Leopold Mandic

Patriarch of Venice

Homily Of The Patriarch Of Venice

Monsignor Francesco Moraglia
At the same time the saying “Gratia supponit naturam” means that grace uses nature, relies on nature and so happens in a habitual way. Yes, grace usually uses nature but this is not the only possible path. Indeed, in some cases, God, in order to show that it is grace that saves - and not the resources of man - highlights to the maximum the difference between grace and nature, between the resources of grace and those of nature. And this is exactly what happened in Saint Leopoldo Mandic.

This "imbalance" was very evident in him, as if God wanted to reiterate in him that salvation is an exclusive gift from God and not just a purely human path. In Father Leopoldo we find impressive gifts of grace. The small confessional cell, in which he exercised his ministry as confessor for almost thirty years, witnessed grandiose conversions, innumerable spiritual gifts, very particular graces that changed the lives of thousands and thousands of men and women. Sometimes they were material thanks such as, for example, the finding - in a completely unexpected way - of work by someone who had already planned suicide out of desperation. And all this in the ways and times announced by Father Leopoldo.

On a purely external level - I am alluding to the physical figure - Father Leopoldo could appear not only "insignificant" but also "ungainly" so much so that he could not go unnoticed. What the Capuchin brothers of the Venetian Province wrote in the year 1923 is eloquent. The description - which we find in the Annals of the Venetian Capuchins - is merciless: "...in teaching and preaching he fails, being a strong stutterer, of weak constitution and dwarf...". Then, however, it must be admitted: "In confession, however, he exercises an extraordinary charm and this is due to his strong culture, his fine intuition and especially his sanctity of life...".
(Annals of the Venetian Capuchins, year 1923, p. 650)

A person, therefore, who not only could not go unnoticed but who aroused hilarity, mockery, and ridicule. The university students, regular customers of Caffè Pedrotti, were the first to stand out in this unworthy uproar. Everything contributed to this derision: his short stature - only one meter and thirty-five -, the strong stutter which created embarrassment in him and in those who listened to him... At a certain moment there was also the deforming arthritis which made walking difficult for him.

Now, precisely this imbalance existing between the physical - object of derision - and the ministry of confessor - linked to an unprecedented abundance of divine grace - tells us how God loves to use those who are judged useless or even ridiculous in the eyes of the world to accomplish the greatest work, the salvation of men. Yet the humble friar had a fiery soul and used to turn to the Lord, asking forgiveness for his sins, with the same words of Saint Jerome: "Have mercy on me Lord, I am Dalmatian".

Only when he became known for his ministry of welcoming sinners did derision, ridicule and mockery give way to respect, deference and, indeed, true veneration. For his part, the little friar used to say of himself: "I am truly a worthless man, even a ridiculous one." God really uses insignificant and despised people to confuse the educated, the powerful. Here we have a clear manifestation of the words of the prophet Isaiah: ". . . my thoughts are not your thoughts, your ways are not my ways. Oracle of the Lord. As much as the sky is above the earth, so much are my ways above your ways, and my thoughts are above your thoughts. In fact, just as the rain and the snow come down from the sky and do not return there without having irrigated the earth, without having fertilized it and made it sprout, so that it gives seed to those who sow and bread to those who eat, so will it be with my word that comes out of my mouth".

(Is 55, 8-11). On the other hand, forgiveness is something that only God can give; in fact, only He can forgive sins. For this reason Jesus wanted to place in his prayer, the Our Father, the request for forgiveness understood as a gift that comes from the Father who is in heaven and which man is never able to give if he has not first received it as, precisely, grace.

If - as is ordinarily true - gratia supponit naturam, it is also true that, sometimes, God - as in the life of the apostle Paul - decides to subvert this relationship to manifest, beyond any doubt, the full gratuitousness of forgiveness and his tenderness towards sinful man, in whatever situation he finds himself.

Thus, Father Leopoldo - with his awkward physique and his awkward speech - eloquently shows a fruitfulness and power that tell us how God - and only He - made himself present and acted in the words and gestures of the humble Capuchin friar. Saint Leopold, in this Jubilee Year of Mercy, was shown to us by Pope Francis as a wonderful example of the confessor; in him we see how grace is drawn directly from the Cross of Christ, from his blood, and not from men and their resources.

The little Dalmatian friar reminds us, therefore, that only God is the creator of the conversion of souls and that every soul, in whatever situation it finds itself in, belongs only and exclusively to the Crucifix.

Like other great ministers of the sacrament of reconciliation, Father Leopoldo reminds us that, in this sacrament, everything comes from God and that confession is something different from psychological accompaniment or the pedagogical path. The sacrament of confession must not be reduced to human words and gestures that empty, to the point of nullifying, the sacrament of the grace and blood of Christ; in fact, in the sacrament of reconciliation, everything happens in the love of God which is expressed fully in the cross of Christ and in his shed blood. Losing sight of all this means losing the meaning of the sacrament of penance/reconciliation, falling into a purely human practice.

Here I would like to recall two other great figures of confessors - ministers of Divine Mercy - who, like Saint Leopold, spent much of their lives in the confessional. I am referring to Saint Pio of Pietrelcina and Saint John Maria Vianney, the holy curate of Ars. They, like Father Leopoldo, truly made the ministry of confession the center of their priesthood and even went so far as to stay in the confessional, continuously, for fifteen to eighteen hours a day.

Father Leopoldo - as a confessor - was wrongly considered by his brothers to have excessively large sleeves; they accused him of forgiving everyone without having requested the necessary repentance, he was considered too lenient in reaching out to sinners and seemed to be too condescending; this rumor - as often happens - spread above all due to the incessant action of those who were not benevolent towards him.

But this is not true. In him, in reality, there was a demanding and theologically impeccable conception of mercy except that, as happens in the true ministers of the sacrament of reconciliation and unlike those who have not penetrated the profound reality of this ministry, it was he - the confessor - who often he took the place of the penitent and took upon himself the burden of mortifications that his penitents were not yet capable of performing.

Yes, speaking too easily about forgiveness means having lost the meaning of sin. This, however, was not the case of Leopoldo Mandic who "body and soul" had given himself to experiencing the dramatic reality of the sacrament of forgiveness. Nights of suffering were not uncommon in which the humble little friar relived the hours spent by Jesus in the Garden of Olives. And it is significant that only the word of his confessor - in the sacrament - gave him tranquility and restored him to peace.

Let us not forget, however, the way in which Father Leopoldo treated those who - out of opportunity, habit or even to test him - went to his confessional without pain or desire for conversion.

One day, after having tried them all with a particularly irritating penitent who obstinately defended his sins and responded with irony and derision to the friar's words, he suddenly jumped up and exclaimed in a loud voice: “Go away! go away! You take the side of God's cursed ones!”. Faced with that completely unexpected reaction from the gentle little friar, the man threw himself on the ground crying and asking for forgiveness. Then Father Leopoldo, promptly lifting him up with affection and tenderness, said to him: "See, now you are my brother again".

Other times he came out of his cell / confessional and directed himself, with decision, towards a person and led him directly into the confessional, thus helping those who alone would not have had the strength to take the last step towards God's forgiveness.

May Saint Leopold help us, in this Year of Mercy, to rediscover the meaning of sin and forgiveness and to feel, in ourselves and in our communities, the beauty and joy of a life truly reconciled in the love of God.

Holy Mass in the Novena on the occasion of the feast of St. Leopoldo Mandic
(Padua - Sanctuary of S. Leopoldo Mandic, 11 May 2016).