After promoting the Pope, priest, mass, and church of Rome, Don wrote this:

Who Was Saint Charles Borromeo?

Last month I reported on the visit Mary and I made to St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Coldwater, Michigan. Who was this person who is this parish’s namesake? A check of some Catholic Web sites yields this information:

Cardinal Borromeo (1538-1584) was Archbishop of Milan, Italy and Papal Secretary of State under Pius IV and was one of the chief leaders of the Catholic Counter-Reformation.

“Saint Charles spent his life and fortune in the service of the people of his diocese. He directed and fervently enforced the decrees of the Council of Trent, fought tirelessly for peace in the wake of the storm caused by Martin Luther, founded schools for the poor, seminaries for clerics, hospitals for the sick, conducted synods, instituted children’s Sunday school, did great public and private penance, and worked among the sick and dying, leading his people by example.

“He was one of the towering figures of the Catholic Reformation, a patron of learning and the arts, and though he achieved a position of great power, he used it with humility, personal sanctity, and unselfishness to reform the Church of the evils and abuses so prevalent among the clergy and the nobles of the times.”

The Church beatified him in 1602 and canonized him in 1610. His feast day is November 4.

Who cares? Wouldn’t this be like calling our church “Christopher Sauer Church” (after an early leader of the Brethren movement known for publishing the Bible in America)?

The names we put on our churches are one thing—I do think they should have some kind of contemporary and community relevance. Great people of church history are something else. They should be of interest to us so we might (1) know more about our past, (2) find people of good character or significant ministry to emulate, (3) learn from people’s mistakes, and much more.