One cannot believe without acting

We are publishing excerpts from the report given on 24 October by the prefect of the Dicastery for Communication at the Faculty of Theology of the Pontifical University of Salamanca where the scientific session was held on the theme “The option for the poor in the pastoral ministry of Cardinal Ruffini”. The «Cardinal Ernesto Ruffini» Chair was established at the Spanish university on 10 December 1998 to deepen biblical studies, ecclesiology, the social doctrine of the Church, as well as the thought and action of the Lombard cardinal, archbishop of Palermo from 1945 to 1967. , year of death.

To truly understand the nature of the social thought, of the charitable action and of the works of Cardinal Ernesto Ruffini, it is necessary to go to the deep root that all this generated, at the spring of his faith and his priestly vocation. A simple faith, like that of the little ones. A radical call, which took place when he was still a child and accepted with the same trust and gratitude as Mary. A “here I am” lived in communion with her, adding to the priestly promises the vow of perfect chastity, humility and poverty. A whole life interwoven with a single purpose: total, full adherence to the Gospel.

So allow me to intertwine my speech with my memories; and to start from here: from his faith, from his spirituality, as I understood it then when I was a child, and as I understand it now, thinking back to then.

I remember that my father told us how when his grandfather died, and therefore also the cardinal’s father, Ernesto renounced all his rights by declaring to him: «You are of the world. I belong to the Church, I cannot and do not want to possess material goods ». And so he did.

St. Francis, St. Joseph Cottolengo, St. John Bosco, St. Teresina: here are the evangelical and ecclesial references of Ernesto Ruffini seminarian, priest, bishop and cardinal, corroborated by years of study of the Scriptures and of the history of the Church, to arrive at a simple truth , essential, pure: «The world has tried in vain to persuade that happiness lies in the possession of the goods of the earth. Those who have conquered them have been disappointed. According to the teaching of the divine Master, in order to be happy one must take another path. So many truths – he wrote – our Lord taught, but one word sums up the whole law: caritaslove “(Pastoral Letter Unity in charityMarch 7, 1959).

Charity was for him above all a choice of life. It was the fruit of that child “yes” to the call of the Lord: «Leave everything you have and follow me». Social charity stemmed from the impossibility of believing without acting accordingly, on a personal and public level. […] Poverty is what best defines the cardinal, who tells it the most. Poverty as a way to enter charity, the reason for his works, concrete testimony of his social thought. An assistant who in the years 1956-57 served at the soup kitchen set up at the Origlione Social Center in Palermo, remembers him going to the canteen frequently and chatting with people by personally serving them meals, tasting food to make sure that they were good and well prepared, always repeating that “the best must be given to the poor”. Religion – he said – “is not just a cult, but a social ferment. […] You cannot have peace as long as you know that in your parish there are poor without bread and without a roof. If necessary, permission will be given to sell the chalices to help them, and I too will sell my bishop’s cross ». And again: “Charity is the substance of the Gospel, it is not an optional virtue”.

Thus it was that as a bishop, faced with the fragility of public welfare, relying on providence, he planned and gave birth to an impressive series of social works in Palermo and the province between the 1940s and 1950s: soup kitchens wherever possible; a central outpatient clinic for patients without mutual assistance, and twelve peripheral outpatient clinics; and then social service centers, oratories, popular schools for the illiterate, children and adults, nursery schools, day and residential summer camps; a village for the homeless, one for the elderly, a surprisingly modern alternative to hospices and Rsa, a home for children. Very attentive to the role of women, he founded the Institute of Missionary Social Assistants, apostles of charity, dedicated to promoting the poor and workers, to what we now call integral human development. Far from being socially conservative, he said: “The old forms are no longer enough.” He asked the public power to act and in the meantime mobilized the Church to play her part, according to the principle of subsidiarity. In this sense he was a forerunner.

A week after his arrival in Palermo (March 31, 1946), more than 80,000 requests for help had arrived in the archbishopric. None remained a dead letter. «The cardinal read aloud, with his collaborators, almost all the letters that were delivered to him by his secretary. He read and sought the right answer. […] The last, found at the foot of the bier, asked him to be delivered to the Lord. It was simply addressed to Jesus. The woman who had written it, sure that he would do it, recommended that he take the missive with him to heaven to represent the misery in which her family was struggling there. The letter was closed in the coffin, together with the Bible, the miter, the pastoral staff and the deed “(Antonio Ravidà, Ruffini in private, Journal of Sicily, June 15, 1967). That was how he arrived at his destination.

from Paolo Ruffini

One cannot believe without acting – L’Osservatore Romano