Gentleness Does Not Mean Weakness: St. Peter Canisius

Aurelio Porfiri

In recent years, the life of the Church has undoubtedly brought back to the forefront the debate on the necessary union of mercy and justice. For some, mercy seems to have almost become a separate category, as if it has an absolute meaning detached from the demands of justice. In reality, this is not the case, as mercy without justice makes no sense.

One saint who makes me reflect on this theme is the Dutchman Peter Canisius (1521–1597). At a very young age, he was drawn to the contemplative life of the Carthusians, but later decided to join a brand-new religious congregation, the Jesuits. He was one of the first ten Jesuits to profess vows. A scholar of the Church Fathers, he participated in the Council of Trent as a theologian. Let us remember that this council was one of the most important for the reform of the Church, which at the time was besieged by the revolution initiated by the Augustinian friar Martin Luther.

St. Ignatius asked Peter Canisius to work in Italy for a time and then for a much longer period in Germany, where he was active in academia, caring for the sick, and as the first superior of the German province. Pope Pius V offered him the cardinalate, but he declined, preferring to remain at the service of his flock as a simple priest. His catechisms, which gained wide popularity, are particularly significant. He was beatified in 1864, canonized in 1921, and at the same time declared a Doctor of the Church.

The Jesuit website describes him as follows:

“The importance of Canisius lies in the harmonious combination, rarely seen in his time, of his dogmatic firmness in principles together with an attitude of respect. His primary mission was to restore the spiritual roots of each believer and of the Church as a whole, as well as to revitalize the Christian community.”

I believe this succinctly captures the essence of the matter. It is right to show respect for everyone. St. Paul (Galatians 5:22) says: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”A Christian’s characteristic is to maintain gentleness and self-control without ever losing sight of firmness in principles, which enables one to escape the dominance of the flesh: “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” (Galatians 5:13).

St. Peter Canisius understood the importance of loving the sinner while despising and rejecting sin. In one of his prayers to confirm the faith (found on www.corrispondenzaromana.it), he declared:

“I openly profess, with St. Jerome, that I am united with those who are united to the Chair of Peter, and I declare, with St. Ambrose, that I follow in everything that Roman Church which, with St. Cyprian, I respectfully recognize as the root and mother of the universal Church. I rely on this faith and doctrine which I learned as a child, confirmed as a youth, taught as an adult, and which I have defended with my weak strength up to now. In making this profession, I am motivated solely by the glory and honor of God, the truth of conscience, the authority of the canonical Sacred Scriptures, the sentiment and consensus of the Church Fathers, the testimony of faith I owe to my brothers, and, finally, the eternal salvation I await in Heaven and the blessedness promised to true believers.”

His fidelity, therefore, was not merely to the Roman Pontiff but to the Pope as the guardian of the deposit of faith, confirmed by the sentiment and consensus of the Church Fathers to whom he appealed. This was not a human consensus, one given to a leader, but a consensus lived out on a meta-historical, supernatural plane. It was more a consensus with an institution than with a person. He continues:

“If it happens that because of this profession I am despised, mistreated, and persecuted, I will consider it an extraordinary grace and favor, as it will mean that You, my God, are giving me the opportunity to suffer for justice and because You do not want me to be in favor with those who, as open enemies of the Church and Catholic truth, cannot be Your friends. Nevertheless, forgive them, Lord, for they are either instigated by the devil and blinded by the brilliance of false doctrine, or they do not know what they are doing, or they do not want to know.”

Here is the true balance between justice and mercy. The saint does not reject suffering for the love of justice but asks God the Father to show mercy to those who have gone astray. The nature of sin is not changed—it remains sin—but he asks for leniency in condemnation. The prayer concludes:

“Grant me this grace, that in life and death I may always bear witness to the sincerity and fidelity I owe to You, to the Church, and to the truth, that I may never stray from Your holy love, and that I may be in communion with those who fear You and keep Your precepts in the holy Roman Church, to whose judgment I submit myself and all my works with a willing and respectful spirit. May all the saints, whether triumphant in Heaven or militant on earth, united indissolubly in the bond of peace in the Catholic Church, exalt Your immense goodness and pray for me. You are the source and the end of all my good; to You be praise, honor, and eternal glory in all things.”

We must take care not to turn the Church into "the mother of good feelings"; if mercy loses sight of justice, we renounce being the salt of the earth. Too much salt raises blood pressure, but no salt makes everything unbearably bland.

Benedict XVI, in his general audience of February 9, 2011, speaking of St. Peter Canisius, said:

“This was a characteristic of St Peter Canisius: his ability to combine harmoniously fidelity to dogmatic principles with the respect that is due to every person. St Canisius distinguished between a conscious, blameworthy apostosy from faith and a blameless loss of faith through circumstances. Moreover, he declared to Rome that the majority of Germans who switched to Protestantism were blameless. In a historical period of strong confessional differences, Canisius avoided — and this is something quite extraordinary — the harshness and rhetoric of anger — something rare, as I said, in the discussions between Christians in those times — and aimed only at presenting the spiritual roots and at reviving the faith in the Church. His vast and penetrating knowledge of Sacred Scripture and of the Fathers of the Church served this cause: the same knowledge that supported his personal relationship with God and the austere spirituality that he derived from the Devotio Moderna and Rhenish mysticism. Characteristic of St Canisius’ spirituality was his profound personal friendship with Jesus. For example, on 4 September 1549 he wrote in his journal, speaking with the Lord: "In the end, as if you were opening to me the heart of the Most Sacred Body, which it seemed to me I saw before me, you commanded me to drink from that source, inviting me, as it were, to draw the waters of my salvation from your founts, O my Saviour”. Then he saw that the Saviour was giving him a garment with three pieces that were called peace, love and perseverance. And with this garment, made up of peace, love and perseverance, Canisius carried out his work of renewing Catholicism. His friendship with Jesus — which was the core of his personality — nourished by love of the Bible, by love of the Blessed Sacrament and by love of the Fathers, this friendship was clearly united with the awareness of being a perpetuator of the Apostles’ mission in the Church. And this reminds us that every genuine evangelizer is always an instrument united with Jesus and with his Church and is fruitful for this very reason.”

This balance between gentleness and firmness is a prelude to ascending to the heights of sanctity.