Salve, Regina, Mater Misericordiae.
Praised be Jesus Christ.
Today we celebrate the memorial of Pope Saint Pius V.
Saint Pius V is famous for his defense of the faith,
for defending the faith against Islam
with the victory at Lepanto,
obtained by exhorting the entire Christian world
to pray the rosary.
For his defense of the faith against Protestantism
by implementing the decrees of the Council of Trent,
and also for defending the liturgy
against liturgists by revising and standardizing
the Roman Missal and the breviary.
And these accomplishments of his are alluded to
in the collect of the Mass today.
It says,
O God, who for the overthrow of the enemies of thy church
and for the restoration of divine worship
didst vouchsafe to choose blessed Pius
as supreme pontiff.
And so we see how,
God raised up Pius V precisely for this purpose.
And so we have in Saint Pius V
an example of a true pastor who cares for the flock.
Again, we read in the Epistle for today's Mass
from the first letter of Saint Peter,
Feed the flock of God which is among you,
taking care of it not by constraint,
but willingly according to God,
not for filthy lucre's sake, but voluntarily.
And so we see in St. Pius V a pastor who genuinely cares for the flock
and does not care so much about his own sake.
I found in the biography of St. John Vianney,
we celebrate this year, the year of the priest,
and Pope Benedict XVI has held up St. John Vianney as a model,
an example for all priests,
and to look to him as an example of how to be a pastor.
I found this interesting and also challenging exhortation of St. John Vianney
to other priests how to go about being a pastor in your own parish.
And he says,
If a priest is determined not to be a pastor,
if a priest is determined not to lose his soul,
so soon as any disorder arises in the parish,
he must trample underfoot all human considerations,
as well as the fear of the contempt and hatred of his people.
And in fact, this is a very common temptation for priests and for pastors.
Being human, they want to be liked and loved by the people as well.
They don't want to be,
anybody who's unpopular.
And so it's difficult sometimes to preach those necessary truths
and difficult truths and to make corrections.
In fact, we think usually about preaching about contraception
or modesty in church.
And some priests will have the idea,
well, I don't want to preach that because then the people will leave the church.
And actually, there was a priest,
one time who went up to Padre Pio and said exactly that.
He said,
Padre, I can't say these things to my parishioners
because everybody will leave.
And Padre Pio answered,
well, it's better to have an empty church
than a church full of demons.
And so we must say those hard truths in order to save souls.
That's the charitable thing to do.
St. John Vianney goes on,
He must not allow,
He must not allow anything to bar his way in the discharge of duty,
even were he certain of being murdered on coming down from the pulpit.
A pastor who wants to do his duty must keep his sword in hand at all times.
And so we see that Pope Benedict, really,
if you read his letter to priests,
which inaugurated this year of the priest,
he sets a high bar for the priests of the church today.
By presenting to us St. John Vianney as an example,
his life,
and also his words, his exhortations.
And so this year, today, we pray for all priests
that they be true pastors of the flock
after the example of St. John Vianney
and also that of St. Pius V.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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Thank you.