20 July 1980
Paris, France

Mother Rogé, Father Richardson and Father Lloret,

I wish first to thank Father Lloret who, within two hours of my election, had written a long letter inviting me to come to Paris this weekend, and within the same period of time, Mother Rogé had sent me a very warm, sincere telegram assuring me of the prayers of all the Sisters here in the rue du Bac, to whom I would like to say from my heart this morning: "Thank you very much!"

There is nowhere in the world that I would like to have been yesterday more than here in Paris in the rue du Bac. Coming here to Paris and to rue du Bac has been for me always a visit to what I regard, since I came to the Community, as my favorite shrine of our Blessed Lady.

Last Friday after my election, telegrams came, not only from Mother Rogé, but from Daughters of Charity the world over, and it has been to me an enormous source of strength. I felt in the past ten days the real support of the prayers of the Daughters of Charity.

The morning of my election, I felt like a man who had gone out to sea for a swim and then got caught in a current which carried me away from all that was familiar to me, and to depths that I have never known. So your prayers and the prayers of my confreres have meant much to me, especially these past ten days. I have spoken to Father Richardson about it, and he said to me with his characteristic strength and honesty: "Father, when the Sisters say they will pray for you, they mean it." So, if I have nothing else to say to you this morning, I just want to say this: "Thank you for everything you have given me!" I say that to Mother Rogé and through her to the Daughters throughout the world.

Yesterday, shortly before three o'clock, we (Fathers McCullen, Richardson, Lloret) prayed together in the sanctuary of the chapel. I want to tell you something that perhaps you have not heard before about the significance of this sanctuary to our Province of Ireland. Our Province was founded in 1833, and you recall how when Our Blessed Lady was talking to St. Catherine, she promised her that there would be a new increase of vocations to the Double Family of St. Vincent. Recently, I have been reflecting on that promise. The Province from which I come, Ireland, was not founded immediately by a confrere from France or from Italy. Our Province was founded in this way: about four or five students in the large seminary in Maynooth came together and began to talk about the need to preach missions in Ireland. They were not yet priests: they were ordained in 1833 and shortly after that time they were talking to the Archbishop of Dublin, who said to them: "Why not join yourselves to some congregation in the Church that is interested in preaching retreats and missions?" And so they did, but what is interesting is that almost the same year Our Lady was promising an increase of vocations to the family of St. Vincent in 1830, these four or five men, without knowing it, were starting to plan the beginning of what is the Irish Province today. So you understand how much the sanctuary of the rue du Bac chapel means to me! I mentioned this to our own confreres in Ireland.

Naturally, the thought of vocations to both our Communities is much on our minds in the last few years. I do not think that we should be too disturbed about it. Certainly, we must pray. Certainly, we must look to find workers for the harvest of souls, and it is encouraging for us all here in Europe to realize that while vocations may be few here in these parts, there are regions of the world where vocations are more plentiful. Did not St. Vincent say that he saw the time coming when the Church and many Christians might be found in the continent of Africa? And so it is happening. During this past week on 16 July, the first six Nigerian Sisters pronounced their vows for the first time. So there is room for hope and optimism for both our Communities. Perhaps we, living here in Europe, have too narrow a vision. We should be encouraged by the fact that the Church is growing in other parts of the world and by this vision that St. Vincent had in his time.

Last week after my election a Spanish confrere, a journalist, came to me with no less than fifteen questions to put to me about the Community. I told him it was rather like an examination of conscience! Among the questions he had was: "Would you have one word for the Daughters of Charity?" I thought for a moment and then said: "Well, I could say much but you only want one word, one sentence, and the one sentence I offer you is their motto: `Caritas Christi urget nos.' Then we went on to talk about the Daughters of Charity and I told him that I admired the Daughters of Charity (and I say this not because I am speaking to you this morning), because of their consistent devotion to the poor for Christ's sake.

It is important that we be devoted to and look for the poor to serve them, but we must also do so because of Jesus Christ: Caritas Christi urget nos. The first two words are most important, Caritas Christi. I also told him that I admired the Daughters of Charity because of their courage to give up works which they may have had for a number of years, because they were convinced that those works were not for the poor. Especially since the end of Vatican Council II, I have admired how your Community has managed to keep such uniformity among yourselves: uniformity, not only in devotion and in community practices of prayer, but also in dress. Yesterday, on the plane from Rome to Paris, Father Richardson and I were talking about this uniformity and we both agreed that it was something that St. Vincent impressed very deeply on the Daughters of Charity, and by the grace of God, you have been faithful to that since then. It is a uniformity that is born not just for good order's sake, but it is a uniformity that is born out of love for the person of Jesus Christ, Whom you wish to serve in the person of the poor.

During the past week I have been reflecting on how much my appointment has brought me closer to you. I have been reflecting, too, on the phenomenon of the work of the Holy Spirit, Who united St. Vincent and St. Louise three hundred years ago to do a spiritual work for the Church of that time. I have been reflecting, also, on how that spiritual unity between two persons here in this city of Paris has been perpetuated and lives on in the unity of the two Congregations to which by God's grace and favor, we here in this hall belong. It is a phenomenon. It is a work of the Holy Spirit, and I do believe that in the past ten or twelve years, the unity of the two Congregations, despite fewer numbers, has in fact been strengthened.

In our meditations on the life of St. Vincent and St. Louise we often think about what St. Vincent brought to St. Louise. We know very well how much she grew in holiness under the guidance of St. Vincent. Perhaps we men rather like to think that St. Vincent brought more to St. Louise than St. Louise brought to St. Vincent. We know from the very touching letters she wrote to him that she brought him many things. I remember reading a letter which she wrote to him when he was sick, and how she sent him some good things to eat and recommended some medicines to him. That spirit still lives on in the Community as we confreres, Vincentians, know only too well. It is true that St. Louise gave St. Vincent a great deal; perhaps you think of it more often than we do: St. Louise enabled St. Vincent to reach an enormous number of poor people whom otherwise he could not have reached.

These days, you know, as Father Richardson and Father Lloret will tell you, we have been talking about and praying about how best we could serve the poor of the world and live our motto which St. Vincent gave us: "Evangelizare pauperibus misit me." I think that the Congregation of the Mission is still called to help the Daughters of Charity and the Daughters of Charity to help the Congregation of the Mission. Whatever I may be able to do during my term of office in helping the Daughters of Charity, I will look upon in this way, that in doing so I am being enabled to reach some of the poor of the present-day world whom otherwise I could not reach and whom, like you, I am called to serve. Our Congregations have this ideal in common. We can do it in different ways, but we have been called first to know and to love the person of Jesus Christ and then to bring some of that love and compassion and concern and spirituality to the poor of this world.

I wandered a little bit from the sanctuary of the rue du Bac about which I was speaking to you some minutes ago and which means so much to me. I would like to come back to it. Last evening Mother Rogé very kindly gave me some pictures of Pope John Paul's visit to the rue du Bac and Father Lloret pointed out to me the plaque which you have erected to commemorate that historic visit. As yet I have not had an opportunity of reading in the pages of "La Documentation Catholique" the words which our Holy Father spoke to you. I look forward to reading them in the future. I thought last night of what Pope Paul VI did at the end of one of the sessions of Vatican Council II. The Bishops of the Church had completed the work on the chapter on Our Blessed Lady and her place in the Church, and before the bishops left Rome to go back to their dioceses (and I recall reading this in the "Documentation Catholique"), he presented each of the two thousand bishops with a small gold Miraculous Medal. I often thought about this gesture of his. I do not know why he chose the Miraculous Medal for that occasion, but when we reflect on it we can see that it was a very fitting gesture, because in that Miraculous Medal we have the summary of everything that the Church teaches about Our Lady: the summary of all that the Church has taught and will go on teaching about Our Lady, about the power of her intercession; about her power over the evil forces of this world, about her union with her Divine Son, about the place of the Cross in our lives. The stars on the reverse of the Miraculous Medal, have they not taken on a new significance in the light of what the Church has been teaching us through Vatican Council II? Those stars suggest to us the future. If the Church advanced her teaching on our Blessed Lady in the course of the Vatican Council, she announced it in reminding us that what Mary is--now as ever, without spot, without wrinkle, without stain--the Church in time will come to be.

I have something else to say to you on this occasion. I told it to my confreres in Rome after my election. The idea was put into my own mind the night before the election when I became afraid of what might happen the following day. A confrere told me: "No matter how unworthy you are, no matter what you have done in the past, no matter what you have failed to do in the past, if the confreres elect you tomorrow morning, it is a call to conversion."

That is how I see it. You may smile but that is how I experience it. In the appointment we get in Community, whether we like it or whether we do not, it is a call to conversion. Perhaps we think the word "conversion" has something in relation to sin, and it has; but there is also a very rich positive meaning to that word of conversion. Each appointment we receive in Community is a call to turn to investigation and to discover the riches that are to be found in the heritage St. Vincent and St. Louise have left us. Every appointment we receive, whether it is according to our own feelings or not, is a call to appreciate and to give God thanks for the enormous wealth of riches and strength that are to be found in both our Communities. May that grace be given to us all here today, to be enlightened to see our appointments, no matter how surprised we may be about them, as a call to conversion, to become more like her who is the Mother of God and who was totally converted to Him because of the privilege of her Immaculate Conception; a call to appreciate and to rejoice in that beautiful word that Father Lloret used this morning in his homily, when he referred to the "delicatesse" of our Blessed Lady toward both our Communities.