15. Scalabrini to Corrigan³⁹

         Piacenza, September 7, 1888

Most Reverend Excellency:

I have learned from my Missionaries residing there of the festive welcome and very effective help with which Your Excellency took care of encouraging them to their holy but difficult undertaking.

            I thank Your Excellency as much as I am able for such a great goodness. I can assure you that neither my gratitude nor that of my Missionaries will ever cease. They have rightly recognized in you not only their superior but also their noble benefactor and father.

            I also thank you, dear Archbishop, for your last revered letter which was a source of great consolation to me. New York is a very important center and thanks perhaps to its worthy Archbishop, I feel a particular attraction for it. Therefore within a few months, if Your Excellency succeeds in providing another even modest church, I would make it my duty to respond to your desire and send at least two more Missionaries, who are readying themselves through study and prayer in this house of Piacenza.

            May God bless our common efforts for His honor and glory. In renewing my expression my deepest veneration, I remain

Your very devoted and affectionate confrere,

+Gio. Battista, Bishop of Piacenza

P.S. Affectionate greetings to D.Carlo.