17 April 1985
Ljubljana, Yugoslavia

My dear Confreres,

When I visit the various provinces of the Congregation, I am often asked if I have any news of the Confreres in China. It is always a little pain for me to have to reply that I have not. In the past five years I have only received one short letter from an elderly brother who signed himself Joseph, saying that he was still loyal to St. Vincent and to the Congregation. I do know, however, of another Confrere in China who spent twenty-three years in prison because of his faith and his priesthood and his loyalty to the Congregation. Has there ever been a year since the Apostles first went forth to preach the life, death and resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ that there has not been someone in prison because of his convictions about our faith? We are only in the second week after the Resurrection and already as we have seen in the first reading of today's Mass, the Apostles are in prison because of their preaching of Jesus Christ crucified and risen. So it has been ever since. Wherever the Gospel has been preached in the world, there men and women have suffered for the faith as they have here in your own country.

To die for the faith is to die for something which one treasures more than life. To suffer for the faith is to suffer in order to preserve something that one recognizes as a very special and precious gift given by God. If the light of faith is to be kept alight in our minds and our hearts, it needs to be cared for. We who have taken vows of celibacy must never lose sight of the connection that exists between our faith and our celibacy. "Blessed are the pure in heart," said Our Lord, "for they shall see God." (Mt 5:8). Should we celibates begin to experience difficulties with the faith, it could be that the reason lies in our living of celibacy. In our time there has been much discussion on celibacy. It could very well be that the crisis of the priesthood today is not so much one of celibacy but one of faith. Intensify our living of celibacy, remove from our lives compromises which we may be making with our vow of celibacy, and we may very well find that the light of faith will begin to burn more brightly in our minds and in our hearts. "He who acts in truth," remarks Our Lord in today's Gospel, "comes into the light to make clear that his deeds are done in God." (Jn 3:21).

What I am trying to say to you, my dear Confreres, is that, if we are not to be discouraged, disheartened, in our vocation, our faith needs to be strong. Our faith can only be strong if we put ourselves in full contact with Christ, Who has prayed that our faith will not fail. We are only in full contact with Christ when we have more than a superficial contact with the Community which He has raised up through His servant, Vincent de Paul. It was St. Vincent's vision that men went forth from Community to preach the Gospel to the poor, and his vision of Community was one in which men shared a life of prayer and drew from each other the strength that true Community life can give.

St. Vincent wrote to one of his priests in 1647: "Her (the Church) great need is evangelical men who work to purge, enlighten, and unite her to her Divine Spouse. This is what you are doing through His Divine Goodness." (Coste III, Eng. ed., ltr. 960, p. 204).