+ I confess aloud for my salvation everything that Catholics have always rightly believed in their hearts. I abominate Luther, I hate Calvin, I curse all heretics; I don't want to have anything in common with them, because they neither speak nor hear aright, and they do not possess the only rule of true Faith proposed to us by the only one, santa, Catholic, apostolic and Roman Church. Instead, I join in communion, I embrace faith, I follow religion and approve the doctrine of those who listen to and follow Christ, not only when he teaches in the Scriptures but also when he judges at the mouth of the Ecumenical Councils and defines at the mouth of the Chair of Peter, testifying it with the authority of the Fathers. I also profess myself a son of that Roman Church which the impious blasphemers despise, they persecute and abominate as if it were anti-Christian; I do not depart from his authority at any point, nor do I refuse to give my life and shed my blood in its defense, and I believe that the merits of Christ can procure my salvation or the salvation of others only in the unity of this same Church. I profess with frankness, with Saint Jerome, to be united with those who are united to the Chair of Peter and I protest, with Saint Ambrose, to follow in everything that Roman Church which I respectfully recognize, with Saint Cyprian, as the root and mother of the universal Church. I rely on this Faith and doctrine that I learned as a child, as a young man I confirmed, as an adult I have taught and that so far, with my weak power, I defended. There is no other reason that drives me to make this profession other than the glory and honor of God, awareness of the truth, the authority of the canonical Holy Scriptures, the sentiment and consensus of the Fathers of the Church, the testimony of the Faith that I must give to my brothers and finally the eternal salvation that I await in Heaven and the bliss promised to the true faithful. If it happens that because of this profession of mine I am despised, mistreated and persecuted, I will consider it as an extraordinary grace and favor, because that will mean that you, my God, you give me the opportunity to suffer for justice and because you don't want those people to be benevolent to me, as open enemies of the Church and of Catholic truth, they cannot be your friends. However, forgive them, Gentleman, so long as, or because they were instigated by the devil and blinded by the glimmer of a false doctrine, they don't know what they are doing, or they don't want to know. Grant me this grace anyway, that in life and in death I always bear an authoritative testimony of the sincerity and loyalty that I owe to you, to the Church and to the truth, may I never distance myself from your holy love and may I be in communion with those who fear you and who guard your precepts in the holy Roman Church, to whose judgment I submit myself and all my works with a prompt and respectful soul. All the saints who, either triumphant in Heaven or militant on earth, they are inextricably united with the bond of peace in the Catholic Church, may they exalt your immense goodness and pray for me. You are the beginning and the end of all my goods; Praise be to you in all respects, everlasting honor and glory. So be it. +
[27 April. San Pietro Canisio, Priest of the Society of Jesus, Confessor and Doctor of the Church, which passed to the Lord on the twenty-first of December].