Part 1

Migration Pamphlets

1

Italian Emigration to America: Observations

(1887)

This is the first and most significant pamphlet on emigration by Bishop Scalabrini. It was published by the Catholic weekly of Piacenza, L’Amico del Popolo, in June 1887 and immediately several reprintings followed which included minor additions. The text published here is that of the 5th reprinting (1888). Scalabrini starts from the sad memory of an emigration scene he had witnessed in Milan. With an accurate and abundant documentation he analyzes the causes and the evolution of the migration phenomenon. He deplores the lack of assistance on the part of the Government and of private groups in Italy and proposes the establishment of a protection society for the religious and social care of migrants.

Aware of the importance of religion for the migrating masses, Scalabrini explains the goals of his project which is set in the context of the initiatives desired by the Holy See through its department for the Propagation of the Faith and by the American Bishops who had been shocked by the spiritual needs of Italian immigrants. At the center of Scalabrini’s plan is the establishment of a religious order for the spiritual and social care of these immigrants, and he in fact implements the project within the next few months. In the joint action on behalf of their compatriots abroad undertaken by Catholics and the Government, two camps ideologically at odds over the issue of the temporal power of the Popes, Scalabrini sees a concrete step to overcome the division that confronts them in Italy. This hope of reconciliation, quite alive in the first months of 1887 when even Leo XIII called for the elimination of the dangerous conflict, would find its fulfillment after Scalabrini’s death in 1905.