PARISH MISSIONS: CLOSE TO THE PEOPLE BY GIVING CATECHETICAL INSTRUCTIONS, WHICH ARE MUCH MORE USEFUL TO THE IGNORANT THAN BEAUTIFUL DISCOURSES

Thus their closeness to the people made them favour the lowly at all times, but not to the exclusion of anyone else’s right to the benefits of salvation. For many of the early Oblates, this was not an issue since they were incapable of preaching competently in French, not having had the broad education which Eugene himself had had or the intellectual capabilities of someone like Guibert. But in no way was this seen as being a negative quality. The Jesuits preached a mission in Gap in 1823 with some of the Oblates, and Eugene referred to a letter he received from the Jesuit superior:

…he only says that having been forewarned that Father Mie and Father Touche would not be popular, being accustomed only to preach in Provençal, he had not made them preach; that they had the goodness to give catechetical instructions, which are much more useful to the ignorant than beautiful discourses.

Letter to Marius Suzanne, 29 November 1823, O.W. 6, n. 121

That which some considered weakness was in fact their strength in instructing the poor as to who God the Saviour was for them.

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