4.  Scalabrini to Leo XIII⁶

Piacenza, January 6, 1889

Most Holy Father,

The letter⁷ you sent the bishops of America on the problem of the salvation of the Italian immigrants filled me with utter joy. In fact, from your letter shines forth in a marvelous way the apostolic grandeur of charity and truly royal nobility of your soul. You are indeed worthy of your illustrious predecessors. All will see in your letter, if I am not mistaken, a magnificent monument of apostolic devotion and a most notable achievement of your pontificate.

            The fact that, like the shining sun, the Apostolic See sends forth the energy of its light and its goodness upon all peoples is something all have known for centuries. But it would not have been right for the same Apostolic See to leave deprived of its love and concern those whom, once gone off to far away lands, she had formed and sustained when they were near.

            The See of Peter considers itself a debtor to all, and to all it opens its arms. It is solicitous of all and provides for the good and salvation of all. But there are those it rightly has always considered like family, the Italians, in whom it was always well pleased. So, if Your Holiness, as is proper, comes to the aid of the great multitude of Italians who are far away and burdened with extreme poverty of spiritual resources due to the perversity of the times and the negligence of the rulers, your word is indeed faithful and worthy of total acceptance, especially among the Italians. Most Holy Father, the same attitude is highly befitting you as an Italian sovereign and exalts the majesty of the Apostolic See in our day.

                        In fact, even though not a few Italians, led astray by an unhealthy spirit, forget how much dignity accrues to Italy from the Apostolic See or, what is worse, ungratefully conceal how much good they themselves have received from it and are not ashamed to conspire unspeakable intrigues against you and the Apostolic See, you overlook the wickedness of our brothers, beloved Father, and fill them with even more abundant blessings. In this way, you imitate not only the power but also the compassion of Christ who went about doing good.

            I am greatly overjoyed at the new radiance that, because of you, shines forth from the Holy See. Once and for all my Italian brothers, enlightened by the power of truth and by bitter experience and realizing that, from the new path on which they are traveling, they have reaped only ruin and unhappiness, will more easily learn to put their hopes not in those who falsely promise them human happiness but in you, Most Holy Father, and in the Apostolic See, in which are found every hope of life and energy. It is the tree of life, planted in the midst of the peoples. Under its branches many peoples will find their well-being.

            These are the reasons for my utter joy. I will forever thank God, source of all good, for having kindled and increased in my heart the desire to help our emigrated brothers and sisters and then for having made it your own, as it were, with the approval of your authority. Now, in fact, I feel I have every reason to believe that you will bring about this work in the magnanimity of your spirit. So, I also thank you, Most Holy Father, that, to the innumerable favors you have granted me, you have added this last one, namely, that of fulfilling my wishes and giving me the major role in this salutary work. I assure you that with all my power and all my strength I will dedicate myself indefatigably to this work, as well as to an increased love for the Holy See, and will gladly expend all my energies and life itself for this cause.

            If, on other occasions, I came to you with protestations of my enduring love for you, even more do I do so on this occasion. On this day of the Epiphany of the Lord, when the Divine Missionary for the first time enlightened the peoples, I beg the Savior of mankind, now born, to pour down his heavenly gifts in abundance on Your Holiness and on the work you have undertaken for the good of the Church and the whole human family. I kneel before you and implore your Apostolic Blessing on me, the members of the Congregation and the entire Diocese of Piacenza.