1. EMIGRATION SEEN THROUGH THE EYES OF SCALABRINI

The sight of departing emigrants at the Milan railroad station and the pleas of his diocesan people emigrated to America challenge the apostolic heart of the Bishop of Piacenza.  Emigration is one of the most important and significant events of contemporary Italian life.  The numbers of people involved are enormous, and there is a permanency to the phenomenon because of inescapable financial needs.

A need presupposes a right, and this right cannot be denied by the State or by centers of power.  On the contrary, they must ensure freedom of emigration, but not the freedom "to make people emigrate" ‑- which brings about speculation and exploitation.

Emigrants, unaccompanied and unprotected, are exposed to "infinite evils, both material and moral" and become "an easy prey to speculation."  Abandoned to themselves, they risk losing their cultural and religious identity.

Instead, if emigration is well guided and assisted, it can become "an instrument of that divine Providence that presides over human destiny and, even through catastrophes, guides it toward the goal, which is the perfection of man on earth and the glory of God in heaven."  In the plan of divine Providence, in fact, emigration is destined to develop "the unity of all people of good will in God through Jesus Christ."