St Cajetan

Cajetan was a lawyer from a rich family, who went to Rome to work for the Pope. He was alive during a difficult time in the Church; there were many priests who were living very sinful lives and this was really pulling people away from believing that the Catholic Church had the true teaching of Jesus. Cajetan saw all the wrong things that were happening in the Church and he wanted to do something to change things. He decided to become a priest, so that he could help change what was happening with the priests in the Catholic Church. He and a group of other good priests, formed an Oratory in his hometown, which means a club of priests that wanted to show God’s love to the people and bring the Church back to the true teachings of Jesus. This Oratory of priests worshipped God, preached and served those dying in the hospitals. Still, Cajetan saw so much sin in the Church, especially in the priests. He formed another group of priests that tried to live their lives by the example of the Apostles. They focused on being the best examples they could be to other priests, they preached the true gospel, and helped the poor and sick. They saw some priests come back to Jesus, but it was very hard to change these priests minds because they felt they were living good lives, doing whatever they wanted. Cajetan worked hard until he became too sick to work. He would sleep on wooden boards, instead of a bed as penance for those priests who were sinning. The doctors asked him to sleep on a bed, because he was so sick, but Cajetan said he wanted to sleep on the wooden boards, because Jesus had died on a cross and he wanted to die on wood too.