69. A sign and a sensible proof of the divine aid and favour We already see and taste in your helpfulness and co-operation, Venerable Brethren. If We have been well informed, it has been said recently that Catholic Action is now in the hands of the Bishops, and that there is nothing more to fear. And up to this point the statement is good, very good, except for that phrase "nothing more," which seems to imply that hitherto then was indeed something to fear, and except also that word "now," as if before and from the beginning Catholic Action was not always essentially diocesan and dependent on the Bishops (as We have above pointed out); and also for this, principally for this, We have always nourished the most certain confidence that Our directions were observed. For this reason, next to the promised unfailing divine assistance, We remain, and We shall remain, in the most serene confidence, even if tribulation - let Us rather say the exact word - even if persecution shall continue and intensify. We know that you are and you know yourselves that you are, our Brethren in the episcopate and in the apostolate. We know, and you know, too, Venerable Brethren, that you are the successor of those Apostles whom St. Paul called with words of towering sublimity, the "Glory of Christ" (II Corinthians VIII, 23.) You know that no mortal man, such as the head of a State or of a Government, but the Holy Ghost Himself has set you in the places which Peter has assigned to you to rule in the Church of God. These and so many other holy and sublime things that concern you, Venerable Brethren, are evidently ignored or forgotten by him who thinks of you and calls you, Bishops of Italy, "the officials of the State," from which the very formula of the oath which it is necessary for you to make to the Sovereign clearly distinguishes and separates you, for the oath especially states: "as is proper for a Catholic Bishop."