Foreword

At the threshold of a new millennium, the mobility of people and their concern for a sense of identity take on increased significance. The collection of pamphlets and letters on the subject of emigration produced by an Italian bishop of exceptional vision and talent, John Baptist Scalabrini, at the end of the nineteenth century, addresses these topics with insightful anticipation and continued relevance for today. For this reason their publication is not only opportune, but it reveals also a little known linkage across the Atlantic at the time of the classical mass migration from Europe and a debate that is quite pertinent to the integration of the newest immigrants to America from lands and cultures more distant and challenging.

Bishop Scalabrini of Piacenza (1839–1905) played an important role in the Italy and Catholic Church of his day. But he is better known for his involvement in the massive European emigration of his time. A full portrait of the person and his activities are found in the rich biography written by Marco Caliaro and Mario Francesconi, John Baptist Scalabrini (New York, 1977). The Center for Migration Studies of New York has promoted in particular research and publications focusing on the contribution of Bishop Scalabrini and his immediate followers in the area of emigration and immigration and on the models of religious care they adopted in their ministry. Among the titles published are: Graziano Battistella, c.s., Itinerant Missions: Alternate Experiences in the History of Scalabrinians in North America; Mary Elizabeth Brown, From Italian Villages to Greenwich Village: Our Lady of Pompei, 1892–1992, and The Scalabrinians in North America (1887–1934); Velasio De Paolis, c.s., Evolution of the Mission of the Scalabrinian Congregation; Mario Francesconi, c.s., John B. Scalabrini: An Insight into His Spirituality, and Bishop Scalabrini’s Plan for the Pastoral Care of Migrants of All Nationalities; Giacomo Gambera, A Migrant Missionary Story: The Autobiography of Giacomo Gambera; Lice Maria Signor, John

Baptist Scalabrini and Italian Immigration: A Socio-Pastoral Project; Giulivo Tessarolo, c.s., The Church’s Magna Carta for Migrants; Silvano M. Tomasi, c.s., Piety and Power: The Role of Italian Parishes in the New York Metropolitan Area, 1880–1930, The Pastoral Action of Bishop John Baptist Scalabrini and His Missionaries Among Immigrants in the Americas, 1887–1987, and A Scalabrinian Mission Among Polish Immigrants in Boston, 1893–1909; and Alba I. Zizzamia, A Vision Unfolding: The Scalabrinians in North America, 1888–1988. The present volume finds its place within that effort.

The translation of Bishop Scalabrini’s writings is often complicated by his public style, full of abstract and even redundant expressions, that contemporary ecclesiastical rhetoric demanded. Instead his private correspondence reflects his personality: practical, incisive and essential. Several people have contributed to the final English form of the text through their patient work of rendering it clearly intelligible while preserving as much as possible the original eloquent immediacy: the Reverends Vincent Monaco, c.s., and Gino Dalpiaz, c.s., Professor Edward E. Stibili, and Dr. Anna K. Webb. The late Reverends Ottaviano Sartori, c.s. and Gianfausto Rosoli, c.s., have provided the archival and historical know-how that made possible an accurate identification of original texts and their historical circumstances.

Thanks are due to the Scalabrinian Provinces of North America and Australia as well as to the Agnelli Foundation of Turin, directed by Dr. Marcello Pacini, for providing the needed financial assistance to complete this project.

The Reverend Lydio F. Tomasi, c.s., the Executive Director of the Center for Migration Studies of New York, critically supervised the publication of this volume.

Transatlantic migrations at the end of the nineteenth century were dominated by southern and eastern Europeans among whom the Italians were the largest group. The arrival of these immigrants brought a different style of Catholicism. While this volume contributes to the understanding of the process of religious adaptation, both at the institutional and personal levels, it would have been more complete if the detailed letters were added that the Reverend Francesco Zaboglio as his representative regularly sent back to Bishop Scalabrini from the various American cities where the “new immigrants” settled. But that is another chapter in the saga of immigration to America.