Blessed Francis Regis Clet
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18 February 1992
Guatemala

My dear Sisters and Confreres,

One hundred and seventy-one years ago today Blessed Francis Regis Clet was put to death in China by strangling. He was an old man of seventy-two years, and he had spent the last thirty of those years working as a missionary in China. He suffered death for the faith and was beatified by the Pope ninety-one years ago.

Blessed Francis Regis Clet had worked as a Vincentian in a seminary in France for some years before he asked his Superiors to be sent to China. He was a teacher of theology, and he was so brilliant that other priests and students used to refer to him as a "walking library." Even though he could have remained a teacher, he preferred to go to China to make Jesus Christ known in that vast country. Blessed Francis Regis Clet, for all his intellectual brilliance, was a simple, humble priest of St. Vincent's Congregation.

He was at the time of his death Superior of a little group of missionaries, and from prison very shortly before he died he sent a letter to his Confreres, asking them to remain united amongst themselves. Here is a sentence from that letter: "'A cord that has three strands in it is not easily broken.' These words of the Holy Spirit found in the Bible tell us that unity and concord are the most secure way to bring any undertaking to its desired end." (Breviary Lesson of the feast).

St. Vincent would be in full agreement with that. He wished both Sisters and priests to work for the poor as members of a Community, and he knew that a Community cannot exist unless each person is ready to cooperate with the other members. That calls for mortification of our judgment and our will which, at times, can almost be as painful as martyrdom. It is good to ask ourselves at the end of the day: "Did I do anything to break up community life today?" We can also ask ourselves a second question every night: "Did I do anything to build up my community today?" In other words, did I contribute anything towards helping the community to be a more pleasant place to live, and in that way help it to serve the poor more easily?

We may not be, like Blessed Francis Regis Clet, "walking libraries." But all of us can, by the grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, become "walking invitations to unity and peace" within our local communities and in our Provinces. If each of us tries to become "walking invitations to unity and peace" within our communities, then each local community will become, according to St. Vincent, "a paradise on earth."

On many occasions I have been asked if there is any news about our Confreres and Sisters in China. There is scarcely any. We know a little about some Sisters, and some tenuous contact was made with a small number of them. It seems certain that in the last two years the oppression of those loyal to the Holy Father has been intensified. These heroic men and women have need of the support of our prayers. The words of Pope John Paul II in his encyclical on the missions, "Redemptoris Missio," are very much to the point:

"Internal and external difficulties must not make us pessimistic or inactive. What counts here, as in every area of Christian life, is the confidence that comes from faith, from the certainty that it is not we who are the principal agents of the Church's mission, but Jesus Christ and His Spirit. We are only co-workers, and when we have done all that we can, we must say; `We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.'" (Lk 17:10). (p36).

The words of the Pope towards the end of his encyclical are a real challenge: "We must increase our apostolic zeal to pass on to others the light and joy of the faith, and to this high ideal the whole People of God must be educated.... "We cannot be content when we consider the millions of our brothers and sisters, who like us have been redeemed by the blood of Christ but who live in ignorance of the love of God. For each believer, as for the entire Church, the missionary task must remain foremost, for it concerns the eternal destiny of humanity and corresponds to God's mysterious and merciful plan." (Ibid. p86).

Through the intercession of Mary, the Virgin Mother of God, Queen of the Missions, and of Blessed Francis Regis Clet, may we daily bring "the light and joy of the faith" to all whose lives we touch.

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