From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Never Tire of Trying   
      
      "Be assured that you can never be perfect in this world unless you   
   realize that it is impossible for you to be perfect here. Therefore,   
   your aim in life should be as follows.   
      Always try your best in doing what you have to do, so that you may   
   reach perfection. Never get tired of trying, because there is always   
   room for improvement."   
   --St. Augustine--Commentary on Psalm 33, 14   
      
   Prayer: How do I seek you, O Lord? For when I seek you, it is   
   happiness I seek. Let me seek you that my soul may live; as my body   
   lives by my soul, so my soul lives by you.   
   --St. Augustine--Confessions 10, 20   
      
   ===========   
   September 17th - St Robert Bellarmine S.J.   
   (Also known as Robert Francis Romulus Bellarmine, Roberto Bellarmino)   
      
   Memorial formerly 13 May.  Bishop, Confessor, Theologian, Professor,   
   Writer, Preacher, Mediator, Doctor of the Church   
      
   1542-1621   
      
   Robert Bellarmine was born to an impoverished noble Italian family.   
   His early intellectual accomplishments gave his father hope that   
   Bellarmine would restore the family’s fortunes through a political   
   career. His mother’s wish that he enter the Society of Jesus   
   prevailed. The young Bellarmine, a very small, frail but lively fellow   
   excelled in his studies, especially Latin and Italian poetry. It   
   didn’t take long for it to become obvious that he wished to join the   
   Society of Jesus. The rector of the college described him as “the best   
   of our school and not far from the kingdom of heaven”. On completion   
   of his studies, Bellarmine taught first at the University of Louvain   
   in Belgium. In 1576 he accepted the invitation of Pope Gregory XIII   
   (1572-1585) to teach polemical theology at the new Roman College. When   
   he was ordained in 1570, the study of Church history and the fathers   
   of the Church was in a sad state of neglect.  He devoted his energy to   
   these two subjects, as well as to Scripture, in order to systematise   
   Church doctrine against the attacks of the Protestant Reformers. He   
   was the first Jesuit to become a professor at Louvain.   
      
   Robert Bellarmine spent the next 11 years teaching and writing his   
   monumental “Disputations on the Controversies of the Christian Faith”,   
   a 3 volume defense of the Catholic faith against the arguments of the   
   Protestant reformers.  Particularly noteworthy are the sections on the   
   temporal power of the pope and the role of the laity. To this day, it   
   is considered one of the most important texts of Catholic theology   
   ever written. Three hundred years after its publication, it was called   
   “the most complete defense of the Catholic teaching”.  A confidant to   
   the popes, Bellarmine held a number of positions, including rector of   
   the Roman College, examiner of bishops, Cardinal Inquisitor,   
   archbishop of Capua, and bishop of Montepulciano.   
      
   Through his writings Bellarmine was involved in the political,   
   religious and social issues of the time.  Bellarmine incurred the   
   anger of monarchists in England and France by showing the   
   divine-right-of-kings theory untenable. He developed the theory of the   
   indirect power of the pope in temporal affairs; although he was   
   defending the pope against the Scottish philosopher Barclay, he also   
   incurred the ire of Pope Sixtus V.  He argued with King James I of   
   England and was a judge at the trial of Giordano Bruno. Bellarmine   
   also communicated the decree of condemning the Copernican doctrine of   
   the movements of the earth and sun, issued by Congregation of the   
   Index to Galileo Galilei in 1616.  Among many activities, Bellarmine   
   became theologian to Pope Clement VIII, preparing two catechisms which   
   have had great influence in the Church.   
      
   Much to the amazement of all, at the height of his career, at the age   
   of 60, Pope Clement VIII appointed Robert Bellarmine the archbishop of   
   Capua. Bellarmine had never been in pastoral ministry. Nevertheless,   
   he began a new dimension of his priesthood with his usual enthusiasm.   
   He would spend the next three years introducing the reforms of the   
   Council of Trent in his archdiocese. He traveled everywhere, preaching   
   to the people. He visited his clergy as well as religious men and   
   women to encourage them to renew the Church. He won the love of   
   everyone.   
      
   The last major controversy of Bellarmine’s life came in 1616 when he   
   had to admonish his friend Galileo, whom he admired. He delivered the   
   admonition on behalf of the Holy Office, which had decided that the   
   heliocentric theory of Copernicus was contrary to Scripture. The   
   admonition amounted to a caution against putting forward—other than as   
   a hypothesis—theories not yet fully proven.   
      
   Although he was one of the most powerful men in Rome and was made a   
   cardinal by Pope Clement VIII on the grounds that “he had not his   
   equal for learning.” While he occupied apartments in the Vatican,   
   Bellarmine relaxed none of his former austerities. He limited his   
   household expenses to what was barely essential, eating only the food   
   available to the poor. He was known to have ransomed a soldier who had   
   deserted from the army and gave most of his money to the poor. Once he   
   gave the tapestries from his living quarters to the poor, saying that   
   the walls wouldn’t catch cold. While he took little regard for his own   
   comforts, he always saw to it that his servants and aides had   
   everything they needed.   
      
   Robert Bellarmine died at Rome on September 17, 1621 at the age of 79.   
   If his early career featured brilliant polemics and his middle years   
   gentle, loving, pastoral life, his final years brought him   
   transcendent peace. His writings turned spiritual.  He wrote several   
   works, the classics being “The Ascent of the Mind to God” and “The Art   
   of Dying”. He wrote that this was his way of preparing for death and   
   to move closer to his God.  The process for his canonisation was begun   
   in 1627 but was delayed until 1930 for political reasons, stemming   
   from his writings. In 1930, Pope Pius XI canonised him and the next   
   year declared him a doctor of the Church.   
      
   Patronage – • canon lawyers; canonists• catechists• catechumens•   
   Cincinnati, Ohio, archdiocese of• Robert Barron (bishop)• Bellarmine   
   University, Fairfield Univesity, Bellarmine College and School.   
      
      
   Saint Quotes:   
   “You have been created for the glory of God   
   and your own eternal salvation….this is your goal;   
   this is the centre of your life;   
   this is the treasure of your heart.   
   If your reach this goal, you will find happiness.   
   If you fail to reach it, you will find misery.”   
   --St Robert Bellarmine   
      
      
      
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