Homily delivered by
Card. John Carmel Heenan[1], Archbishop of Westminster, in Westminster Cathedral.
London, 10th October 1972.
Luigi Orione, my dear brethren, was not
the kind of person the Church looks for when she wants to recruit priests. He
was not much at home in the cloister, he was much more at home with the
labourers who worked for his father, and he joints the gang and returned gang
whoever he could.
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| Cardinal John Carmel Heenan |
When the Church is considering candidates
for the seminary one of the things they look for is stability, determination,
the kind of person who makes up his mind and perseveres. Luigi Orione wasn't like
that, he was Just the reverse. By the time he was seventeen, he had tried two
religious orders and failed in both. He tried to be a Franciscan first, and that
didn't work, then he went to be a Salesian and that didn’t last long, and this was
all by the time he was seventeen year old. The bishop gave him his chance and
admitted him to the seminary. How did he get on there? Not very well. He didn't get on with his studies, he was always
minding somebody else's business. Whose business was he always trying to mind?
The answer to that reveals the secret of Luigi Orione’s holiness of life. The
people he for were those whom nobody else wanted; he was a man of tremendous compassion,
the hopeless and the helpless they were the ones he wanted. In fact we can say
that he was a man of our time. I say of our time because, despite all the evils
of which we complain, in many ways this is an age of compassion. You can say
what you like about young people, but we have to admit that they are much more
caring than use were years ago. And that’s the first thing to notice about Don
Orione, that he looked after those whom nobody else wants. People always looked
after children. They cherished the orphans; they knew that these innocent little
ones were calling upon them. But anyone can look after those who as full of
hope. Where character and holiness of life is seen is to look after the
hopeless eases, to look after the imbecile, to look after the senile, the
helpless this is the work that Don Orione set himself, and set all the Sons of Divine
Providence to do. And I've seen that work in many places, in this country both
north and south, and also in far away Latin America, and the work of the Son of
Divine Providence is quite characteristic. Again they look for the hopeless,
they want the unwanted, but I can assure you that their apostolate in Chile is
the most wonderful missionary work in all the world. There are those
missionaries who come from Europe and from America, who make politics one of
their chief concerns, but not the Sons of Divine Providence.
They
preach their mission by their works of mercy. They preach the Word by the
example, and above all, there as everywhere, they let for the people whom
nobody else wants. And this is the reason why we are gathered simply to thank God
for Luigi Orione, the manna of our times. We have people today who share his
views, people like Theresa who cares for the outcast, Leonard Cheshire, who
cares for the incurable sick. Yes, Don Luigi Orione is a saint for today and so
we thank God for him.
We thank God for the Sons of Divine Providence
and we pray that their work will be abundantly blessed and that many apostles
will join them in caring for the most abandoned of Christ’s little ones. May God
bless the Sons of Divine Providence.
Resource: Don Orione nel
centenario della nascita (1872-1972). (Documenti e testimonianze),
Edizioni Piccola Opera della Divina Provvidenza, Rome, 1974, pp. 449 – 450.
[1] John Carmel Heenan (26th January 1905 – 7th November 1975) was Archbishop of Westminster from 1963 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate 1965.
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