For the Love of Immigrants: text

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Silvano Tomasi – Gianfausto Rosoli
For the Love of Immigrants
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Part 2 Correspondence
- 2 Bishop Scalabrini, Pope Leo X111 and Cardinal Mariano Rampolla (1887–1894)

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Bishop Scalabrini, Pope Leo X111 and Cardinal

Mariano Rampolla (1887–1894)

The papacy of Leo XIII (1878–1903) is marked by a great attention, continued under his successor Pius X, to both transatlantic emigrations and those toward European countries. Church archives in Rome document the vast effort undertaken to preserve the faith of the immigrants by providing priests of the same language, social assistance, and new pastoral models of ecclesiastical organization.¹ In the correspondence dealing with the issue of emigration between Bishop Scalabrini and Pope Leo XIII and his Secretary of State Cardinal

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Mariano Rampolla, the focus is the Institute of Missionaries for Migrants and the missionaries’ behavior among them. Cardinal Rampolla was linked to the group of Italian Catholics called intransigent, because he was opposed to any negotiation with the Italian Government on the question of the temporal power of the Popes. The Cardinal took note of accusations of a more conciliatory approach leveled at Bishop Scalabrini’s missionaries. On his part the Bishop of Piacenza, although openly favorable to reconciliation between the Vatican and Italy, wanted his missionaries completely engaged in the religious care of the Italian immigrants without any involvement in political debates.

Leo XIII formally approved Bishop Scalabrini’s Institute and wanted it to be “wholly ecclesiastical even in regards to its administration”. He also sent an official letter, Quam Aerumnosa, to the American bishops “to inform them of his desires and recommended that they take advantage of this new help Divine Providence has placed at their disposal.” Since a first draft of the letter had been prepared by Bishop Scalabrini and because of its significance, it is reproduced in this section. Then, Pope Leo XIII extended his concern for the migrants by directing his Nuncios to report “all pertinent information regarding the approximate numbers, conditions and needs of the migrants” in view of “any further assistance that might be considered opportune in the future.”

1 Regarding emigration to North America, Leo XIII had received abundant information on their social and religious conditions and on their impact on the life of the local Churches. In 1875 Msgr. Germano Straniero, who had been sent for an official visitation to the United States, prepared a detailed report highlighting the numerical growth of the Catholic Church thanks to the arrival of “good Catholics from Ireland,” as well as of others from Germany and Austria. He describes also the lack of religious practice of Italian immigrants, the conflict between German and Irish groups, the problem of immigrant priests, the ethnic press, the case of Polish, and other Slavic communities, the Chinese in California. Cf. Rapporto sulle condizioni della Chiesa Cattolica negli Stati Uniti d’America umiliato alla Santita’ di Nostro Signore Papa Leone XIII da Monsg. Germano Straniero pontificio ablegato presso sua Em.z Rev.ma il sig. Card. Gibbons Arcivescovo di Baltimora, giugno-novembre, 1876, pp. 168. ASV, SS, 1902, rubr. 280, fasc. 10. Again in 1883 in preparation of a meeting of the American Archbishops in Rome, Cardinal John Baptist Franzelin is commissioned to prepare a new report on the Church in the United States and the immigrants’ conflicts and conditions are analyzed: “Circa la presente condizione della Chiesa Cattolica negli Stati Uniti d’America.” APF, Acta, vol. 152 (1883), ff. 1081 on. In 1887, a thorough review of Italian immigration to the United States was presented in: “Report on Italian Immigration with a Summary of Related Correspondence,” prepared by the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (ASCPF, vol. 257, N. 30, Nov. 1887, pp. 682–693h) and published in this volume. Also, ASV, Spogli di Leone XIII, scatola 10, 16 Novembre 1892: United States Bishops write to Leo XIII on the spiritual and social problems of the immigrants and on what can be done for them. An important guide to the Vatican sources on the Church’s concern and action for immigrants is the special issue of Studi Emigrazione/Etudes Migrations, XXXII, 120 (December, 1995), 604–768: “Fonti ecclesiatiche per la storia dell’emigrazione e dei gruppi etnici nel Nord America: gli Stati Uniti (1893–1922),” edited by Matteo Sanfilippo.

For Italian emigration towards European countries, cf. A. Martini, s.j., “Leone Civilità Cattolica, Anno 105, 1954, vol. I, pp. 51–63; vol. III, pp. 470–485.

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