CHARITY ALONE MOVES THESE BEAUTIFUL SOULS INSPIRED BY RELIGION AND SENT FORTH BY THEIR BISHOP

As Bishop of Marseilles, Eugene used his authority to arrange help for the cholera victims where the secular leaders were not always being successful. Responding to the concern expressed by the Vatican, Eugene wrote to Bishop Barnabo:

Your latest and most kind letter reached Marseilles when I was away from the diocese. I hastened back due to the cholera outbreak and I had so much to do that I hardly had time to breathe. The plague still weighs heavily upon my poor Marseilles and even though more than 80,000 persons have left the city, 30 to 40 people still fall victim to the horrible disease each day.

Since the all-male aid teams, who assist the cholera-stricken through zeal or for other reasons, gave me cause for concern when they went to care for those of the opposite sex, I myself set up all-female groups from now on solely responsible for charitable assistance to women afflicted by the disease. Oh, how happy I am to have taken that step. Charity alone moves these beautiful souls inspired by religion and sent forth by their Pastor, while before that, the philanthropic endeavors organized by secular authorities were not able to suppress the most impudent vice hidden beneath that cloak.

To Bishop Barnabo, Secretary of the S. Congregation of Propaganda Fide, 8 October 1849, EO V n 11.

REFLECTION

“The greatest need of the world is the need for people who will not be bought or sold; persons who in their inmost souls are true and honest; persons who do not fear to call sin by its right name; persons whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole; persons who will stand for the right though the heavens fall.” (Ellen G. White)