I

For several years now the Italians, save for a small number, no longer sail from French, Spanish, or English ports, when they emigrate. For the most part, they sail from Italian ports: Genoa, Naples, Leghorn, Palermo, Ancona, Savona. The first two in particular offer the sad spectacle of those masses of disinherited, who crowd the piers with their poor sacks and move the citizens with their faces marked by the traces of physical and moral sufferings. Anxious because of the cruel parting, discouraged, without confidence in themselves, they blindly depend upon the agents of societies who speculate on their misery and don’t care much about their persons. They are taken aboard steamships in great confusion, crammed without distinction of age or sex in excessive numbers, in conditions disastrous for health and morality. They travel in this manner, exposed to all the inconveniences and vicissitudes of life on board. They easily fall sick and die without assistance and without the comfort of the Holy Sacraments.

Afterwards at the port of arrival either they find themselves isolated, unable to make themselves understood, ignorant of local conditions and customs and of where to turn to find an available job, using up in a short time their meager savings, or they are led to their destination by the speculators, who already have secured them. There, the disappointments, the unhealthy climate, and the lack of religious practices bring their desperation to a climax.

Informed of these very sorrowful conditions, the Sacred Congregation for the Propaganda in 1883 made itself the initiator of a charitable work on behalf of those unhappy people. Stirring the zeal of the Bishops in the principal Italian ports, it asked them to study the manner of giving to the emigrants suitable material and spiritual care.

Yielding to such an invitation, the Archbishop of Naples in January 1884 informed (Summary, I) His Eminence the Cardinal Prefect that he has established in that city a commission composed of eight members, half clerical and half lay, who had assumed the task of dissuading the emigrants

from emigrating, and where this would prove vain, of lending them every spiritual and temporal assistance. In the following February, the Archbishop of Genoa (Summary, II) notified of a similar institution within the context of the Society of the Conferences of St. Vincent de Paul, which would study the most convenient means of realizing the wishes of the Sacred Congregation.

With the same zeal, the Archbishop of Palermo (Summary, III) offered his aid and that of prominent personalities for whatever it might be possible to do in order to come to the aid of the spiritual and temporal needs of those unfortunates. To tell the truth, despite their good will, those commissions did not produce satisfactory results, either because of the lack of cohesion in their efforts, or because of the lack of perseverance and of practical knowledge in their choice of means.

As far as spiritual assistance is concerned, however, the effort did not fail to produce some immediate results. Even though among the immigrants one finds the scum of the Italian population, most of them are very honest workers and fine Christians and hence the work of the priests was received by them with joy. The Archbishop of Naples (Summary, I) testified that very few fail to arm themselves with the grace of the Holy Sacraments before undertaking such a long journey. He added that as a result of the proddings which have come from the Sacred Congregation, the diligent care given by the clergy to those unfortunates increased.

            In the area of material assistance, those commissions were less successful, due to the not few and not light difficulties that stood in the way of their undertaking. However, they turned out to be very useful, since they brought out the difficulties involved, and they set the occasion for further studies, preparing the way for future, efficacious measures. Indeed it did not take long to perceive that in order to achieve some serious assistance it would be indispensable, to become interested in the navigation companies themselves, with the intention of obtaining improvements on the steamships, both for hygiene, morality and religious assistance; to have a center that could provide correct information profitable to the immigrants and, if possible, obtain for them some guarantee on the promises they have received; and finally to have disinterested correspondents, who would not use a work inspired by religion for the sake of private speculation (Summary, IV). After a careful study of these difficulties, the Sacred Congregation set itself to remove those that came within its sphere of action.

            Little would have been accomplished if the immigrants had not been provided with religious and charitable assistance at the ports of arrival, where the fatigue of the voyage, the first disappointments, and the sicknesses increased their sufferings and the problems and preoccupations of life presented themselves as more grave and urgent. In a strange land, ignorant of the language and local customs, left to themselves or ensnared by avid agents, the immigrants face much greater dangers for the interests and for their souls. It happens in fact that in such a predicament, Protestant ministers present themselves to seduce them: they distribute bibles, attract them to their congregations and promise them aid, work, and protection (Summary, V).

            It was noted then that it was necessary to create committees of assistance in the principal ports of arrival, where as soon as they arrive, the immigrants would draw comfort, counsel, guidance, and protection from their brothers. Just as they had been accompanied on the ship by Italian priests, so they would be received by Italian priests. Thus they would find out that the Church never abandons her children.

            It remains to choose where to establish those committees and the means for making them serve their purpose; the Sacred Congregation found itself in the position of investigating which would be the most opportune. Naturally such a choice depended upon the direction of the immigration itself and on the conditions in which the Italians found themselves in those places, as well as on the means available to help them in a convenient and efficient way.