32. Corrigan to Scalabrini⁶⁹

         New York, February 25, 1891

Most Reverend Excellency:

Taking advantage of the brief moments that the continued cares of this very large Archdiocese allow me, I have read with special interest the

report of the First Catechetical Congress⁷⁰ held in Piacenza at the initiative of Your Most Rev. Excellency. I am very pleased to see the Italian Episcopate and clergy taking such an active role and so much interest in the Congress. I must warmly congratulate you who have been able to give your dear Italy a most distinguished service. In fact, with the sincerity of a friend, I must frankly confess that the teaching of catechism in Italy is given little or no consideration at all. I must agree with the Most Excellent Bishop Bonomelli,⁷¹ who states in his very beautiful closing talk, a truth that is painful for a Catholic, most painful for a Pastor. He says: “If we traveled through all the dioceses of our Italy, how many thousands of boys and girls we would find who, if asked, would not be able to make the sign of the cross properly or say the Our Father or answer one word about God and Jesus Christ.” (page 23l, Acts First Cathechetical Congress)

            Permit me to say it, Excellency, the distressing statement of Bishop Bonomelli is unfortunately true in its sad reality. In New York I have had evidence of this many times, and I could not understand how in Italy, where there is no scarcity of priests, there could be so much ignorance in the children of the people. The Italians who leave their motherland and cross the Atlantic to come among us looking for work and bread, show such great ignorance in the most elementary truth of religion that they amaze even our enemies. It often happens that when they present themselves for the celebration of marriage, the Pastor is placed in no small embarrassment, because he finds them completely untrained in Christian truths. May God provide that the work so happily begun by Your Excellency, blessed and encouraged by the Holy Father, presided over by the famous Cardinal Alfonso Capecelatro, embraced by the Episcopate, helped by zealous and pious priests, will give Italy abundant fruits of piety and religion. On the other hand I have strong confidence that such initiative will not fail expectations. More than in any other case, we can correctly apply here the wise popular saying: where there is a will, there is a way, as Bishop Tonietti of Massa so well stated (page 125) and as Bishop Bonomelli

expressed it in another way: everything is possible to one who wants with determination, and has God with him. (page 226).

            I do not dare to mention the topics proposed and discussed with so much seriousness and diligence by the speakers and by the entire Congress. I would like to observe in general that in the proceedings of the First Catechetical Congress of Piacenza every pastor could take something for himself and make it a treasure for his parish. It is not for everyone to know how to find ways and means to win the affection of children, to attract adults to the catechism and to prepare them well for First Communion. The report of the Congress collects all those methods and strategies which the piety of zealous priests devised for the welfare of the faithful and which a successful experience has endorsed. Thus, to have outlined, so to speak, a thousand ways to spread and renew catechetical teaching is already a great service that the Congress has done for Italy.

            Coming down to specifics then, the second topic deserves more consideration than anything else. It deals with catechism for young students. This point is perhaps the most important both because of the difficulties one meets in the implementation and because it is directed to that segment of the faithful that someday will take a dominant role in social and political life. In this regard, I admire the proposals of the presenter Prof. Martinoli and of the speaker Giuseppe Alessi di Arcireale. I am not opposed also to the idea of Bishop Miotti. To use his words, when invited to bring to the Congress the fruit of his long experience on how to promote the teaching of the catechism, he states that it is certainly beautiful to debate the easiest or most opportune method of impressing on the mind of children and youth the principles of the Gospel, “but more than discussions and various theories.... I would wish we could provide some intelligent, patient, zeal-inspired apostles, eager for the instruction of youth. I am not asking for good catechisms, but for good catechists.” (page 123).

            The words of Bishop Miotti, greeted with enthusiasm by the whole Congress, were picked up by the Most Excellent Bishop Bonomelli, who summarizes them in his most beautiful talk, develops them and moreover delineates the indispensable character of a good catechist. “One thing only,” he says, “and this is sufficient: the love of Jesus Christ.... It is love that conquers the hearts.... John Bosco and Lodovico da Casoria. . . what miracles they performed! They were rich in one thing only, in the love of Jesus Christ. Give Italy twenty, thirty men like Bosco and Lodovico da Casoria and they will give you the lever, and will renew the youth.” (page 234).

            In these words you see the light, you feel the strength of a self-imposing truth that invites one to embrace it. As the First Catechetical Congress of Piacenza has received with lively applause the ideas of Bishop Miotti, so do I accept them to treasure them for my Archdiocese.

            At this point I want to take the occasion to present to Your Excellency the method used in my Archdiocese, and one could say in the United States of North America, regarding catechetical instruction. However, with this I do not intend to say (using Bishop Cocchia’s expression): Here is the American method, apply it to Italy (page 243). I only want to satisfy Your Excellency who has expressed many times to me the desire to know how catechetical teaching is spread and prospers in my Archdiocese.

            Regarding the education of children up to about 16 years of age, everything is entrusted to the Catholic school. It is well that you know that in my Archdiocese every mission or parish has a school frequented by the sons and daughters of the parishioners. The boys are ordinarily taught by Brothers, the girls by Sisters, and always on the dependence of the pastor who at least once a week must visit the different classes. He must also do everything possible to see to it that his school should not be inferior to government schools so as not to give Catholics a reason to abandon the parish school because it would be inadequate for the education of the children. Naturally, in the school the teaching of the catechism takes an important place. Every day without fail there is a catechetical lesson. To have these directives scrupulously observed, a priest

is assigned with no other task than to supervise the teaching of the

catechism.

            I believe that the existence of parochial schools is not only useful, but also necessary. I always insist, therefore, that existing schools be improved and that they be established where until now they do not exist. What the Piarist Fr. Savare’ mentions comes in handy here (page 285): A Provincial Council of America directs that when the missionary has only means to build either Church or school, he should leave the church and build the altar in the school. The importance and necessity of the school for Christian education cannot escape anyone. The ideas and the truths which, so to say, are sucked in with a mother’s milk, remain more forcefully impressed upon the children. There is no age more consonant, more suitable to educate the heart to the truths of the Gospel than that of childhood and adolescence. This opinion of mine, or rather system,

has many who contradict it. Experience, however, which in this matter is the sole and infallible teacher, bears me out in my idea. The displeasure of being contradicted, if it exists, is compensated a thousand times over by the happy results. Besides it is worth noting that the establishment of the parochial schools is not my creation. It is mandated by the Fourth Provincial Council of New York in chapter III, art. l, and it is solemnly confirmed in the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, Title VI, n. 199.⁷²

            Therefore, in the Diocesan Synod celebrated by me in 1886, in conformity to the expressed will of the Holy Father, every pastor is directed to establish a school, leaving to the Ordinary in office to judge on the impossibility to open it and bear its expenses.

            Through this system, catechetical education is well protected up to the age of 16. The Fourth Provincial Council of New York has very conveniently provided that young people should not be abandoned to themselves in later years nor left to the whim of passions that easily dominate and pervert the heart in this less prudent and more daring age. According to the prescriptions of the Council of Trent the pastor must proclaim the Word of God to the people every Sunday. This directive was thought to be insufficient for America because all those who for various reasons cannot attend the parish or solemn Mass would always remain deprived of the Word of God. To avoid such inconvenience, the above-mentioned Provincial Council ordered that, besides what the Council of Trent prescribes, in every church and at every Mass on Sunday, the Pastor or another person designated by him should give the people a short instruction on the truths of faith after the reading of the Gospel of the day in the vernacular. In this way all the faithful every Sunday attend an instruction, which, though brief, is nonetheless of great advantage. It recalls to mind those Christian truths that form the norm of honesty and are an encouragement to the practice of virtue. Thus in New York City alone, besides the sermons given in certain determined seasons, every Sunday I can count on four hundred catechetical talks in the eighty and more churches that there are. This directive of the Provincial Council of New York was accepted by the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore which in turn imposed it on all of North America with no restriction. No one should object that in this way we have not sufficiently provided for the Christian education of young pupils. This is an added reason to say

that the American system cannot be implemented in Italy. The young American Catholic students have a very different ideal than the Italians. The University is not a reason to stay away from the church. It is not a school that makes one forget God, but it is an added reason to fulfill one’s religious duties. Perhaps this depends on the American character or also on the parents who do not tolerate that their children, even if young, stay away from the church. The voice of the parents in the family almost equals that of the priest in the church. The American Catholic attends Mass every Sunday without fail. He visits the church. There is no need to use tricks or exert clever skills to call him to church, the duty to do so is in his very conscience.

            To have a complete picture of catechetical instruction in my Archdiocese, it would be necessary to illustrate the role of the cooperation of the clergy in this task as well as the manner in which children are prepared for First Communion. I propose to develop this aspect on another occasion. There will be more time for me to write while at the same time I will have an opportunity to deepen our close friendship. In the meantime, please accept my sentiments of deep esteem and gratitude. Hoping to see your dear motherland implement the desires formulated at the First Catechectical Congress, I have the honor to be,

Your Excellency’s, most humble Servant,

Michael Augustine, Archbishop of New York