When the 10th Bishop of Providence assumes his title next week, not only the traditional letters “D.D.” will follow his name but also the letters “CSsR” will be observed as part of his title. Bishop Lewandowski is a member of the Redemptorist Fathers, a religious congregation established by St. Alphonsus Liguori in 1732, to minister to the needs of rural families in the hills surrounding Naples in southern Italy.
St. Alphonsus Mary Liguori (1696-1787) was born near Naples, the eldest of seven children of Giuseppe and Anna (Cavalieri) Liguori. His family, although of noble lineage, was in humble circumstances. Although always plagued with ill health, he graduated at 16 from the University of Naples with doctorates in civil and canon law. He shortly joined the lay Confraternity of Our Lady of Mercy assisting with the care of the sick at area hospitals. Although he had a successful law career, after eight years he felt called to the priesthood. He was ordained on December 21, 1726, at the age of 30. He served his first years as a priest serving the homeless and the marginalized youth of Naples. His plain and simple preaching made him very popular. He said: “I have never preached a sermon which the poorest old woman in the congregation could not understand”.
There are pious accounts that in 1731, while he was ministering to earthquake victims in the town of Foggia, St. Alphonsus had a vision of the Virgin Mary as a young girl wearing a white veil. With the reported encouragement of a religious nun and mystic who had a vision of St. Alphonsus and St. Francis of Assisi appearing together, the saint founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer on November 9, 1732. He intended the congregation for the preaching of popular missions in the city and the countryside, especially in urban slums and poor villages.
In spite of age and infirmities, St. Alphonsus was consecrated Bishop of Sant’Agatha dei Goti in Campania in southern Italy in 1762. He first addressed ecclesiastical abuses in the diocese, reformed the seminary and spiritually rehabilitated the clergy and faithful. He suspended those priests who celebrated Mass in less than 15 minutes and sold his carriage and episcopal ring to give the money to the poor. St. Alphonsus, like St. John Baptist de LaSalle, sadly experienced some bitter confrontations within this own Redemptorist community. By 1775, St. Alphonus was “so deaf, blind, and laden with so many infirmities, that he has no longer even the appearance of a man.” His resignation was accepted by the recently elected Pope Pius VI. He died, aged 91, on August 1, 1787, in Pagani, Italy at a Redemptorist community.
Among St. Alphonsus’ great contributions to the Catholic Church were his insights on moral theology. His thinking reflected his pastoral experience, his ability to respond to the practical questions posed by the faithful and his contact with their everyday problems. He opposed rigid legalism and strict rigorism: “Such rigor has never been taught nor practiced by the Church.” His moral theology reflects prudence, a balance between the strictness of the puritanical Jansenists and the liberal opinions of the Jesuits. He believed that “penitents should be treated as souls to be saved rather than as criminals to be punished.” He is said never to have refused absolution to a penitent. St. Alphonsus taught that moral controversies should be resolved by a proposal later called “equiprobabilism” which simply states that if there is doubt about the meaning of a law, the freedom of the person takes precedence. A strong defender of Roman Catholicism, St. Alphonsus said, “If the divine teaching authority of the Church and obedience to it are rejected, every error will be endorsed and will be tolerated.” The present day world should take note!
The saint also wrote sermons, books, and articles promoting devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. His Mariology, mainly pastoral in nature, represented an intellectual defense of devotion to Mary against the rationalism of the 18th century. In all, Liguori wrote 111 works on spirituality and theology, translated into 72 languages. He is certainly one of the most widely read and studied Catholic authors.
St. Alphonsus Ligouri was beatified in 1816 by Pius VII and canonized in 1839 by Gregory XVI. He received the title “Prince of Moral Theologians” by Papal decree in 1831, a title which allows confessors to follow St. Alphonsus’ moral opinions without personally re-examining the reasons on which they were based. As well as mentioning him in the encyclical Haurietis Aquas, in 1950 Pope Pius XII named him the patron saint of confessors and moral theologians.
