5.  Scalabrini and Rampolla⁸

Piacenza, June 25, 1891

Your Eminence,

Count Raffo, an excellent and distinguished person from Tunis, will convey this letter to you. He came expressly to Rome to discuss important matters, which Your Eminence can greatly help him resolve in a favorable way.

            Hence, Your Eminence, I ask you to receive him and listen to him with your accustomed kindness and do what you can to fulfill his wishes on behalf of religion and the Holy See itself. A brother of mine, who holds an important position in Tunis,⁹ writes me to say that, as a result of the threatened withdrawal of the Capuchins from that city, there is great unrest there and fear of serious disorders. The departure of those good religious would be a great misfortune, indeed the spiritual ruin of that Italian colony, numbering at least 40,000 people.

            This is the reason I took it upon myself to add my voice to this matter. I am sorry to bother you. Please accept my best wishes.

Your most humble, devoted and obedient servant,

John Baptist Scalabrini, Bishop of Piacenza