b) A FATHER TO BE LOVED

"To love you to the very end"

To obey and love you: this is our ambition, the sweetest consolation of our life.  We shall do our best to persuade as many people as we can to obey and love you.⁶

We call heaven and earth to witness that we will try, with all our heart and soul, to keep and venerate your words as if they were the

words of the Lord, your judgments as if they were the judgments of God, your definitions as if they were the decisions of Jesus Christ.⁷

Most Holy Father, it is always an honor and a joy to give our support to even the least of your desires.  In our wretchedness, we can do very little.  But that little is all for you, our tender Father, our infallible teacher, our living law.⁸

We will always take pride in the fact that, at all times and in all things, we think like him, judge like him, feel like him, suffer like him, and struggle with him and for him (...).  We will consider ourselves fortunate if we can shed our blood and give our life for his cause, which is the cause of God.⁹

Together with my priests and my people, I hold fast to your throne because I know that through it and with it I am holding fast to Jesus Christ.¹⁰

The thoughts of our mind and the affections of our heart should focus on the Pope.  Only in him, through him and with him can we all be one and advance like an army in battle array, sure of victory (...).  Dearly beloved, we must not indulge in a homage that is mere sterile admiration.  Let us love him.  Yes, let us love the Pope.  Let us venerate him.  Let us find new ways to show him our devotion.¹¹

"To inculcate a solid devotion to the Holy See"

I have earnestly desired to promote among my priests and all the people entrusted to me a deep, commendable and ‑- for our days ‑- necessary devotion to the Holy Roman See, center of unity and purest source of truth, and to you, the infallible doctor and teacher of faith and morals for the whole Church.  So I have decided to respectfully ask Your Holiness to grant the whole diocese the privilege of celebrating the Office and Mass commemorating all the saintly Pontiffs as a double major feast every year, on the first free Sunday after the octave of the Holy Apostles, Peter and Paul, according to the indult already granted to the clergy of the City of Piacenza.

Most Holy Father, I request this favor for another reason: on that

Sunday I intend to have all the pastors give a talk on the sublime prerogatives of the Roman Pontiff according to the last definitions promulgated by the Vatican Ecumenical Council, in the hope, indeed in the certainty, that the saintly Pontiffs, devoutly invoked and venerated on that day by the faithful, will obtain from God for the priests and people of Piacenza a true and solid devotion, reverence, and love for your Holy Apostolic See, the true and sole anchor of hope and salvation for us and for all people.¹²

"Love for the Vicar of Jesus Christ"

Most Holy Father!  May the divine Prince of Shepherds deign to lavish his choicest blessings on you.  In the midst of the ebb and flow of human events in which you find yourself and in the midst of the many serious troubles pressing in on you from all sides, may he comfort you, keep you strong and healthy for many more years to come for his greater glory, for the honor and increase of Religion, for the defense and protection of the Church, for the consolation of the righteous, and for the confusion of the wicked.  May he gladden you with the total victory of your cause, a victory that may be delayed but not denied.  The sufferings of the Passion will be followed by the joys of the Resurrection.

Most Holy Father, I humbly offer you my personal best wishes and the best wishes and felicitations of my Missionaries working for our emigrants in the Americas, as well as the best wishes and felicitations of the emigrants themselves.

Through me, these poor people lay their humble offerings before you as a token of gratitude to you for all you have done for them thus far.  At the same time, they ask your Apostolic Blessing on themselves and their families.

The Missionaries, too ‑- who make it a practice to awaken and keep alive love for the vicar of Jesus Christ in the communities of our poor emigrants ‑- ask you, Holy Father, for a special blessing, one that will draw down upon them renewed vitality and courage in the midst of their truly apostolic labors¹³

"Catholics do not go on pilgrimage to Rome for frivolous reasons"

One of the practices that in our days helps people display their faith more publicly and solemnly is the devout practice of making pilgrimages, especially to Rome, the venerable shrine of our faith, the center of Catholic unity, the holy place where he resides who takes the place of God on earth (...).

They go there to perform an act of religion, to visit the majestic monuments of their faith, to draw renewed strength and courage to fight the battles of the Lord (...).  They go there to breathe within those walls the most pure air of Christian life; to enjoy, as it were, the rights of their common home; and, though living far away, to come together around the tomb of their forefathers as one great family.  They go there to reveal to the world the life that ceaselessly flows through the Church and to give the lie to those who stupidly keep shouting that Catholicism has run its course, that the papacy is dead.  Finally, they go to bear witness before God and man, in the most explicit and solemn way, to their devotion and affection for the Successor of Peter, the Prince of Shepherds, the infallible Teacher of faith and morals, to hear words of comfort and encouragement from him, and to receive his blessing.¹⁴

"Let their hatred be matched by our love for the common Father"

We must not be frightened by the furor and insults of the enemies of goodness.  After the example of our divine Savior, who from the cross begged forgiveness for his executioners, we must pray for them, for they have become the executioners of the Church, which is their mother and ours.  And we, magnanimous but unconquered, will give them the opposite example.  Their hatred must be matched by our love for the common Father, their insults by our respect, their contempt for his word by our trust in it.  We answer all their blasphemies, all their denials with an even more vigorous and spirited affirmation.

Yes, it is high time that we come into the open.  We must lift our heads high, unfurl the flag of our holy works, speak frankly, and tell the whole world that we are with the Pope; that we are his faithful subjects,

his obedient sons and daughters, his closest friends, his devout servants unto death; that we unconditionally support the Pope; that we believe in the teachings of the Pope; that we submit to all the Pope's commands; and that we want to live and die in communion of faith with, of obedience to, and of love for, the Pope.

In fact, to profess we are with the Pope means professing that we are with the Church, of which he is head and supreme Shepherd; that we are with Christ, whose place he takes on earth; that we are with God because Christ is God, one God with the Father and the Holy Spirit.¹⁵