Gregory the Great

School was over. José hurried home as fast as he could. He had such good news to tell! The teacher had told the children all about the new pope. What a man he was! His name was Gregory. The teacher had told so many nice things about him, and now José wanted to tell it all to his parents.

“José, come on!” He looked back. A few friends came running after him. “Come on! We are going to play at the harbor!”

José shook his head. “Not now,” he said. He knew that his mother wanted him to run an errand after school. No, he could not forget that. Otherwise he would be punished!

He walked through the streets of the big city. Rome was a nice city. Oh, yes! The Vandals had ruined the city, but that was long ago. Everything had been rebuilt. After that, the Lombards came and destroyed many churches and monasteries, but the new pope had made peace with them. That was nice. Now they could live quietly again in their beautiful city. Oh, yes, that new pope!

José’s eyes were shining. The new pope Gregory had been a monk himself. Not that long ago a terrible pestilence had raged in Rome. When José thought about those days, his eyes stopped shining. So many people had died of that awful sickness, also his own little brother. That poor boy. Oh, José had been so afraid that he would also have to die.

Gregory and his monks had made a long procession through the city to pray to the Lord to stop the sickness. They had also helped the sick people. After the pestilence was past, the people in Rome had wanted Gregory to be the pope. First he had refused. He even fled away, but they had found him. The people had compelled him to be the pope.

Now the teacher had told them that he was going to form a singing class. Gregory had said that the singing in the churches was bad. He asked the teachers to form classes to improve the singing. José wanted to go to this singing class. Maybe, in the future, they could even sing together in the church with all the people.

Wouldn’t that be nice? Gregory himself had even composed several hymns. Maybe they were going to learn to sing those hymns too.

These were all the nice things José wanted to tell his parents. No wonder he talked nonstop when they had supper that night. His parents looked at each other and smiled. How happy their son was! Since the passing away of his little brother, they had never seen him so happy.

Father had also heard all the things about the new pope. “Do you know what they call him?” he asked José. “They call him Gregory the Great.”

Father had also heard all the things about the new pope. “Do you know what they call him?” he asked José. “They call him Gregory the Great.”

“He is doing a lot of other good things too,” said Father. “All the monks who do not live a decent life or do not obey the church have to leave the monasteries. The monks are required to work now, helping sick people and copying old books, and they are not allowed to beg anymore. The new pope has been a monk himself, so he knows what was going on in those monasteries.”

Ah, wasn’t he great, their new pope, Gregory the Great!

The years passed by. José no longer went to school. Now he was helping his father in the shop. He liked that. His father was a kind man; he was always cheerful and liked to help other people.

But lately José felt his father was different. Often he had a frown on his face, and sometimes, when he forgot José was there, he sighed deeply. Especially when people came in the shop and talked about the pope, about Gregory the Great, his father became very quiet. After the people left, José would see that frown coming on his father’s face again. What was his father thinking?

One day he understood it a little better. He heard a conversation between his father and a customer.

“Do you pray for your little boy?”

“My little boy is dead for many years already.”

“That’s why you have to pray for him. The pope says that he is in purgatory all these years. Don’t you want to have your little boy in heaven? Must he suffer all those years in purgatory?”

“I do not believe in that.”

“No? But the pope has said it!”

“We did not hear of purgatory before, did we?”

José saw how the customer looked at his father with big frightened eyes.

“I pray every day for my mother. I don’t want her to stay in purgatory.”

“And what do you have to pay?”

“Oh, I pay a lot. But I don’t care.

The more I pay, the sooner she may go to heaven. Think about that,” the man warned his father.

He left the shop. Again José saw that frown on his father’s face, and he heard him sigh very deeply. José could not be quiet.

“Father, what is that... purgatory? Isn’t that true? Gregory the Great said it.”

“José, let’s sit down for a while and talk about it. Yes, the pope said it, but do we then have to believe it right away? I cannot believe it. Do you remember the story about the Lord Jesus on the cross? He told the one murderer that he would go to heaven immediately. No, he did not have to go to purgatory first. I am afraid that it is only an invention of the church to get money from the people. They have to pay a lot, as you heard. I am afraid, José. We were so happy with the new pope. In the beginning he did so many good things, but there are also things with which I do not agree. The churches are full of images. He likes that. And now they are praying for the dead.

“We loved your little brother very dearly, José, but we cannot pray for him anymore. We are to pray for the living ones. Every day I pray to the Lord for you. I hope He will spare you. You are my only son left. But I also pray that you may learn to serve the Lord in the right way. They call the pope Gregory the Great, but he does not deserve that name anymore. He did many good things on the outside, but now he is doing the church no good from the inside. The sad thing, José, is that almost everybody believes what the pope says.”

José had much to think about that night. They had been so happy with their new pope. He was such a holy man. Could he make such terrible mistakes?

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