Beginning Vatican Service
A few weeks thereafter, on the Feast of Corpus Christi, the young Priest Eugenio Pacelli gave his first major sermon, which he concluded with these words:
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- Christ accepts all the calumnies and accusations and asks only for our hearts, so He can lighten the fire of His love and spread His kingdom all over the earth. Today, let us replace ungratefulness with our love and thus warm up His heart. Today, we go to Jesus with humility and love, ashamed of our misery and unworthiness. Like the Blind, we near the fountain of eternal clarity".
Shortly afterwards, Pacelli was at home playing his favourite violin, when an unannounced visitor from the Vatican showed up. Monsignor Pietro Gasparri came, to ask for help in the Vatican bureaucracy. Pacelli was not impressed, telling Gaparri, "this is not why I became a priest” Pacelli wanted to work with real people, doing Parish work. “I understand”, replied Gasparri, “you want to be a Shepherd and I turn you into a sheep dog”. But there are many mansions. All service to the Church is pastoral. And he continued describing the important work in the State department of the Vatican. Eugenio Pacelli accepted and was introduced to Cardinal Mariano Rampolla, the Secretary of State and to Pope Leo XIII in 1901. This started a career, which ended with the death of Pope Pius XII, October 9, 1958.
Read more about this topic: Early Life Of Pope Pius XII
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