There once was a very good leader of the people. Oh, he wasn’t perfect and would be among the first to say so. He cared about seeing that poor people received health care. He cared about the environment. He was a leader unlike any previously seen before.

When he left office, another took his place. This person had other thoughts in mind. He discontinued giving a damn about the poor, he abused his authority, and he “relaxed” protocol to the point that it threatened the very Constitution. He “applied money to his own private use” and in general lived a flagrant, ostentatious, and self-indulgent existence. He gathered around him a cadre of people who became essentially pigs eating at the trough, and they threw their unquestioning allegiance to him–abandoning any pretense of morality in the process, all the while proclaiming themselves “good Christians.” Even those with qualms did not scruple to speak against the Leader because they both liked the perks and sincerely feared his displeasure. The paltry few who were once close to this man and who dared to speak publicly against him “were loaded with injuries and ill treatment” and found themselves in virtual exile, declared traitors by the obsequious generals and yes-men that surrounded the leader.

Yup. History has a way of repeating itself. The above is the eyewitness account of what happened when St. Francis of Assisi died and the Franciscan Order was taken over by a man named Elias. And Elias’s graft, greed, self-indulgence, and corruption threatened to undo the very constitution of the Order. Elias gathered toadies who would “speak” for him and assert that everything that Elias said and did was righteous, and that anyone who disagreed was a traitor. Today’s saint, Anthony of Padua, is still remembered as one Franciscan who dared to speak out against Elias, and Anthony was, unsurprisingly, treated very badly indeed on this account.

Fortunately–for Anthony, but more importantly for the poor (in fact, we’d not have a Pope “Francis” today if Elias had successfully destroyed the Franciscan Order!)–the one with the power to put an end to Elias’s abuses acted! The Pope, in this case, deposed (kind of an impeachment and conviction of) Elias, instead of turning a blind eye to his actions and allowing these abuses to continue.

Here is what is worth remembering: The names of all those piggish toadies? They are not remembered. Elias is remembered only for the wretch that he was. And brave Anthony who persevered in speaking up regarding the truth, no matter the cost? He is remembered centuries later, and on an annual basis. Because he spoke up, countless people’s lives have been and still today are being helped by the Franciscans, and the Pontiff himself speaks of climate change as a moral issue disproportionately affecting the poor. Please, if you read nothing else, read Pope Francis’s encyclical on climate change and our moral duties, Laudato Si’, and note how prominently Francis of Assisi figures. And think about how VITAL it was that Anthony of Padua refused to remain silent in the face of Elias’s actions.