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Card. Keith Patrick O'Brien, St. Patrick's Church, Coatbridge Xaverian NewsNov. 5, 2010
INTRODUCTION:
It is indeed a great privilege to be here with you all this evening in the
Diocese of Motherwell with your Bishop, Bishop Joseph Devine; with so many
missionary associates linked with the Xaverian Missionaries; and also with so
many of you associated with the new Conforti Institute.
We gather here on the Feast Day of Blessed Bishop Guido Conforti thanking God
for his life and work which have inspired Xaverian Missionaries over the years –
and who are now looking forward to continuing the apostolate of Blessed Guido
here in Scotland as they prepare for his canonisation in St Peter’s, Rome on
Mission Sunday next year, Sunday 23 rd October 2011.
APOSTOLATE OF BLESSED BISHOP GUIDO MARIA CONFORTI:
I am aware of course that the apostolate of Blessed Guido is so very well known
to you here in the Diocese of Motherwell. However it would be wrong of me to
omit giving a brief review of his life – as it has inspired countless
missionaries throughout the world and it is his intercession whom we are calling
upon as we bless and dedicate the Conforti Global Education Centre here in
Coatbridge.
Born in 1865 Guido joined the Diocesan Seminary as a young boy and continued his
studies at the Senior Seminary being ordained to the Priesthood in 1888.
Following on his years as Vice Rector of the Seminary he was appointed Vicar
General of the Diocese of Parma 1894 – and just one year later founded the
Xaverian Institute for the Foreign Missions having obtained the consent of the
Church’s Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith and also of his own
Bishop.
Pope Leo XIII appointed the young priest aged 37 at the time as Archbishop of
Ravenna but he had to resign some two years later on health grounds. However
some three years after that Pope Pius X appointed him Coadjutor Bishop of Parma
– and he succeeded his predecessor who died only three months later – with
Bishop Conforti continuing his Episcopal work for some further 24 years.
Following on a visit to his Missionaries in China Bishop Guido died peacefully
on 5th November 1931 at the age of 66 – and as I have said it is on his Feast
Day that we celebrate this Mass and dedicate the Conforti Institute in his name.
It is relatively easy to give a series of facts and figures of the history of
the establishment of the Xaverian Institute for the Foreign Missions – but more
difficult to capture the spirit of the Founder and his priests. However I think
something of that spirit is contained in an address Bishop Guido gave to some of
his missionaries preparing to leave for China.
I think these words are important because they invite us to contemplate the
missionary of all times and ages namely Jesus Christ himself.
Bishop Guido Conforti stated: “The missionary is the most beautiful and sublime
personification of the ideal life. He has contemplated in the spirit Jesus
Christ, who shows the Apostles the world they must conquer for the Gospel, not
with the power of weapons, but through persuasion and love.”
It is that spirit which has motivated the apostolate of the Xaverian
Missionaries throughout the years – even unto death. We know that eleven members
of the Xaverian Fathers have shed their blood in martyrdom over the years: Two
in China; two in Bangladesh; three in more recent years in the Congo; as also
two in Burundi; and two in Brazil. It is that same spirit which motivates the
Xaverian
Fathers and also the Xaverian Sisters (Missionaries of Mary) in the years since
their foundation.
THE CONFORTI INSTITUTE:
The Xaverian Fathers like their Founder have always tries to observe the “signs
of the times”. Having initially sought an outreach in Scotland they established
a junior seminary helping boys and young men discern whether or not they had a
vocation to the Priesthood. That apostolate continued as long as it was
necessary – and then the Xaverian Fathers decided to open their properties here
in Coatbridge to other purposes specifically to the education of lay faithful so
that they too would be better fitted to fulfil their own valued vocation in the
Church and in the world.
One might say that the previous buildings on this site were no longer “fit for
purpose” showing increasing signs of their age and no longer being adapted for
the needs of the times. Consequently it was a very brave decision of the
Xaverian Missionaries to see to the building of the magnificent new complex now
called the “Conforti Institute”.
Like so many of you I have been to the new building and enjoyed its facilities –
even to performing the dedication ceremony at the beginning of the building of
the new centre in November 2008 along with Bishop Devine and the Moderator of
the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland; and now with the new building
having been opened for its apostolate in August 2009 here with you again for
this formal opening.
I think the full name of the Institute gives a further indication of the ongoing
vocation to missionary endeavour which will continue from this place. The
Conforti Institute has been described as the Xaverian “Global Education Centre”.
As Christ the Great Missionary reached out to all peoples so that is the call of
all who are part of the Conforti Institute, who will lecture and teach here, or
who will come here for whatever purpose.
One might say that all involved in the Conforti Institute must keep the ideals
of that great founding father before their eyes contemplating always as he did:
“The missionary of all times and ages namely Jesus Christ”.
And they must follow in the footsteps of their saintly founder who said to his
followers that: “They must conquer for the Gospel, not with the power of
weapons, but through persuasion and love”.
CONCLUSION:
Consequently along with my brother Bishop, Bishop Joseph and the Xaverian
Fathers gathered here with us it will indeed be a great pleasure and privilege
to dedicate and officially declare open the Conforti Institute. As the highest
ideals of Christian living and Christian evangelisation inspired Blessed Bishop
Conforti so too we pray that those same ideals will inspire all who are at
present associated with the Conforti Institute and all who will come there in
the years which lie ahead.
The missionary work of the Church never ends – although it may vary in the way
it continues. One must see here in the Conforti Institute a continuation of the
apostolate of Blessed Conforti an apostolate which is of as much value today as
it was on the foundation of the Xaverian Missionaries in 1895.
May that “persuasion and love” of which Blessed Conforti once spoke; may that
“most beautiful and sublime personification of the ideal life”, that of the
missionary – continue in our Church and in our world today; and may it see
something of its fulfilment here in the Conforti Institute. It is the Conforti
Institute which will have at its heart and its inspiration the missionary work
of Jesus Christ especially as personified in that of the Saint soon to be
canonised and whose Feast Day we celebrate on this very day, Blessed Guido Maria
Conforti.
