A Call to Action

8. It was then, Venerable Brethren, that foreseeing a dark future full of peril for our country We thought the moment had come for Us to raise Our voice and say to Italians: Religion and Society are in danger; it is time to unfold all your activity and to meet the evils which threaten you with a solid opposition of word and work, by associations and committees, in the press and at public congresses, by confraternities for mutual charity and prayer,-in a word, by every peaceful and lawful means which was calculated to maintain a people's religious spirit and relieve the misery which, ever an evil counsellor, had become so deep and general through the shameful economic ,condition of Italy. Such were Our recommendations, several times repeated, and particularly in the two letters which We addressed to the Italian people on October 15, 1890, and on December 8,1892.