b) "RELIGION AND COUNTRY"

"A truly Christian and eminently patriotic work"

This does not exempt Italians from remembering that they have there brothers and sisters who belong to them in a special way and need their special help.  Abandoning them to their own devices would mean breaking in them every bond with their mother country and putting their faith and morality in great danger. 

Would it not be truly Christian and eminently patriotic to help break the shameful tradition of neglect inherited from the past and to improve the condition of our emigrants?⁹

"Our church, our school, our language"

Religion and Country!  These are the two great loves God has implanted in the heart of humanity, the motto written in glowing characters on the banners of civilized Christian nations.  In the shadow of this immortal banner our ancestors have fought and conquered.  In the shadow of this banner people joyfully raise their heads, resentments vanish, divisions disappear, hands are shaken in brotherhood, families find peace, and nations flourish.

Religion and Country!  Gentlemen, let us rally around this noble ideal which, as it were, takes shape and form in this saving work on behalf of our emigrants.  Then we will have reason to hope that a brighter future will dawn on our beloved Italy and that, in the not-too-distant future, God's plans for her will be fulfilled.

One more word and I shall conclude.  Not long ago, tremendous efforts were made in the United States to Americanize, if I may use this word, the emigrants from the various countries of Europe. 

Religion and Country deplored the loss of millions of her children.  Only one group of people had the courage to resist that violent attempt to assimilate them, the one that had this motto on its flag: "Our Church, our School, our Language."

We must not forget this piece of history.  Each of us, according to his abilities, must see to it that all Italians abroad may share the same mind, the same determination, the same courage on behalf of Religion and Country.¹⁰

"Two supreme aspirations of every noble soul"

Religion and Country!  These two supreme aspirations of every noble soul are intertwined.  They complement each other in this labor of love, which is the protection of the defenseless.  They unite in a wonderful symphony. The ignominious barriers created by hatred and resentment will disappear; arms will open out in a fraternal embrace; hands will shake in a warm sign of love; lips will

open to smile and kiss; and, with all class and party differences eliminated, we will understand in all its Christian splendor the meaning of the aphorism: homo homini frater (man is a brother to man).

May these words of mine be an inspiration for noble works to the glory of God and his Church, for the good of souls, the honor of our country, and the welfare of the poor and the unfortunate.  May Italy, sincerely reconciled with the Holy See, emulate its ancient glories and add another imperishable glory, that of having set her distant sons and daughters on the bright paths of civilization and progress.¹¹

"An idea, so simple, yet so beautiful"

We are not dreaming.  Here is my idea, as innocent and naked as the truth.  It is so simple, yet so beautiful, that it doesn't need any rhetorical frills to be offered to people of good will.

The young seminarians who every year have to do military service in Italy are about one hundred.  Now, what harm would it do our Army if the seminarians who wanted to enroll among the missionaries for the Italians in America were exempted from the draft?  Would it really be an exception to the equality of all citizens in the matter of military service if young Italians aspiring to the priesthood, instead of three boring years in the barracks, were to spend five years in the Americas at the service of our fellow citizens, helping in their religious and moral redemption, as soldiers at once of Church and State?  With the fresh enthusiasm of their youth, with a zeal that brooks no obstacles, with the energy of 20-year-olds who feel no fatigue, what heroic apostles we would have! what indefatigable teachers! what harmony in the two loves of religion and country in those young hearts, who, as they step out for the first time into public life, would experience the beneficent hand of their country!  How grateful they would be that they had not been taken from their studies and condemned to three long years of crude ‑- yet inevitable ‑- experiences of barrack life, which disturb and mortify them!¹²