St Charles Borromeo: A Shepherd For All Times

Latin Rite, priest, ordination

The cardinal archbishop knelt while a sung motet soared through the evening air, lifting the congregation in prayer. It was the Autumn of 1569, and as usual, the chapel was full of an assortment of laity and clerics gathered for evening prayer, many crowded close to the archbishop. Some were keen to get a look at the controversial and renowned figure, his face showing the familiar frown of a man concentrating on praying, of pushing the world and its distractions aside.

Suddenly a pistol appeared in the crowd, pulled from under a cloak, and fired point-blank into the cardinal. The shot hit the kneeling figure, who fell to the ground amongst shouts and screams of panic. As gunpowder smoke rose silently up to the vaulting of the chapel, the would-be assassin made his escape, whilst his victim lay on the stone floor, sure the time had come for him to meet his death. The cardinal asked that the evening prayers continue, and prepared for his final moments on earth.

St Charles Borromeo

The figure who had been shot was St Charles Borromeo. As one of the leading reformers of the Church in an era of great confusion, violence, division, and corruption he naturally found himself open to attack, more often from the actions of a pen or the political maneuvers of rivals or enemies. This time it was violence. The pistol had been discharged by a cleric angered by reforms that his order had been forced to undergo.

Christendom Had Been Splintered

Christendom had been splintered by the Protestant Reformation, the beginnings of which are often dated to around 1517 and the actions of the German theologian Martin Luther. Within a few years, Europe was torn by rebellion, both literal and figurative, as new (and not so new) ideas spread and took hold, upending centuries of Christian tradition. Large parts of Northern Europe were lost to new Protestant groups, and at one point it looked like France and even parts of Italy might abandon the Catholic faith.

As with most historical events, the causes of the Reformation are numerous and hotly debated. Central to the earliest complaints of the reformers was a corruption of the clergy and of Church practices: priests living with women, indulgences being sold, masses said irreverently, bishops not residing in their diocese, the clergy generally living a worldly life. The list is extensive. Then the doctrinal challenge joined with the uprising against corruption by challenging key Catholic ideas such as the number of sacraments, or the reality of Christ’s presence under the appearance of bread and wine. The Reformation was no longer about discipline and morals, but about theology and the very essence of the Church. So widespread was the rebellion, that it was not, as they say, looking good.

There are a large number of saints canonized who hale from this time, those who led the remarkable fightback which righted the Church in her time of need, and showed that doctrinal integrity and the stamping out of abuses belonged together. Figures such as St John of the Cross, St Teresa of Avila, St Pius V, St Ignatius Loyola, St Robert Bellarmine, and St Philip Neri to name just a handful of them. They were saints whose roles in the Church differed, who came from different nations and backgrounds, but who lived their lives with such devotion that they were able to help tackle the problems tearing the Church apart. Born in 1538, Charles Borromeo was one of these saints.

Borromeo Rises

As part of the Catholic reforming movement, the Council of Trent had been called by Pope Paul III in 1545. In 1552 it broke up, and it was under Borromeo’s organisation that the Council finally reconvened for the final sessions ten years later in 1562. Borromeo was not even a priest at this point, never mind a bishop or a cardinal. Ordination to the priesthood and episcopate took place in 1563.

It is here that we can perceive one of the interesting ironies often seen in the reforming movements that genuinely improve the Church. We all hear lots about the corruption of the Renaissance papacy, about the Borgia’s and the Medici. Yet one of the features we often see about reform is that it comes from the direction of those who are, in the popular imagination considered as coming from areas of Church life steeped in corruption.

In Borromeo’s case, he owed his advancement to the nepotism that was often decried at the time and is still mentioned today as a criticism of the era. Borromeo’s uncle was a Medici, a Medici who became Pope Pius IV in 1559. It was Pius IV who brought the young Borromeo to Rome and gave him the not small task of running the Papal States. At the time Italy did not exist as a nation, the peninsula being split into city-states or ruled by other powers. The Papal States were the parts of Italy ruled directly by the pope and centered on Rome.

So hear was Borromeo in Rome at the request of his uncle. A young man suddenly entrusted with great power. With diplomatic skill that must have been impressive to behold, he brought the Council of Trent together for its final sessions, leading it to a successful conclusion. There were plenty of decrees emanating from the Council giving direction to the reform needed in the Church, but these decrees could only be implemented by bishops willing to do so. It seems only natural that Borromeo should lead the way here too.

Rejecting calls from his family to lead the life of a layman, he was soon ordained priest and bishop. Not long after that, he found himself appointed as the Archbishop of Milan. As mentioned earlier, one of the criticisms of the Church at the time was the problem of absentee bishops: bishops who rarely, if ever, visited their diocese, yet happily pocketed the income that came from them. It took Borromeo some time, but he finally managed to persuade the pope (keen to keep Borromeo close by as an advisor) to allow him to go to Milan.

In Milan, diocesan synod followed diocesan synod. These were not the endlessly over-prepared bureaucratic spectacles we now endure. They were short (a few days), to the point, and dealt with concrete issues rather than abstract concepts. Their conclusions were to the point as well. Reforming the life of the clergy in the diocese was the main thrust of much of the reform, and it is this that caused the attempted assassination of Borromeo, as a member of one order decided he preferred the easier, pre-Borromeo lifestyle to the stricter Tridentine approach.

It is often claimed that it was Borromeo who introduced the iconic confessional box. Whether this is true or not, the belief gives an interesting (especially looking back from our modern period) insight into the reforms that were taking place. The confessional was designed to protect the penitent. Some clergy were said to solicit favours from penitents in return for absolution, so a fixed grill obscured vision and gave some level of anonymity for the penitent as well as making physical contact impossible.

It is worth considering that the Counter-Reformation was not just about staving off theological error, but also about protecting the innocent flock who make up the vast majority of the Church. It was as pastoral a council as any other. This seems to be forgotten in much of the discourse about the controversies of the era, which view the actions of the main ‘players’ through the lens of politics. Make no mistake, politics is always there, and often dominant, but it is not the only ingredient in the mix of motivations that power the story of our history.

Unsurprisingly, there is far more to tell about the life of Borromeo than a short article like this can possibly do. For example, I have not addressed his ministry during the plague, or the importance he placed on education.

Implications Today

I hope that I have written enough for the reader to draw conclusions of their own about Borromeo, and maybe to consider the implications for the Church of today. I believe there are Borromeo’s alive today, but they may be difficult to spot. I often wish I could travel two hundred years into the future, not to see how the future looks, but to see how our era is viewed from a healthy distance. Who are the heroes? What would historians see as the themes of the time? I suspect it would be an eye-opener, and not necessarily in a good way. I hope it would show there were a few Borromeo’s around at the beginning of the 21st century, preparing the groundwork for genuine renewal against the seemingly undefeatable spirit of the age.

Borromeo himself survived the bullet of the assassin. The shot had largely failed to even force its way through his clothes, though a few pieces had cut his skin. Bruising remained for the rest of his life, until his death in 1584, at the age of 46. The Counter-Reformation was the Church’s response to the rebellion that had swept through Christendom. At the time, it looked to many like the Church had been dealt a mortal blow, just as Borromeo looked to have been felled by the bullet of an assassin. Yet neither the Church nor Borromeo were destroyed. Borromeo continued his reforming mission, his zeal helping to save the Church and prepare it for the work to come. His relatively swift canonization (in 1610), shows how his impact was viewed at the time. An impact which is still with us today.

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1 thought on “St Charles Borromeo: A Shepherd For All Times”

  1. Didn’t he torture people and burn people at the stake? Wasn’t his great innovation extracting confessions by putting people into the fire head first instead of feet first? I’m pretty sure I read that somewhere, from a reliable source.

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