St. Joseph Cafasso: Priest of the Gallows by St. John Bosco

Author:St. John Bosco [Bosco, St. John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: TAN Books
Published: 2015-04-22T05:00:00+00:00

Don Cafasso's Apostolate in the Prisons

Those gloomy places peopled with unfortunate men and women are places most in need of the priestly ministry, but the difficulty of obtaining access to them, the squalor of the surroundings, and the horror which everything connected with them inspired, rendered the exercise of the sacred ministry difficult in them. There was added the further difficulty that besides courage, there was required prudence, piety and knowledge adapted to that class of people. The result was that many priests, who otherwise were excellent men, were unable to succeed in this difficult ministry because they were lacking in one or other of these qualities. Notwithstanding all this, a small number of priests at that time devoted their ministry to these wretched people.

Outstanding and singular among these was Don Cafasso. Nothing deterred him: neither the armed guards nor the iron doors nor the heavy iron gates locked and barred; nor was he deterred by the darkness and squalor of the place, or by the vermin that infested it. Neither did he show any sign of aversion in finding himself among the numerous criminals, each of whom had struck terror into numbers of travelers and even into the armed forces.

Don Cafasso enters among them. But what language he hears! Here it is cursing; over there, there is quarreling; down below they belch forth terrible blasphemies against God, against the Blessed Virgin and the saints. The courageous priest experiences unspeakable suffering in his heart in such surroundings, but he does not lose heart. He raises his eyes to Heaven, offers himself as a sacrifice to God, and puts himself under the protection of Mary most holy, the assured refuge of sinners.

As soon as he began to deal with and to speak to this new kind of audience, he noticed that they had become savage and brutalized, but that their condition was due rather to want of religious instruction than to real malice. He spoke to them of religion and he was listened to; he offered to return, and his offer was accepted with pleasure. He continued his instructions. He invited other priests to assist him, especially the young priests under his care, and in a short time he succeeded in gaining the hearts of those outcasts of society. Regular sermons were given, the confessions of the prisoners were heard, and soon those prisons which, by the curses, blasphemies and other brutal vices, seemed to be dungeons in Hell itself, were changed into habitations of men who, having learned to be Christians, began to love and serve God their Creator and to sing sacred hymns to the adorable name of Jesus.

O marvelous force of our holy Catholic religion! O admirable Don Cafasso! And what cannot a zealous minister of Jesus Christ accomplish when strengthened by the grace of God!

Before leaving this subject of the prisons, I think it well to say a word on another part of the priestly ministry of Don Cafasso equally sublime, in which his heroic charity shone forth.

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