4. LAY PEOPLE AND EMIGRATION

It is also the duty of the State to guide and assist emigration, for the State must ensure the moral and material protection of the emigrants through international agreements and through legislation that will defend the human and civil rights of the emigrants, protect them from the greedy speculation of recruiters, and prevent the plunder of the savings sent to their families back in the homeland.

Since "the needs of our emigrants can be divided into two kinds, material and moral," Bishop Scalabrini wanted the work on behalf of the emigrants to be "at once religious and lay, so as to meet both these needs."  So, besides the religious Congregations, he founded the St. Raphael Society on behalf of the emigrants.  Its purpose was to provide legal assistance and health protection, to furnish information on available jobs and help in obtaining them, to help abolish the "white slave trade" engaged in by the emigration recruiters, and to provide religious care for the emigrants from the moment they leave their country until they reach their destination.

Hence, branches of the St. Raphael Society were to be established both in the principal ports of embarkation and debarkation and in areas contributing most of the emigrants.  To this end, all were to work together: ecclesiastics and lay people, all parties, "all those in whose heart burns love of country and who have a sense of deep compassion for the sufferings and needs of our brothers and sisters who have abandoned this motherland of ours."

Bishop Scalabrini concerned himself above all with the Italian emigrants because they were among the poorest and most abandoned and also because he wanted to begin the reconciliation of Church and State by deeds: "this work is dear to my heart not only because in it I see a means for fulfilling my episcopal duties toward such a great number of unfortunate souls ‑- many of whom come from my own diocese ‑- but also because religion and country can work hand in hand in this common cause.  I believe this is the beginning of that reconciliation of hearts that has always been one of the fondest desires of my life."