b) THE ST. RAPHAEL SOCIETY

"A committee of lay people under the supervision of a bishop"

Your Excellency, I am taking the liberty of sending you a copy of a modest paper of mine on Italian emigration as a small token of my great esteem for you.  Since I know this matter is of great concern to you, I hope you will give it your wise and powerful support.

I would say that the idea was received with enthusiasm everywhere.  Already a number of rather distinguished priests and lay people have volunteered to set up an appropriate committee to collect funds and asked me to take charge of the committee.

Monsignor, I am convinced we should welcome these generous dispositions, promptly roll up our sleeves, and not let others beat us to the punch.  I believe that a committee of lay people under the supervision of a bishop answerable to Propaganda Fide is necessary to prepare the vast work that must precede the realization of the program of evangelization being prepared by the Sacred Congregation.

It is extremely important, first of all, to free our emigrants from the hands of speculating agents who are driving so many poor souls, especially young boys and girls, to eternal ruin.  I believe that the help of the secular arm is indispensable for this purpose.  A lay, or mostly lay, committee could have freer recourse to it with better hopes of success than would a church commission.  Moreover, I think that the lay project dealing with humanitarian assistance should be kept separate from the church organization in charge of spiritual care.  As I said before, the lay committee should do all the ground work and provide the means needed to make the mission of the church organization possible.

In agreement with the distinguished Bishop of Cremona, who would also become a board member of the general committee, I would be prepared to open here in Piacenza a house for priests whom God will inspire to dedicate themselves to this work of charity.  I have no doubt that the people who will be on this committee and other well-wishers will provide the material means for it; but I trust most of all in divine Providence.  In this way, the project of Propaganda Fide will have a clear path ahead and will not come to grief, which might happen if it were entrusted to a few ecclesiastics and were to run into obstacles and impediments.¹²

"An Association of Assistance that is at once religious and lay"

The needs of our emigrants are of two kinds: moral and material.  I would like an Association of Assistance to be organized in Italy, which would be both religious and lay and would thus be fully responsive to both needs.

From the religious point of view, the field of action is very vast; but the economic one is just as vast.

As I have already stated, the task of such an association should be to look after the spiritual and material interests of those unfortunate

people who leave the land of their birth to cross the ocean.  In a word:

1.     To keep the emigrant from falling victim to the shameful exploitation of certain emigration agents who, in order to make money, morally and materially destroy the poor wretches who fall into their nets;   

2.     To set up an office that will do what is necessary for the employment of emigrants upon their arrival in America so that whenever an Italian emigrant contacts the association, he will be able to find gainful employment; otherwise, the association should make every effort to convince him not to emigrate in the first place;

3.     To provide help in case of emergency or sickness, both during the voyage and after arrival;

4.     To declare open war, if I may use this term, on the merchants in human flesh who are prepared to use the most sordid means for the sake of money;

5.     To provide religious care during the crossing and after arrival, and in the places where the emigrants will be settling.

Regarding the first point: I would like the Association to have not just contributing members but active members as well.  The tasks of the latter should be various and well distributed.  First of all, we should set up committees in the main ports of the Kingdom as well as in those of foreign countries where our emigrants are embarking, to welcome them, watch over them, counsel them, and defend them.  Other committees should be set up in the ports to which the Italian emigrants are heading so as to forestall those very same dangers and problems that all too often are found at the ports of embarkation.

To carry out the second point, the Association should be in contact not only with the Italian Government but also with the American Governments so as to give our Italian emigration a logical and practical direction and thus ensure that, upon arriving in America, the poor peasants will know where to go and avoid making wrong decisions that will usher in an endless chain of troubles for themselves and their families.  In this way, we would enable our communities to be more prosperous, better organized, and in a better position to receive help and protection from the national Government.

The third point is also very important and closely related to the previous two.  The Association should make sure that, during the voyage, the emigrants are accompanied by a member of the Association or at least are entrusted to a responsible person who will help them in case of need.  On the boat, there should always be a priest to minister to

everyone, especially the sick.

The Association should also make sure that, where there are masses of Italians settlers, the sick are not abandoned and that those reduced to poverty because of an accident get the help they need.  But to reach this goal, we should make sure that emigration is regulated and that Italians do not spread out in small groups over the vast American continent but settle instead in strong and well organized communities.

The fourth point refers to a vigorous suppression of white slavery.  To achieve positive results, the Association will need the effective support of the Government, which I believe will be forthcoming if the organization brings to light the wicked things presently going on unnoticed because of general apathy.

As I have already pointed out, all too often heartless and unscrupulous emigration agents dupe families and take their young ladies away, dooming them to moral degradation and disgrace.  These truly heartbreaking cases are practically the order of the day. The news media, which loves to report the most trivial gossip of city life with gleeful interest, is silent about these abominable crimes.  It ignores them or feigns not to know them.  An association established for the protection of the emigrants must openly and constantly wage war on this wicked trade.  When unable to act alone, this association should have recourse to public opinion and try to stir up people's moral indignation by denouncing at important gatherings the abuses and horrors committed against human and divine law.¹³

"A work of religious, patriotic, and economic liberation"

It was then that, trusting in God and his Providence, I dared to do something.  The evils of our emigration, not to mention those that are part and parcel of emigration itself, stem from the neglect in which emigration is left.  We can sum them up as follows: loss of faith for lack of religious instruction, a loss of a sense of nationality for lack of any motivation to keep it alive, and financial ruin as a result of shameful exploitation. 

So I founded two societies with the purpose of lessening and, if at all possible, eradicating those evils; two societies, one made up of priests, the other of lay people; one religious, the other lay; two societies to help and complement each other.  The first is the Congregation of the Missionaries focusing especially on the spiritual welfare of our

emigrants, the other on their material welfare.  The first attains its purpose by setting up churches, schools, orphanages, and hospitals through priests united family-like by the religious vows of chastity, obedience, and poverty, ready and willing to rush wherever they are sent, as apostles, teachers, doctors, or nurses, according to the needs.  The second society carries out its task by discouraging emigration when it is unwise, keeping an eye on the work of emigration agents, seeing to it that they do not violate the law, and, if everything else fails, counseling the emigrants and channelling them toward good destinations.

It is surely a tremendous task for anyone, but even more so for me, bereft as I am of means and ability.  I thought ‑- and the facts proved me right ‑- that our indifference was due to the lack of a spirit of initiative, to ignorance of what is going on, and, if you wish, to the fact that our country has lost the habit of undertaking certain ventures, rather than to ill will.  I felt that if even one voice, motivated simply by love of religion and country, were raised to awaken the sleepy and the indolent, it would not be a cry in the desert.  I felt that a person firmly determined to eradicate so many evils would also find people with equal determination to fight alongside of him.  I felt that Italy, which gives the world heroic missionaries, missionaries who bring the light of the Gospel and of civilization to the most inhospitable lands and who lead uncivilized nations to the feet of the Cross; Italy which makes a generous contribution and lends its weight to the abolition of the black slave trade, would not remain indifferent, much less disdainful, to the white slave trade, to this work of religious, patriotic, and economic liberation of our brother and sister emigrants.¹⁴

"Founding just an ecclesistical institute would not have been enough"

Founding just an ecclesiastical institute would not have been enough to provide adequate care for our emigrants (...).

I am planning an association more or less like the one founded in Germany in 1868, headed by the Prince Isemburg-Birnstein and incorporated under the name of Raphaels Verein.  The purpose of this association is to defend the emigrants through a well-coordinated protective network from the numerous dangers that surround them as soon as they leave their native country.

My idea found favor and effective support in a rather large group of people who are very close to me.  So last year I set up in Piacenza the central committee of the Italian Emigration Welfare Association, headed by Marquis and Attorney Gianbattista Volpe Landi, who dedicates all his energies and enthusiasm to the association.

The members of this committee come from all walks of life.  Though not all sharing the same convictions, they are all universally esteemed, respected, and well known for their warm, genuine love of country and for their enlightened charity.

With the help also of people living in other cities of Italy, provisional by-laws were drafted in which the nature and purpose of the association were formulated.  Its purpose is to give appropriate guidance and help to those who have decided to emigrate.  The association does this by providing useful information on the countries most suitable for emigration because of their soil fertility, ease of finding jobs, and availability of religious and civil care.  The association offers its services free to the emigrants at the ports of embarkation.  It recommends them to national committees set up in countries overseas and, above all, to the delegate or his associate who receives them at the port of debarkation.  In the foreign land, the delegate begins anew with them the same work of charity, which, rather than just useful, will become necessary in view of the new dangers which they are to face.

The Genoa committee is proud to have the worthy Marquis Vittorio del Carretto di Balestrino as its head.  Before the end of this year, it will begin its work of assistance for the emigrants leaving from that port, the most important in Italy.  For this purpose, it has decided to open a special aid and information office, staffed by one of its representatives.

Moreover, the committee has seen to it that, beginning this coming January 1892, every time a ship leaves for America, a special religious function will be celebrated in the Church of San Giovanni di Prè, which is very close to the port.¹⁵

"Committees in the areas that contribute the most emigrants"

Here in Italy, besides the central committee and the committees already set up or about to be set up in the ports of embarkation, it was necessary to establish others in the more important centers, especially in the areas that contribute the most emigrants.  These committees were to enlist supporters and helpers who would ensure that the work of protection would really reach those who most needed it.

The central committee is turning its attention mainly to this problem.  I founded this central committee some time ago and now plan to make it known through a future series of special conferences illustrating the nature and purpose of the organization.

This past winter, I spoke to the good and gracious public of Genoa, Rome, Florence, Turin, and Milan.  Committees were founded also in these last four cities, among the most important in Italy.  Genoa already had its committee since the end of 1890.  Besides soliciting the indispensable funds, like all the others, the Rome committee also has the task of being the Association's information center vis-à-vis the national Government and the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith.  This committee is not complete as yet; but a group of intelligent and active young people, headed by Prince D. Luigi Boncompagni Ludovisi, have volunteered to lead it.  I am confident that soon, with the help of outstanding people who are not indifferent to the sorrowful plight of the emigrants and see their needs, the Rome committee will be complete and will offer the Association the services the latter rightly expects of it.

The venerable prelate Di Calabiana and the illustrious Cardinal Bausa ‑- who so honors the sacred purple with his doctrine and virtue ‑- have, as Archbishops respectively of Milan and Florence, consented to endorse the committees in their respective cities with their name and with the prestige accruing to them in the Church Hierarchy.  Better yet, the latter reserved to himself the chairmanship of the Florence committee.  The president of the Milan committee is General Thaon de Revel, a scion of the ancient Piedmontese aristocracy that has given much service to the country in war and to civil government.  The Turin committee is headed by Baron Antonio Manno, also an aristocrat, who bears an honored and respected name.

Other committees are still in the embryonic stage, or are about to

be set up, in Treviso, Brescia, Cremona, Bergamo, Lucca, and other cities.¹⁶

"The duties of the local committees"

The duties of the local committees will be outlined in greater detail in the final by-laws submitted to the deliberations of a Convention, held in Piacenza this past September, of representatives of committees already existing and of those in the process of being formed.  The Convention's decisions are presently being processed in line with instructions received.

Well knowing the mind of the central committee, I can state that it is its intention that the committees in the different Provinces serve as intermediaries and vehicles for a faster and easier communication between the central committee ‑- in which the information service is located ‑- and the emigrants.  This will be done through delegates or assistant delegates distributed in all the areas that contribute any amount of emigrants.

The emigrants must know the countries of immigration in their true colors.  But everyone must also receive advice in accordance with one's personal and family situation.  Now, by multiplying the committees and, through the committees, the delegates and assistant delegates (in the countryside pastors, teachers, and municipal secretaries could assume this task), every emigrant will find a trusted person nearby willing to counsel him with full knowledge of the facts.  In turn, the delegates and assistant delegates ‑- through the committees and these through the central committee ‑- seek and receive instructions, news, and information from the surest sources and, above all, verify their reliability through the missionaries living in America.  Besides all this, the committees do all they can to obtain the funds that are indispensable to the Association with the help of committees made up of the most outstanding women, like in Turin, Milan, etc.¹⁷

"The Association needs everybody's help"

To achieve the favorable results it hopes for, the Association needs the help of all those in whose heart burns the bright and serene love of country and the fire of a gentle compassion for

the sufferings and needs of their brothers and sisters who have left this common land of ours.  It is important that they become supporters and helpers of the Association with their modest offerings or with their own personal work.  It is necessary that they contribute their moral or material support and make the work known.

Such a vast, difficult and complex enterprise demands not only persevering effort and total self-sacrifice on the part of the leaders but adequate resources as well.

I have full confidence that this appeal will not go unheeded.¹⁸

"The St. Raphael Society has been founded in the United States"

The St. Raphael Society was founded in the United States two months ago. 

Article 1 of the by-laws states its goals:

a)     To help the Italian immigrants upon their arrival in the United States and see to it that they do not fall into the hands of dishonest people;

b)     To help the immigrants find jobs, to the extent possible;

c)     To see to it that they do not lack religious care after debarkation and in the places where they will be living;

d)     To acquire a building, as soon as possible, to provide lodging for poor immigrants, as well as for young boys and girls, until such time as they find a place or have been consigned to their parents.

The 6th and last article provides that the Italian Society of St. Raphael keep in close contact with the analogous society set up in Italy with the name, Italian Emigration Welfare Society.

Thus, the good work begun in Italy is complemented in the New World and continues to assist the emigrants in the United States, the only place ‑- among the various American nations our emigrants are heading for ‑- where help and protection are effectively and concretely provided.¹⁹

"Assistance from the Port of Genoa to the ports of America"

One of our emigrants' greatest needs was that of getting help at the Genoa port of embarkation, where those poor people were treated as the cheapest merchandise or worse.  Even there I spoke in public, in 1888 I think, on the work of the St. Raphael Society.  Archbishop Magnasco, the venerable prelate of that See, and the port inspector, Cav. Malnate, begged me with tears in their eyes to send some missionaries to Genoa for the care of those unfortunates, criminally betrayed  and exploited in every way.  As soon as I could, I satisfied this holy desire, which was also mine, and there I opened a house.  The good the missionaries accomplished there so far is unbelievable.  For this reason and, above all, to make so many abuses and frauds disappear, they had to expose themselves to the fury of interested parties and Masonic newspapers.  But, with the help of God, they overcame everything.  Now, their work is appreciated by all, and the name of Fr. Maldotti, the first missionary sent to Genoa, is held in benediction by all.

As soon as news of the institution of the Missionaries of St. Charles and of the St. Raphael Society for our migrants spread around, people wrote to me from various parts of Italy, pointing out the serious need to assist them during the ocean voyage.  At once I contacted the various shipping lines asking for a free round trip ticket for the priests who would like to volunteer for such a great act of charity.  But only one, the S/S Veloce, gladly answered my appeal.  Still, there were ten or twelve priests who every year left the Port of Genoa to accompany the poor emigrants.  On the ship, they would celebrate Mass, preach, hear confessions, and assist the sick, of which there were always some.  In just one crossing, eighteen people died.  Fortunately, a priest was aboard.  He was able to assist the dying and comfort the survivors by word and example.  This went on for four years.  But the S/S Veloce fell into decline and, unfortunately, had to restrict the concession and limit it to just the missionaries in Genoa.  If the means were available, how much more could be done!

The mission at the Port calls for special mention.  The missionaries assigned to it are recognized as legal representatives for Italian emigration with the Labor Bureau or Public Works Ministry.  Residing in the Barge Office or "The Immigration Office of the Port," they can give their prompt assistance to all the Italian emigrants who land there, especially those who have been recommended to them and come with

special papers from the committees of the Welfare Association founded in Italy.²⁰