Part Three

(Proposed Remedies and Function of the Congregation)

As I mentioned above, I believe that the first remedy lies in a wise plan for the apostolic work to be done in the Americas.  This plan should emanate from the Holy See, an authority not only undisputed and indisputable among the entire Catholic clergy, but universal in nature and therefore embracing all nationalities.

We should see to it that every settlement or community with very many emigrants should have its own priest.  He should reside in the urban center of the settlement and opportunely and periodically make the rounds of the territory assigned to him, a territory that oftentimes is as vast as any of our biggest Provinces.

This work must be complemented by that of the school, in which, together with the rudiments of reading, the children of the emigrants will learn writing and arithmetic, the language of the country that is to become their new homeland, and the language of the country they have left behind, because a supremely important element for the preservation of religion is precisely the sense of roots appropriately instilled into the Americanized generations.

Language is a mysterious means for preserving the faith.  It is not easy to explain why, but it is a fact that, by losing the language, people easily lose their ancestral religion as well.  It is hard to put one's finger on the mysterious reason for this, but experience shows that as long as a family abroad holds on to its language, it will hardly ever lose its faith.

Religious Sisters could be used for the schools.  I found that the Sisters of the Sacred Heart have been successful in this work in some settlements in Brazil as well as in urban centers.

Since among those young communities the good must always go hand in hand with the useful, it would be good to set up a pharmaceutical dispensary in many places, next to church and school.  This dispensary would be run by the Sisters themselves or by the priest and would dispense the most common medicines to the sick, at cost.

In this way, the multifaceted work of religious, civil, and material care would center around the priests, and the Church of God would be blessed for her presence among those people.  Once more people would see that, like her divine Founder, the Church, too, "passed by doing good and healing everyone."

Everything I have said thus far has to do with South America.

For North America the dangers for losing the faith are even greater because, besides those deriving from the lack of priests, which I mentioned above, we must add the proselytizing work of the Protestant sects, which are more active and numerous there than elsewhere.

The losses sustained in the United States because of the lack of religious care are enormous.  Statistics tell us that two thirds of the present population of the United States, that is, 48 million, is made up of immigrants from different European countries.  Sad to say, though a good

number of these immigrants come from Catholic countries, Catholics in the United States number only 10 million.  Now, there is no question that Catholics in the United States could be more than double the number they are at present if those who had emigrated there had only remained Catholic.  The emigrants would have remained Catholic if, upon their arrival and later on, they had received the necessary religious care.  In fact, emigrants tenaciously preserve everything that reminds them of their country of origin and of their ancestral faith.  But, unfortunately, the clergy in North America, like in South America, are not enough and, besides, have a language problem.  There is a twofold problem: for the immigrants, especially those of Latin background, learning English; for the Anglo-Saxon clergy, learning Romance languages.

Now, besides the sending of numerous, well-prepared national priests, these would be the remedies to this situation:

1)     The establishment of parishes for the various nationalities whenever the Catholic communities are able to provide for the expenses of such an institution, including support of the priests and the exercise of divine worship.  The laws of the United States are extremely liberal and grant civil protection to any parish association and do not discriminate against any religion or nationality.  The experience of establishing Italian parishes in various cities has clearly shown the importance of this very simple means to rekindle the faith and the desire of religious practices even in people who seemed most opposed to them.

2)     In places where several nationalities live together and none of them is able by itself to form a parish, there should be a mixed clergy, with the strict obligation of giving religious instruction to the adults and catechism to the children in their respective native languages.

3)     It is desirable that, if possible, the priests be from the nationality of the parishioners or, at least, that they speak their language.

4)     It is advisable that in every parish there be a school where, together with English and the basic rudiments of education, the national language of the parishioners is taught.  The establishment of parochial schools where the national language is taught along with English is of primary importance not only to tap into the feelings of patriotism ‑- so strong in expatriates ‑- in the interest of religion but also to remove the youngsters from the influence of the American school, which, because of its spirit of perfect neutrality toward religion, becomes, in effect, an atheistic school....

I have thus already outlined much of what should be the purpose and work of the proposed central Congregation (Commission) pro Emigratis Catholicis.

The need for such a Congregation (Commission) and the benefits it could confer are evident.  For new phenomena there should be new organisms suitable to the needs. Isolated instructions and measures, however good they may be, are not enough, since it stands to reason that they count very little without an organism ensuring their implementation and keeping them operative.  In fact, instructions and measures to this effect have been issued by the Holy See, in particular by His Holiness, Leo XIII.  But, for many reasons I cannot go into now, these instructions did not have the desired results.

The phenomenon of emigration is universal, and the Congregation (Commission) in question should be universal in authority and central in position.  The work of individual bishops, unaware of what the others are doing, can end up in a waste of energies.

All European Governments have felt the need to create new administrative organisms to regulate emigration at home, to keep an eye on it abroad wherever it ends up, and, more importantly, to safeguard it against the innumerable snares set for the poor expatriates by the clash of interests.  With even greater reason, obviously, should the Church plan to guide and defend her sons and daughters who emigrate to Protestant countries or to completely new countries where they do not have adequate religious care and thus lose the gift of faith.

Only a Congregation of the Holy See, could ‑- without jealousies on the part of various Governments or the American bishops ‑- set up national parishes, the only ones, in my opinion, that can adequately counteract the harmful work of the Protestant sects, especially in countries where they are predominant.  Only such a Congregation could bring back the schismatic Poles to the Church with wise measures and keep the other nationalities faithful.

How should this Congregation be set up?

I believe it should comprise representatives of the various nationalities that account for the greatest emigrant quotas, namely two Italians, one Pole, one German, one Canadian, etc.

These representatives should be competent people who know the conditions and needs of their countrymen and also speak Italian so that the various members can communicate with the head of the Congregation, as well as with people in other related Roman Congregations. 

This could easily be achieved by turning to the religious congregations who have devoted themselves to the care of their emigrant countrymen and women.

What should be the purpose and task of this Congregation?

The purpose should be to provide spiritual assistance to the emigrants, especially those in the Americas, and, in this way, keep alive in their hearts the Catholic faith and Christian values.

The Congregation's task would be:

1)     to study the complex and serious problem of emigration, first of all by preparing a questionnaire on it and keeping well informed of the Catholic emigrant flow.

2)     to promote the establishment of Catholic committees in the more important parishes, while respecting the praiseworthy private initiatives already active in this field.

3)     to stimulate, through the bishops, the zeal of pastors on behalf of these committees and to suggest practical ways to help the committees, especially at the moment of the emigrants' departure and arrival.

4)     to reply to inquiries that might be made regarding the measures adopted or to be adopted and to smooth out the difficulties that might arise concerning emigration either back home or in foreign countries.

5)     to ensure above all that the emigrants are accompanied by priests during their voyage to and from their destination and also that the various settlements are provided with good, zealous missionaries.  And so on.