a) LOVE FOR THE TRUTH

"A soul that is full of the Holy Spirit does not fear the world"

The spirit of the world is a spirit of duplicity and dishonesty.  Since the spirit of the world is rooted in self-love, it seeks the truth only if it is pleasing; it stands up for religion only if religion has approving supporters; it extols virtue only where virtue is fashionable.  This, unfortunately, is the spirit guiding people, a timid and conniving spirit.  Some people are afraid to belong to God.  Whenever there is the opportunity to openly side with him, they vacillate.  Whenever they have to expose themselves to ridicule and criticism for his glory, they pull back.  Cowardice is called prudence.  Whenever they have to displease someone in order to be faithful to their duty, they feel a transgression is justified.  Their first concern with the demands God makes of them is whether the world will give its seal of

approval.  So as not to lose the favor of the world, they pretend they are worldly: they  speak the language of the world, acclaim the standards of the world, and take pains to conform to the ways of the world.¹

"Love for the truth even to the shedding of blood"

The harshest combat of all in this world is that of speaking the truth of Christ to friend and foe alike and telling it in good times and in bad, secretly and openly, to prisoners and kings, to plebeians and patricians, in private and in public, without compromises or shame, not with a fearful heart but with a sublime disregard for dangers, which is the privilege of great souls.

This is the terrible combat Jesus Christ referred to when he told the Roman governor: "For this was I born, for this have I come into the world: to give witness to the truth."  The combat Jesus received from the Father and left as a heritage to his friends is love for the truth even to the shedding of blood!²

"You cannot but love the truth"

Holy Father, you know my frankness and the heavy sacrifices I have made to promote the glory of the Church and to be wholly committed to you and your cause, which is the cause of God.

So, kneeling at your feet, I ask one favor: call to order that extra-hierarchical group, especially the journalists headed by the Osservatore of Milan.  They make a show of devotion to the successor of St. Peter but have none.  They cloak themselves with it so as to give free play to their partisan ideas and defend their own private interests.  In the meantime, they affront the supreme authority of the bishops, bring dishonor to the Church and, with their vicious and scandalous controversies, make the Church contemptible in the eyes of well-meaning people.  They are also demolishing that marvelous unity among the shepherds, which till now has been one of her finest glories.  They are reducing Catholicism to a handful of fanatics and keeping out some of the finest minds.

How was the celebrated Father Stoppani, glory of our country and

of the Church, treated?  Like other institutions, priests, and lay people?  My God, save your Spouse, so horribly disfigured!

You have a brilliant mind and a heart patterned after that of Jesus Christ, whose Vicar you are.  As such, you cannot but love the truth.  You cannot but desire that the truth be told to you, as the Saints desired.  So I am more than sure, Holy Father, that you will pardon the frankness of this letter of mine.  It is inspired solely by my strong zeal for the glory of your immortal pontificate, which has been marred and diminished by the unpunished arrogance of a blind and petulant faction.³

"The holy courage to speak the truth"

My dear Fr. Luigi, continue to come to the aid of the Church with your writings because, especially in our day, she really needs people who will bring minds back to the study of the Gospel and Christian doctrine and thus bring Christ back into our families and into society.

I am personally convinced that this is the greatest need, the surest means, indeed the only means, for achieving what some people have vainly thought and still think they can achieve with other means.  We have too many charlatans, as St. Augustine would call certain people.   I say this because there are now few people left who have the holy courage to speak the truth, according to the Gospel maxim: "yes, yes; no, no."  Too lightly do some truly learned and worthy individuals keep to the sidelines because of the brainless hue and cry of certain individuals who think only of themselves.⁴

"Woe to religion when bishops are forced to keep silent"

There are no two ways about it: I must either justify myself or be justified.

Telling me to keep quiet would add another outrage to the outrages of that sacrilegious slanderer.  It's like saying that it doesn't matter if the bishops' authority is thrown into the mud.  This would lend credence to the rumors that we are afraid of the hidden power of certain

cunning individuals and therefore unable to control them.  Woe, a Doctor of the Church would exclaim, woe to religion when bishops are forced to keep silent!

Your Eminence, am I wrong?  Tell the Holy Father to correct me and, as always, he will find in me a most submissive, a most obedient son.  But if I am on the side of truth, of justice and of right, how can anyone allow a bishop, albeit the least and most unworthy of bishops, to be publicly dragged before the tribunal of one who has only the cassock and the appearance of a priest?

To conclude: once again I earnestly request the favorable judgment I have the right and the duty to ask for.  I call for it, I await it. 

Your Eminence, please pardon me if I am annoying you; but, believe me, I find it even more annoying to have to annoy you once again.

I hope you will listen to me this time so that, undisturbed by other matters, I may attend quietly and peacefully to matters of greater importance and thus channel all my poor energies to the salvation of the souls entrusted to me and to the defense of the sacred rights of the Holy See, the two things that are dearest to my heart.⁵