He climbed the netting behind the catcher and preached

EL LLANO, Michoacán, October 1911 AD — Miguel Pro, whom the Church beatified in 1988 AD as Blessed Miguel Pro, was training to be a Jesuit in Mexico. He had been at El Llano for two months.

El Llano was a low house built around open courtyards, with a cross over its doorway. It was about twelve hours by train from Mexico City. Miguel was twenty. He was the eldest son of a mine owner, and until that August he had run the office of his father’s mines.

The Jesuits he swore he’d never forgive

In August 1910 AD, Miguel’s sister María Luz went into the convent of the Oasis at Aguascalientes. Six months later his eldest sister followed her. Both had kept their plan to become nuns a secret, and their parents did nothing to stop them. Miguel was furious. His sisters’ spiritual directors were Jesuits, so he blamed the Jesuits and swore he would never forgive them.

Then one day Miguel walked into a church where a priest was preaching on the Passion. He heard the priest ask: “Todo esto hizo y sufrió Jesucristo por nosotros, y nosotros ¿qué hacemos por Jesucristo?” (Jesus Christ did and suffered all this for us, and what are we doing for Jesus Christ?) Miguel began to wonder what he had done for Jesus Christ, and he decided to follow Him. He wrote to the priest in charge of the Jesuits in Mexico and asked to be let in. He didn’t say that his parents knew nothing about it.

Three Jesuits at Saltillo, the northern city where the family lived, questioned him. They had no doubt he should be a Jesuit, but all three said he needed his parents’ permission. A civil war was spreading, with Mexicans fighting Mexicans. Miguel couldn’t face telling his parents he was leaving just when they needed him most.

Soon afterwards he fell ill with a very high fever. His parents sat by his bed day and night, and in the fever he let the secret out. The news hurt them deeply. Later they gladly gave their permission. In August 1911 AD he arrived at El Llano.

A sermon from the top of the netting

According to longstanding Catholic Tradition, the novices were playing baseball on a holiday that October. Miguel was waiting his turn at bat and couldn’t stand still. He climbed the wire netting behind the catcher and began to speak to the other novices from the top. They laughed and urged him on, so he kept going. The game stopped, and every novice gathered at the foot of the netting to listen.

The novice master happened to walk past just as Miguel finished, and he asked what was going on. One of the novices told him: “Miguel has just been treating us to a sermon.” The novice master answered: “Splendid. Sorry I missed it. Miguel will no doubt favor me with a repetition.” Miguel was flustered. He had to start again from the beginning.

The novice master, Father Manuel Santiago, was the first to laugh at Miguel’s jokes. But he never missed a chance to test Miguel, and he scolded him sharply for the smallest faults. Being made to look small never surprised Miguel or got him down. He often gave the reason: “Ya he hecho el sacrificio de mi honra a Dios al entrar en la Compañía” (I already made the sacrifice of my honour to God when I entered the Society of Jesus).