Part 2

Correspondence

1

Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith

Report on Italian Immigration With Summaries of Related Correspondence¹ (1887)

Bishop Scalabrini’s response to the plight of Italian immigrants in the Americas, especially in the United States, cannot be understood without taking into account the various efforts of Church authorities since the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore of 1884. The Bishops of the United States sounded the alarm at that important event, even though immigration, ethnic and racial issues were relatively minor themes. In the official response to Rome the Council Fathers did not mince words in describing the immense spiritual destitution of the Italian immigrants who fall into apostasy with the greatest ease lacking instruction in the most elementary principles of the faith. Bishop Thomas A. Becker of Wilmington, Delaware, sent the official answer to Rome in the name of Cardinal James Gibbons of Baltimore and of all the American Bishops. He wrote:

“Following the directives given at the meeting held in Rome in 1883, the Fathers of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore were presented in Title III of the Schemata with those observations that deal with all immigrants, in particular with the Italians who came here. It emerged in a clear and conclusive way that 1) Italians, who have migrated to America, rarely thereafter set foot in a church or receive the Sacraments; 2) they live scattered in all parts of the cities;

3) viewing their stay in America as an exile, they come here with the intention of returning to their native country. As a result, they generally do not contribute anything for the building of churches or the support of priests. These were the exact conclusions reached by the Bishops who were commissioned by the Council to look into this matter. Moreover it was evident that Rome was unaware of the fact that the Italians suffered a spiritual destitution greater than that of all other immigrant groups.”²

Part of the solution proposed was the request that educated and zealous priests be sent among the immigrants and devote themselves “fully and permanently” to their spiritual care. In the following years data and reports on Italian emigration were collected by the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, under whose jurisdiction were the United States at the time, and at a general meeting of this Congregation an exhaustive report was submitted for discussion and the formulation of recommendations for the Pope. Bishop Scalabrini’s ideas were included. The report itself, published here for the first time in English, sums up the perception of the “Italian problem”³ and serves well as background to understand Bishop Scalabrini’s correspondence with American Bishops, his views of American society, and the Holy See’s progressive involvement in coordinating an international response. In fact, the cardinal prefect of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith in writing to Bishop Scalabrini on February 3, 1887 refers to this information reaching him from overseas:

“The letter of your Lordship where you speak of the Italian emigrants has been most welcome. I too am deeply hurt by the sad condition in which they find themselves. The reports sent to this Sacred Congregation by the Archbishops of Norfolk, New Orleans, and by the Fathers of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore give a very discouraging idea of their spiritual and religious condition. It is not necessary here that I even summarily describe the bad information received, because you know enough. I will not neglect to point out that this Sacred Congregation has not overlooked attempts at establishing assistance committees for Italian emigrants, but the efforts made have not met with satisfactory results so far.”⁴

The search for results fell primarily on Bishop Scalabrini.