint Joseph Cafasso: patron for prisoners and spiritual directors"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\"St<\/a><\/p>\n

The Pope’s weekly general audience address today was
\ndedicated to Saint Joseph Cafasso (1811-1860), a member of the “St Francis of
\nAssisi Institute,” a priest (ordained in 1833) who died 150 years ago. He is
\nmost known as Saint John Bosco’s spiritual father (director) from 1835 to 1860.
\nCafasso died in 1860; Pius XII canonized in him 1947. In 1948, Pope Pius XII named him the patron of Italian
\nprisons and, in 1950, proposed him “as a model for priests involved in
\nConfession and spiritual direction.” His uncle is Blessed Joseph Allamano. Saint Joseph Cafasso’s feast day is June 23.<\/p>\n

I never heard of Saint Joseph Cafasso
\nuntil today, partly because I am not well attuned to the life of Saint John
\nBosco of which he seems to be most connected. According to the Benedict, Joseph
\nCafasso’s ministry helped to form “the true pastor with a rich interior life
\nand a profound zeal for pastoral care: faithful in prayer, committed to
\npreaching and catechesis, dedicated to the Sacraments of the Eucharist and
\nConfession, in keeping with the model incarnated by St. Charles Borromeo and
\nSt. Francis of Sales, and promoted by the Council of Trent. St. Joseph Cafasso
\nsought to establish this model in the formation of young priests so that, in
\ntheir turn, they too could become formators to other priests, religious and lay
\npeople, thus creating a unique and effective chain.” AND how could anyone NOT take Saint Joseph Cafasso as a paradigm for Christian life?<\/p>\n

A theme that I am picking
\nup these days from some of the Pope’s addresses is the constant need to stay in
\nthe “state of grace.” You might say, “no Kidding, Paul! Really?” Mock if you want, but there is an increasing distancing from God, especially staying close to God by means of staying in
\na state of grace through the sacrament of confession. We know that the pure of heart are the ones who inherit the kingdom of God. One of the things we know
\nof Saint John Vianney is that he devoted himself to confessional. Cafasso, the
\nPope said, “loved the Lord totally, he was animated by a well-rooted faith and
\nsupported by profound and prolonged prayer, he showed sincere charity to
\neveryone. He knew moral theology but was equally well aware of the condition of
\npeople’s hearts for which, like the good shepherd, he took responsibility.”<\/p>\n

Benedict
\nXVI explained that that Saint John Bosco never copied his master. Not an
\ninsignificant point: we need to take under consideration those who guide us but
\nwe also need to assert our independence from a “master teacher” in order for
\ngrace to flourish.  <\/span>Otherwise we
\nmerely parrot the other in an unthinking manner. The Pope said, “He
\nimitated him in the human and priestly virtues – defining him as a ‘model of
\npriestly life’ – but maintained his own attitudes and his own specific
\nvocation. … This is a precious lesson for those involved in the formation and
\neducation of the young generations.”<\/p>\n

What may be interesting for us to
\nknow is that Saint Joseph Cafasso was renown for <\/span>his “concern for the lowest, especially for prisoners
\n… who lived in inhuman and dehumanizing conditions.” Characteristic of Cafasso’s
\nwork with prisoners is remembered today as he “often delivered great sermons
\nthat came to involve almost the entire prison population, with the passage of
\ntime he came to favor individual catechesis, made up of conversations and
\npersonal meetings. While respecting the individual situation of each
\nindividual, he tackled the great themes of Christian life, speaking of trust in
\nGod, adherence to His will, the utility of prayer and the Sacraments, the
\nculmination of which is Confession, the meeting with God Who, for us, becomes
\ninfinite mercy.”<\/o:p><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Pope’s weekly general audience address today was dedicated to Saint Joseph Cafasso (1811-1860), a member of the “St Francis of Assisi Institute,” a priest (ordained in 1833) who died 150 years ago. He is most known as Saint John Bosco’s spiritual father (director) from 1835 to 1860. Cafasso died in 1860; Pius XII canonized … Continue reading Saint Joseph Cafasso: patron for prisoners and spiritual directors<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,32],"tags":[1818,2468,1960,1792,2469],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25676"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25676\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}