Feast of St. Charles Borromeo

St. Charles Borromeo is a great saint. He was one of the point persons of the Council of Trent. He was also responsible for Council’s implementation and, consequently, for the whole of the Catholic Counter-Reformation program. This is what many people remember of him.

The Council of Trent has had a bad press after Vatican II. To be called Tridentine is not a compliment at all. But if we look at Trent in its context, the Tridentine theology accomplished what it intended to do – to reform the Church: to form the clergy, to revitalize of the celebration of the sacraments and liturgy, to formulate a systematic catechism, and other tasks crucial to the church after the challenge of Luther. And the man at the helm was one with a Cardinal’s hat, the archbishop of Milan, Charles Borromeo. To his memory, we have San Carlos as the name of many seminaries in the Philippines and elsewhere. These are conciliar seminaries to implement the desires of the Council. 

But there was one aspect in Carlos Borromeo’s life that is often forgotten – his role in the epidemic in Milan during his time. Reading about it for the first time now, I see how his response speaks loud and clear to our present predicament. What a strange parallel, indeed.

A plague spread in Milan and neighboring cities – Hungary, Danue, Switzerland, Tento, Verona, Venice around 1575-1577. It easily killed 6000 people, quite a big number in the context of medieval Europe. Corona virus did not even do as much in a Philippine population of 110 million.

All nobles and leaders left the city. But Charles Borromeo remained to take care of the sick.

Indoor spaces were said to cause contagion and spread of the disease. So, he closed the big churches, and erected outdoor altars so the people can pray there - quite a creative act long before online Masses. When the plague was over, they dismantled the altars but erected crosses to commemorate what they went through. Called the "Plague Crosses", they can still be seen in some corners of Milan.

Charles Borromeo personally organized the relief operation. He tried to feed 60,000 to 70,000 people daily – a feat which is even difficult to do today. Feeding centers now only feed 1000 persons once a day at the most. He used his own money to fund it, and even sold the tapestries of the church and other liturgical paraphernalia for this purpose.

He took care of the dying and went out to minister the sacraments to the sick or brought Holy Communion. To remember what he did, history later called the epidemic “The Plague of Charles”.

Asked if he was not afraid to be contaminated, he replied with this famous phrase immortalized for in our times: “God can replace us.”

In short, we are not indispensable. If we go, other people will come and take over our task. God can replace us! And the world continues; and God’s work continues.

In a time of the pandemic when the Church went into hiding, when we are attacked again by the tragedy of self-preservation, the injunction for the pastors and pastoral workers is to go to the peripheries, to spaces where people need the church's presence, to have the “odor of their sheep” who now suffer sickness and hunger. The shepherd shall not leave his sheep. Only hired workers do. He or she shall always defend them from harm. Always. In season and out of season.

The challenge is to serve the sick, feed the hungry, bury the dead, console the disturbed and the lonely, and to risk being sick ourselves in the process. This is a Christian's permanent mandate, with or without the pandemic!

Do not worry. When something happens, God can replace us, Borromeo reminds.

Daniel Franklin E. Pilario, C.M.
St. Vincent School of Theology
Adamson University
11.04.2020