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Letter of the Holy Father Francis to Fr. Gerard
Francisco Timoner, O.P., Master General of the
Order of Preachers, for the eighth Centenary of
the death of Saint Dominic of Caleruega,
24.05.2021
The following is the letter sent by the Holy
Father Francis to Fr. Gerard Francisco Timoner,
O.P., Master General of the Order of Preachers,
for the eighth centenary of the death of Saint
Dominic of Caleruega:
Letter of the Holy Father
To Brother Gerard Francisco Timoner, O.P.,
Master General of the Order of Preachers
Praedicator Gratiae: among the titles attributed
to Saint Dominic, that of “Preacher of Grace”
stands out for its consonance with the charism
and mission of the Order he founded. In this
year that marks the eight hundredth anniversary
of Saint Dominic’s death, I gladly join the
Friars Preachers in giving thanks for the
spiritual fruitfulness of that charism and
mission, seen in the rich variety of the
Dominican family as it has grown over the
centuries. My prayerful greetings and good
wishes go to all the members of that great
family, which embraces the contemplative lives
and apostolic works of its nuns and religious
sisters, its priestly and lay fraternities, its
secular institutes and its youth movements.
In the Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete et
Exsultate I expressed my conviction that “each
saint is a mission, planned by the Father to
reflect and embody, at a specific moment in
history, a certain aspect of the Gospel” (No.
19). Dominic responded to the urgent need of his
time not only for a renewed and vibrant
preaching of the Gospel, but, equally important,
for a convincing witness to its summons to
holiness in the living communion of the Church.
In the spirit of all true reform, he sought a
return to the poverty and simplicity of the
earliest Christian community, gathered around
the apostles and faithful to their teaching (cf.
Acts 2:42). At the same time, his zeal for the
salvation of souls led him to form a corps of
committed preachers whose love of the sacred
page and integrity of life could enlighten minds
and warm hearts with the life-giving truth of
the divine word.
In our own age, characterized by epochal changes
and new challenges to the Church’s evangelizing
mission, Dominic can thus serve as an
inspiration to all the baptized, who are called,
as missionary disciples, to reach every
“periphery” of our world with the light of the
Gospel and the merciful love of Christ. In
speaking of the perennial timeliness of Saint
Dominic’s vision and charism, Pope Benedict XVI
reminded us that “in the heart of the Church, a
missionary fire must always burn” (Audience of 3
February 2010).
Dominic’s great call was to preach the Gospel of
God’s merciful love in all its saving truth and
redemptive power. As a student in Palencia, he
came to appreciate the inseparability of faith
and charity, truth and love, integrity and
compassion. As Blessed Jordan of Saxony tells
us, touched by the great numbers who were
suffering and dying during a severe famine,
Dominic sold his precious books and, with
exemplary kindness established a center for
almsgiving where the poor could be fed
(Libellus, 10). His witness to the mercy of
Christ and his desire to bring its healing balm
to those experiencing material and spiritual
poverty was to inspire the foundation of your
Order and shape the life and apostolate of
countless Dominicans in varied times and places.
The unity of truth and charity found perhaps its
finest expression in the Dominican school of
Salamanca, and particularly in the work of Friar
Francisco de Vitoria, who proposed a framework
of international law grounded in universal human
rights. This in turn provided the philosophical
and theological foundation for the heroic
efforts of Friars Antonio Montesinos and
Bartolomé de Las Casas in the Americas, and
Domingo de Salazar in Asia to defend the dignity
and rights of the native peoples.
The Gospel message of our inalienable human
dignity as children of God and members of the
one human family challenges the Church in our
own day to strengthen the bonds of social
friendship, to overcome unjust economic and
political structures, and to work for the
integral development of every individual and
people. Faithful to the Lord’s will, and
prompted by the Holy Spirit, Christ’s followers
are called to cooperate in every effort “to give
birth to a new world, where all of us are
brothers and sisters, where there is room for
all those whom our societies discard, where
justice and peace are resplendent” (Fratelli
Tutti, 278). May the Order of Preachers, now as
then, be in the forefront of a renewed
proclamation of the Gospel, one that can speak
to the hearts of the men and women of our time
and awaken in them a thirst for the coming of
Christ’s kingdom of holiness, justice and peace!
Saint Dominic’s zeal for the Gospel and his
desire for a genuinely apostolic life led him to
stress the importance of life in common. Again,
Blessed Jordan of Saxony tells us that, in
founding your Order, Dominic significantly chose
“to be called, not sub-prior, but Brother
Dominic” (Libellus, 21). This ideal of
fraternity was to find expression in an
inclusive form of governance, in which all
shared in the process of discernment and
decision-making, in accordance with their
respective roles and authority, through the
system of chapters at all levels. This “synodal”
process enabled the Order to adapt its life and
mission to changing historical contexts while
maintaining fraternal communion. The witness of
evangelical fraternity, as a prophetic testimony
to God’s ultimate plan in Christ for the
reconciliation and unity of the entire human
family, remains a fundamental element of the
Dominican charism and a pillar of the Order’s
effort to promote the renewal of Christian life
and the spread of the Gospel in our own time.
Together with Saint Francis of Assisi, Dominic
understood that the proclamation of the Gospel,
verbis et exemplo, entailed the building up of
the entire ecclesial community in fraternal
unity and missionary discipleship. The Dominican
charism of preaching overflowed early into the
establishment of the varied branches of the
larger Dominican family, embracing all the
states of life in the Church. In succeeding
centuries, it found eloquent expression in the
writings of Saint Catherine of Siena, the
paintings of Blessed Fra Angelico and the
charitable works of Saint Rose of Lima, Blessed
John Macias and Saint Margaret of Castello. So
too, in our own time it continues to inspire the
work of artists, scholars, teachers and
communicators. In this anniversary year, we
cannot fail to remember those members of the
Dominican family whose martyrdom was itself a
powerful form of preaching. Or the countless men
and women who, imitating the simplicity and
compassion of Saint Martin de Porres, have
brought the joy of the Gospel to the peripheries
of societies and our world. Here I think in
particular of the quiet witness given by the
many thousands of Dominican tertiaries and
members of the Dominican Youth Movement, who
reflect the important and indeed indispensable
role of the laity in the work of evangelization.
On the Jubilee of the birth of Saint Dominic
into eternal life, I would like in a particular
way to express gratitude to the Friars Preachers
for the outstanding contribution they have made
to the preaching of the Gospel through the
theological exploration of the mysteries of the
faith. By sending the first friars to the
emerging universities in Europe, Dominic
acknowledged the vital importance of providing
future preachers with a sound and solid
theological formation based on sacred Scripture,
respectful of the questions posed by reason, and
prepared to engage in disciplined and respectful
dialogue in the service of God’s revelation in
Christ. The Order’s intellectual apostolate, its
numerous schools and institutes of higher
learning, its cultivation of the sacred sciences
and its presence in the world of culture have
stimulated the encounter between faith and
reason, nurtured the vitality of the Christian
faith and advanced the Church’s mission of
drawing minds and hearts to Christ. In this
regard too, I can only renew my gratitude for
the Order’s history of service to the Apostolic
See, which dates back to Dominic himself.
During my visit to Bologna five years ago, I was
blessed to spend some moments in prayer before
the tomb of Saint Dominic. I prayed in a special
way for the Order of Preachers, imploring for
its members the grace of perseverance in
fidelity to their founding charism and to the
splendid tradition of which they are heirs. In
thanking the Saint for all the good that his
sons and daughters accomplish in the Church, I
asked, as a particular gift, for a considerable
increase of priestly and religious vocations.
May the celebration of the Jubilee Year shower
an abundance of graces upon the Friars Preachers
and the entire Dominican family, and usher in a
new springtime of the Gospel. With great
affection, I commend all taking part in the
Jubilee celebrations to the loving intercession
of Our Lady of the Rosary and your patriarch
Saint Dominic, and cordially impart my Apostolic
Blessing as a pledge of wisdom, joy and peace in
the Lord.
FRANCIS
Rome, from Saint John Lateran, 24 May 2021
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