Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Happy Feast Day to me!

I almost forgot. Today is the feast of the Catholic saint Francis de Sales, who was also named the patron saint of journalists.

A priest during the late 16th and early 17th century, Francis set out to evangelize the people of Switzerland. After running to resistance when he knocked on doors, he started writing out pamphlets and slipping them under the doors -- the first religious tracts! He was later named bishop of Geneva, where Francis encouraged spiritual devotion and holiness in everyday working people.

The feast was mentioned in a special message from Pope Benedict XVI with some strong word for those of us in the media industry: "I appeal to the leaders of the media industry to educate and encourage producers to safeguard the common good, to uphold the truth, to protect individual human dignity and promote respect for the needs of the family."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

A good book by St. Francis de Sales is "An Introduction to the Devout Life." Many pages, and challenging to apply to everyday life, but will do you good to read it.