Friar Caetano de Messina sympathized with the people harassed by the lack of water and bread, without a worthy place to bury the dead. Making the Lord's words to the prophet Jonah his own, 4:11: And then shall I not have compassion on the great city of Nineveh, where more than one hundred and twenty thousand human beings do not know how to discern between their right hand and their left hand? In his missionary practice he was filled with compassion for the poorest, most needy and all those who did not have access to knowledge. In this regard, Frei Bento de Terrinca says: “Frei Caetano loved the people of the backlands with the guts of a mother because of the material and spiritual abandonment in which the people lived.”

The fruits of his actions multiplied. He built and repaired churches, drilled wells and reservoirs, looked after cemeteries, founded a Santa Casa de Misericórdia, planted trees in streets and squares, opened paths and paths. In a reinterpretation of this practice, especially the rebuilding of ruined Churches, we see a procedure of a Franciscan nature. But, in addition to this remote meaning, coming from Franciscan spirituality, it should be added that the construction workers of Frei Caetano de Messina were reconciled people, after having exchanged their weapons for a handshake. From this perspective, contemplating a Church built or rebuilt by the “Giant Missionary” is not the same thing as admiring a building designed with the most refined engineering.

We cannot, however, lose sight of another dimension, no less profound. In the remote Middle Ages, when Francisco, in 1205, prayed in the Little Church of São Damião: “Lord, what do you want me to do?” The Lord responds: Francisco, go and restore my Church which, as you see, is falling apart. He did not immediately understand the meaning of what he heard.

We also understand little. We are used to hearing, seeing and even helping to build and repair Churches. But who is this Church? An immediate answer is possible: it is us. Each human person, cared for, revitalized, revived, is the restoration of the little church of São Damião. Francisco, only later understood the Lord's request, and soon went out into the world to restore man in ruins. Frei Caetano, as his follower, followed the same path.

Source: MELO, Loreto. Fast as the wind, tireless as love. Sr. Loreto Melo, Sr. Mercês Tenório - Recife: Ed. Dos Autores, 2014.