c) THE PASTORAL CARE OF MIGRANTS

"For the civil, religious, and moral welfare of our emigrants"

I ask all of you, beloved brothers and sons, to continue to give all your talents and energies to the civil, religious, and moral welfare of our countrymen.  While you endeavor to keep alive in their hearts their love for the mother country, be careful not to instigate among them anything that could separate them from their new fellow citizens or detach them in whatever way from other people.  It is your duty to see that the Italians distinguish themselves for greater respect for authority, for a more exemplary conduct, for the exact observance of their duties, and for a more lively attachment to the faith of their forefathers and mothers.  Since they are naturally good Catholics, they will respond easily to your counsel as they have done until now, so long as they see in you hard working and disinterested priests. 

In all things, be their model in word and deed, in purity and in seriousness of life so that, as the Apostle writes, even those who are against you will respect you and have nothing bad to say against you.  After the example of the Apostle, I will say with St. Bernard: "Honor your ministry."  Notice that I say ministry and not dominion, ministry and not yourselves. You will honor your ministry not with vain displays but with an irreproachable way of life, with untiring zeal, and with good works.¹³

"A work of evangelization entrusted to the zeal and wisdom of the American bishops"

Your Excellency, I can now assure you that today the Sacred Roman Congregation read with immense pleasure the beautiful paper you wrote in which you explain so well how important is the work I have undertaken.  In those pages you rightly point out that on the success of this work depends not only the future of countless Italian Catholics flung across the ocean by emigration but also the great work of evangelization entrusted to the zeal and wisdom of the American bishops.  In fact, people are used to drawing certain logical and rigorous conclusions from what happens around them.  Today, more than ever, people tend to judge by their experiences.  So it stands

to reason that, when your Protestant countrymen see the religious ignorance and indifference of many, not to say most, Italian immigrants, they will conclude that the Christian life must not be very intense in our country if so many of her sons and daughters lose the faith so easily and abandon the practice of the most basic Christian duties.  Now, since Italy is not only an exclusively Catholic country but also the heart of Holy Mother Church and the residence of her august Head, it follows, as Your Excellency says so well, that Protestants are inclined to believe that Catholicism is on the decline and that its cause is undoubtedly the absence of faith and virtue due to the priests' ineptness and culpable negligence.  Without question, we must fight these errors.  But, above all, we must eliminate the main causes that give rise to them.  Now, from the success and favorable outcome of the work I have undertaken depends the healing of the disorder which we are deploring and which is so harmful to the spread of the faith in America, especially if Christian traditions and the principles of Catholicism are not preserved in the hearts of millions of Italian immigrants who live in America.

For these reasons the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith has accepted my work with great favor and is pleased to see that the American bishops appreciate it, you in particular, who are one of the most renowned and learned bishops in the New World.¹⁴

"To freely exercise their ministry under Your Excellency's authority"

I received your most gracious letter of Feb. 10, together with your generous donation of one thousand Lire for our institute.  I don't know how to thank you as I would like to.  But affection and gratitude are also good money, and with this money I intend to repay you, dear bishop.

I hope that by now good Fr. Marcellino has explained my ideas to you about the Missionaries to be sent to New York.  I plan to send you three of them, plus a brother catechist.  But we would need a residence there since they should live in community if possible; also a church, be it even in a basement, where they can freely exercise their ministry, always under Your Excellency's full authority.  If it were possible, convenient

and prudent to remove the Italians from the jurisdiction of the parish and entrust their spiritual care directly to our Missionaries, everything would go well.  But the judgment on this proposal belongs to you, Your Excellency, and I know you will do what you deem best in Domino (in the Lord).

Personally, dear Bishop, I really wish that you, who justly enjoy such high esteem with the Holy See, would be the first American bishop to open a house for our priests.  It is a work we have practically accomplished together because you were kind enough to encourage me from the very beginning and to promise me your influential support.

From the New York house, the Missionaries, subsequently increasing in numbers, could fan out from their community into other dioceses that might ask for them.  Moreover, I think some schools could also be opened in New York for the children of the Italians, as well as some nurseries to be conducted by Sisters.  Also, in New York, benevolent societies could be set up for our emigrants, after the example of the St. Raphael Society for Germans, something that is done also for the Irish.¹⁵

"Without freedom of ministry there is very little that can be done"

Respectfully ask the Archbishop of Rio if he will permit our Missionaries to have back the mission of Novella Mantova and the surrounding Italian settlements.  You will also let him know what the Holy Father desires in this regard.  I am therefore transcribing for you the following resolution as found in file 2978 of Propaganda Fide: "With respect to the bishops of Brazil, the Holy Father directs that they grant the Missionaries the necessary faculties directly, to be exercised independently of the local pastors and vicars.  The bishops are authorized, when necessary, to also detach the areas inhabited by the Italians from a parish circumscription and establish new parishes therein, to be entrusted to the aforesaid Missionaries."

The experience of the past few years has shown that, without freedom of ministry, albeit with some dependence on local pastors, there

is very little that can be done.

Tell the Bishop of Sao Paulo the same thing.  Assure him, moreover, that if he accepts the proposal, he will receive truly wise and holy Missionaries.  You will also tell him that if someone did not succeed as well as was expected, an extenuating reason can be found in the lack of support from those who were supposed to give it.

Maybe his predecessor ‑- like the deceased bishop of Rio ‑- was unable to do what he had wanted to.

If you can get to Curitiba, ask that bishop, too, if he will allow us to have back the mission directed by Fr. Colbachini, together with the house, church, and various chapels.  Tell him also about the Holy Father's desire.

At any rate, you would do well to get the aforementioned bishops to put into writing the conditions under which our Missionaries would be accepted and all the stipulations they wish to set down for this purpose.¹⁶

"Let the Missionaries be given parochial faculties"

As they make their rounds, our Missionaries often run across many Italians.  The report of the arrival of the man of God passes from mouth to mouth like good news; and those poor wretches, crying with joy, run after him because in the Italian priest not only do they recall the memories of religion and motherland but they also know they can confide whatever is burdening their consciences to his paternal heart, without having to curtail the meager bread of their children.  Many live in common law unions.  Many children are not yet reborn in the waters of baptism.  There are thousands of cases of conscience of people living a life almost cut loose from bonds with society.  But, unfortunately, the poor Missionary does not have faculties for that particular parish, and the pastor either cannot be reached or will not grant them (...).

I would be insulting Your Eminence's intelligence and zeal if I were to waste words in pointing out such an awful situation.  However, the

situation must be remedied at once because such outrages make religion odious and give unscrupulous and malicious people a pretext for opposing and ridiculing it.  These outrages also sow doubts and unbelief in the minds of those poor, simple settlers, who get used to doing without a priest, unable as they are to pay handsomely for what should be free.  Judging institutions by concrete deeds, these souls must receive an impression damaging to their faith when they see evil, egoism, and simony prevailing over goodness and over the spirit of unselfishness and sacrifice.

I end with the renewed plea that Your Eminence see to it that what the Sacred Congregation decided on this matter is implemented, namely, that the bishops of Brazil separate the Italian settlements from the Brazilian parishes, leaving the settlements wholly under the jurisdiction of the Missionaries for the Italian Emigrants.  I know this is a very difficult matter, but we must absolutely try to achieve this goal.

In the meantime, I would propose ‑- and I do hereby propose and request ‑- as an indispensable condition, that the aforementioned Missionaries be given all parochial faculties for the Italian settlers, albeit with the obligation of the Missionaries to transmit to the local pastors an exact copy of the baptisms and weddings performed.

If there is no way of getting full freedom of action and the full exercise of parochial faculties for our Missionaries from that episcopate, I think it would be best to pull our Missionaries out of Brazil and give them a new assignment since I am convinced that it is seriously harmful and gravely unfair to waste very precious energies in a holy work made sterile by the bad will of human beings.¹⁷

"The idea of nationality"

The idea of nationality is not something artificial but a reality.  Various elements go into its makeup: historical traditions, racial community, love for one's native place, local or family traditions, common joys and sorrows, and so on.

The idea of nationality conforms to the needs of human beings.  God had a very valid reason for separating human beings into different nations and assigning boundaries to peoples and nations.

This division was necessary for the moral and material progress of humanity.   The difference in the distinctive talents of the various races, as well as the marvelous variety of dispositions, aspirations, and emotions

that distinguish one people from another, all contribute to the creation of that great intellectual movement that helps humanity make progress and meets the new needs of times and places. 

The division of human beings into various races, into various nationalities encourages emulation, which is the primary source of the moral, intellectual, and material activity of the human race.

Of course, the jealousies and conflicts among nations give rise to mistakes and often to injustices.  But this reprehensible selfishness, these petty conflicts do not preclude the great emulation among peoples, the relentless race to be the best ‑- in which everyone tries to get ahead of his fellows or his adversaries ‑- from being sources of true and real progress and hence of good.¹⁸

"Environment, upbringing, tradition, religion, and culture go into making the sense of nationality"

Environment and upbringing generally make up the sense of nationality, a providential sentiment that makes everyone happy with his or her country and consequently keeps the citizens of an area less endowed than many others from desiring to abandon their country and, following their own fancy, to create another country for themselves in a richer land, with better climate and more favorable business conditions.

I often thought of this providential effect of love of country as I traveled through areas that are pathetic either because of their barren soil or because of their lack of natural beauty or even because of a concentration of circumstances that make them ugly and boring.  Everywhere I found the local people bursting with pride over their place of birth, and I said to myself: What a blessing!  What a providential design of God!  If these people saw their place of birth with my eyes, they would abandon it at once.  But then we would have depopulated areas as well as areas where people would cut each other's throat to occupy some of the land.  In one and the same country we would have areas that are deserted and others that are too highly populated.

Instead the traditions of one's family, of one's youth, the moral and material environment, one's family and  relatives, the customs, all these factors make people forget the worst possible drawbacks.  These drawbacks are not able to kill, not even weaken, their love for the place of their birth.  This is the foundation of the principle of nationality.

Certainly, looking at things on a big scale, religion plays a big, if not the main, part in the sense of nationality, but it is not the only one to make up the idea of nationality.  It is also the moral, religious, and material aspects of the environment of one's place of birth that go into this idea.  We have seen the beneficial and providential effect of this idea for the peace of the world and the happiness of human beings.

A people's culture strengthens its sense of nationality because culture gives greater clarity to this sense of nationality.  Hence, we see that, as time goes on, the antipathy to foreign  domination has become irresistible and that those very peoples, like the Italians and the Southern Slavs who endured so much in the past, today vigorously resist what they more or less tolerated yesterday.¹⁹

"The influence that the sentiment of nationality can have over religious sentiment"

Much could be said about the influence the sense of nationality can have over religious sentiment or, better, over the religion of a people and of the citizens that make up the nation.  It is enough to repeat what was said before, namely, that since environment, upbringing, historical and family traditions are powerful and, one might even say, exclusive components of the idea of nationality, religion takes first place among the sources from which love of country and national pride are born.

A human being has two great loves that accompany him everywhere: love of God and love of parents and family.  Both, along with some other elements, help produce the sense of nationality.  So, as long as a human being remains even passively faithful to the faith of his forebears, he or she will feel love of family and with it love of country.  The person who abandons religion becomes an apostate and relinquishes the sentiment of nationality as well.  So we must conclude that fidelity to one's faith carries with it fidelity to one's country, unless a mortal conflict between these two great loves of religion and country

drives the foolish to sacrifice the first to the second, something that has invariably happened in the past up to our day wherever the conflict has been long lasting.

The great religious upheavals began this way.  The schism of the Eastern Church was caused, to a very large extent, by the reluctance of the people of the Eastern Rites to submit to Rome (...).  And so the Eastern Churches were lost, one after the other.  This fact is so obvious that Leo XIII himself acknowledged it when, to bring these Churches back to the desired unity, he directed that their rites and ancient traditions which are not contrary to Catholic teaching be respected.  He formally forbade Eastern-rite converts to be Latinized.  He wanted them to understand that in Catholicism all peoples have the right of citizenship and that, as a universal religion, Catholicism respects all nationalities, their rights, their legitimate aspirations, and their patriotism.

The Protestant heresy, too, was fueled by an ill-conceived sense of nationality. The traditions of Arminius, the desire to crush the papacy, considered a Latin institution ‑- many Germans still refer to it as the "the Latin iniquity" ‑- did much to spread Protestantism not only in Germany but also in the Scandinavian countries and in England as well.  Painting the Pope as a foreign sovereign, albeit spiritual, they stirred up national sentiment against him; and this was more than enough to solidify the heresy (...).  Again, if Catholicism flourishes in Ireland and Poland today, the reason is that Anglicanism and the schism are the religion of the foreign conquerors and the people see in the Catholic religion the bastion of the motherland.  Hence, in the past, before the 1827 emancipation, the English tried with fire and sword to protestantize Ireland, sure that, having abandoned the religion of their forefathers and mothers, the Irish would also lose their national pride.

The Russians did the same thing in Poland without much success.  The Russians do not trust the Poles because they know that Catholicism is the stronghold of love of country in Poland and feel that, if they could only crush Catholicism, national identity would fade away and the complete assimilation of conqueror and conquered would take place.²⁰

"A sense of nationality has much to say about whether the faith is kept or not"

There is no doubt that the idea of nationality is one of those sentiments that is bound to exercise a great and oftentimes decisive influence on the preservation or loss of a people's faith.

Just as philosophical ideas have their repercussions on the social life of a people ‑- as ancient and modern history shows ‑- so too the sense of nationality has always had an influence on religious sentiment.  This influence was all the stronger the more intense was the sense of patriotism.

As I said before, what greatly helped to solidify the schism and Protestantism was the idea that those two forms of Christianity were a guarantee of national independence.

The great founders of religions almost always tried to unite the ideas of country and religion so that national sentiment would underpin the people's religion and be the lever with which to lift them out of the old order, drag them onto new paths, and bind them to their wagon (...). 

Unfortunately, as I said, whenever the religious sentiment seems to be at odds with the national sentiment, the latter rebels.  Since people are more attracted to concrete things rather than to abstract ones, there results a national apostasy or a more or less hostile indifference (...). 

Therefore, the sentiment of nationality has much to say on whether a people is to keep the faith or not.  In fact, it is a basic factor either in this people's fidelity to the Church or in its apostasy.

This is equally true of nations in general and of individuals.  To speak more specifically of individuals, I am certain they exhibit the same symptoms as those that appear in the social and national body as a whole.

As long as people live in their own country, they more or less retain the sentiments that prevail among most of their fellow countrymen.  There are exceptions but they do not change the rule.

However, for the emigrants the situation changes.

The emigrants have been flung into a foreign land and are drowning, as it were, in the great ocean of another people or, in countries with mixed populations, among people with customs, traditions, and habits that are totally different from their own.²¹

"What preserves Catholic life is a religious environment"

The faith is perhaps the one thing Catholics lose more easily in a foreign land when the country they happen to live in is Christian but non-Catholic.

What preserves Catholic life is a religious environment.  Ideas are the luxury of very few people.  A man of learning can be a Catholic in Rome or New York, among the Lapps, Eskimos, Chinese or Turks.  But when he finds himself flung into a foreign land, a worker who is without clear ideas and is ruled by material concerns keeps the faith of his ancestors only if he finds there something reminding him of the environment he left when he had to abandon his country and if he preserves an intense and abiding love for his national traditions.  This is why, even in Catholic countries, like those in South America, national pride bolsters religious sentiment.  Hence, the poor emigrants need not just the care of a Catholic priest but also the loving attention of an apostle who will nurture in them the ancient traditions of country and family that are basic to their faith.²²

"If the emigrants preserve their traditions, they will remain Catholics"

If the emigrants preserve their traditions, they will remain Catholics.  If they lose them, they will imperceptibly become Protestants in Protestant countries and Freemasons or indifferent individuals in Catholic countries, especially since they will unfortunately find incentives spurring them on to apostasy, even at the hands of our own perverse countrymen.

But tradition is the greatest obstacle to this loss of faith.  A person who has limited ideas and is therefore subject to a narrower range of sentiments is more tenacious in his traditions than the learned man.  But, vice versa, when these traditional sentiments, this undying memory of one's place of birth, epitomized by the family home, the Church, the sacred functions, and the pastor, fade away in him, either he changes radically and is assimilated into his new environment or he loses all morality and becomes a solitary, a person unto himself, absorbed in material things, with no ideals or supernatural principles.²³

"A person cannot live alone and abandoned"

There is no question that a worker who loses his national traditions, to a great extent loses the raison d'être of his faith.  Vice versa when he keeps his faith intact, he also preserves his national traditions intact.

The millions of Italian, Spanish, German Catholics, etc., scattered in the vast ocean of Protestantism or indifference in North America were lost because, from the moment they disembarked on those distant foreign shores, they found they were alone and abandoned.

Now, a person cannot live alone and abandoned for long.  A human being is essentially social.  He can hold out against isolation for a while.  But if he is not overwhelmed by homesickness in the foreign land, he ends up adapting to the environment.  When, like the vast majority of our emigrants, he is uneducated, together with the new national ways he also absorbs the religious practices of his new homeland, thus apostatizing from the two great loves of the human heart: religion and country.²⁴

"I consider schools necessary"

I consider Italian schools necessary because only the mother tongue can give the unity and force now missing in the vast emigrant population.  All the children should be able to speak Italian and, through it, learn their national history and foster in their hearts the ideals that bind us to the motherland.

Crossing the ocean on the S/S Liguria, I did nothing else but hear the confessions, one by one, of the thousand or more emigrants traveling with me.  How many tears I saw flowing from the eyes of these poor people, almost all of them Sicilians!  If you could only imagine with what emotion they listened to my words that reminded them of the homeland they had just abandoned.  On the S/S Liguria, in mid ocean, they had prepared an altar on deck, with the miter and crosier, where I celebrated a solemn Mass, gave First Communion to the little emigrant children, and administered Confirmation as well.  Then I preached.  I'll never, never forget that scene.  I spoke to those Italians of their country and of their faith.  I saw them all crying!

Oh, why shouldn't these sentiments remain intact in their hearts even in the future?  Why neglect to keep alive the Italian language in them?

I came here to take action.  So I will make every effort to introduce even the American clergy to these ideas.  I have spoken to Archbishop Corrigan about this and told him that I feel it necessary for the Italians, first and above all, to be united in preserving their mother tongue so that the religious faith itself might spread and become stronger among them.  I believe no one, not even the Americans, should oppose this idea.²⁵

"School and nuns"

I will pray for all of you because I want the community of Boston to become the most flourishing and religious of all the communities in the United States.  But to obtain this grace, you must keep alive the idea of an Italian School, with the Sisters as teachers.²⁶

"A unified catechism"

Given the multiplicity of texts used in the various dioceses, the missionaries themselves will have a hard time giving catechetical instructions.  So we should really adopt just one text.  The one used in Piacenza could very well be adopted.  It is used to a large extent in the dioceses of Northern Italy and even in Piedmont.  What do you think, Your Eminence?  I am convinced that the Holy Father will soon satisfy the universal desire for a unified catechism, and that will be the end of the problem.²⁷

"Assisting the emigrants on both their outward trip and their return trip"

Your Eminence, I must tell you that it is supremely important to assist the emigrants on both their outward trip and their return trip, especially now that the Episcopalians have set up their mission on Italian steamships, a decision they made at their convention in San Francisco this past September.

To stymie their nefarious efforts as much as possible, I have informed the various administrations about it.  They will issue timely directives in this regard.  But, more than anything else, the pastoral care of the Catholic priest will be the decisive factor.²⁸

"The need for an Italian orphanage"

I am leaving Sao Paulo quite happy because with this excellent Bishop I was able to arrange various matters that will prove very beneficial to our poor expatriates who here, more than back in Italy, are hungry for the word of God and for the sacraments.  Like true apostles, the Missionaries of St. Charles are indefatigably visiting the more than two thousand fazendas of this diocese.  They try to visit them as often as possible but surely not more than once a year even though there are twelve missionaries.  But I will have to increase their numbers, also to give better care to the important charitable works they have created in the past ten years or so.  Before, the Italian orphans would all take to ruinous paths.  The first Missionaries sent here soon realized the need for an Italian orphanage.  So they rolled up their sleeves and bravely got down to work.  God came to their help.  They have already gathered 802 youngsters, trained them, and set them up with a trade.  At the moment, we have 242 youngsters here, in two large buildings outside the city.  Here they study, pray, learn a trade, and prepare themselves to become good Christians.  They subsist on donations our Missionaries receive during their never-ending apostolic excursions.  What surprises me most is that they don't have any debt whatsoever.  God sees and God provides.²⁹

"A hospital: symbol of unity and peace"

Your desire to see a hospital for the Italians become a reality could not be more legitimate, holier and more timely.  I can only bless it.  Certainly nothing pleases God more than the care of the sick.  It is one of the most beautiful forms of Christian and civic life (...).

But the care of the sick ‑- useful and praiseworthy everywhere and in whatever form ‑- becomes an absolute necessity for expatriates and a special duty for those united by the powerful bond of nationality, which is a substitute for the family back in the homeland.

In your letter, gentlemen, you have expressed this fact eloquently.  In a society like the one in your illustrious metropolis, where every nationality has its churches and hospitals, it would be a shame for our people not to have them, too.

May this desired charitable institution rise.  May it rise soon through the intelligent and efficient cooperation of everyone, and may it be a lasting symbol of unity and peace in your midst.  When it comes to charity, all strife should disappear, every enterprise should have free reign without exclusion or favoritism, without partisanship and without discrimination.³⁰

"The means of communication"

I very much want to inform the public, especially the men of the Church, how desperate are the spiritual needs of the Italian emigrants in America and how urgent it is to do something for them.

What would help a lot is the sending of Missionaries, the establishment of the aforementioned committees and the use of other means of communication, as is commonly done in similar cases.  We must not forget the religious publications and special wide-circulation pamphlets with which to inform the Italian Catholic public.

Let me mention an example from another field.  With the most powerful means at his disposal, Prime Minister Gladstone was unable to secure the freedom of Ireland.  He is now trying to obtain it by enlightening the English people with his pamphlet, The History of an Idea.  If others think that through the press they can help achieve ‑- and soon

will achieve ‑- their goal, namely, the freedom of a people from political bondage, why couldn't the press help achieve the freedom of our fellow citizens from an immensely more harmful slavery?³¹