Opera Omnia

HEADING I
ON PASTORAL ACTION IN GENERAL
What it may be. - It is the action of Jesus Christ and of his Church, exercised by the priesthood for the salvation of souls.¹ It is the ministry itself that Jesus Christ one day wanted to exercise in Palestine: Veni ut vitam habeant et abundantius habeant,² and now he wants it done by those to whom he said: Sicut misit me Pater et ego mitto vos.³ It aims at seeing to it that human thought, science, philosophy, etc., are Christian: it aims to turn Christian the desires, the affections, the will, the works of man; it wants to raise and sanctify everything... And why this? In order to reach that place that Jesus Christ has prepared for each one: Vado parare vobis locum.⁴ From here, one can see that pastoral action aims at letting Christianity live among men: to turn man Christian in mind, in heart, in deeds. Christianity is not made up by a setup of ceremonies, of external acts, of bows, etc., it is a new life. It takes man, makes him whole, almost consecrates him. Hence, a Priest cannot say he is satisfied if in church there are splendid rites, hymns sung to the dot, a thousand devotions, etc.: he cannot say he is satisfied that communion is done yearly, that marriages are celebrated in church, that the deceased have church funerals, etc.: he cannot say he is satisfied of certain parades such are pilgrimages and processions; that the people admire his eloquence

in sermons, etc.: that some souls speak at length of highly spiritual ideas. These things can be means, but the goal is to change thoughts from human to Christian, affections from human to Christian, deeds of men into Christian deeds. It is a must that man should be Christian, not only due to baptism, not only in church; but at home, within the family, in society. Such an action is aimed at this: and this has to be well borne in mind in everything. It is a must not to exchange the means with the end and to turn almost ridiculous a religion which is the loftiest that God, infinite Wisdom, could ever teach us.

General principles that must regulate pastoral action.
a) Concordant Action. One who is experienced can immediately recognize the meaning, the breadth and the need of this principle. Just as the state is composed of townships, so is the church made up of parishes. The parish is the first and fundamental local organization: around it must accidental organizations be established. These are but means that assist the action of the first. And just as the first is based on the parish priest, so the members of these organizations must refer themselves and allow to be led by the parish priest, just as parts of the body are led by the head. It is true that those who work in the parish, be they individuals or associations, priests or lay persons, must be favored with a certain freedom of action: but it is equally true that the parish priest is the motor: it is as well true that the parish priest must have the threefold task of exciting to action, exercise watchfulness as if from above, lead everything to their final goal: to turn to Christians and to save all parishioners. If there is no harmony in this, prudently

achieved by the parish priest, one would have the ugly sight of a field where a thousand workers labor, step on each other's toes, destroy one another's done work; the souls shall not be assisted or be badly assisted. To achieve it, many are the means: but nothing is more beneficial than mutual understanding: for as long as men do not talk to each other, do not communicate their own ideas, feelings, to one another, they are more easily bound to fight against each other in those same things on which they converge. And thus mutual understanding is not possible if it is not promoted from the lower clergy, or by particular associations, inasmuch as there would never be any agreement if the center and the upper part are wanting, that part which has the ability and the authority to reconcile dissensions and to prevail over those who deviate. It is necessary that it be promoted by the parish priest to whom belongs by right and duty the real care of souls. Neither should he wait to be called by the clergy or the laity; he has to go to them himself, to get their interest, to communicate what he thinks is best, to ask them for advice and help, to excite them towards what is good. It is a good thing if one wanted to promote pastoral conferences in order to obtain a common consensus as regards the direction and the manner of action. Some shall say: but I have no support. The answer: that could depend on real defects of coadjutors, but it depends even more from lack of tact and of ability: often one pretends to get the best, of not finding among the inferiors any defect, of not being ever contradicted, of always and everywhere imposing one's point of view, of distributing the jobs without any concern on the ability of the individuals, of correcting them badly or in the least things of making them work for free, and to close, with showing himself always dissatisfied. With the priest avoiding on his part such defects, in general it would not be difficult for him to achieve harmony

in pastoral action. At times, however, he would find among his collaborators some troublemakers who resist all initiatives; for these, it shall never be enough for one to recommend to the lower clergy and especially to priest-teachers and chaplains to support the parish priest, considering the serious responsibility that would weigh on them by their secretly or openly quarreling with him. Let the parish priest know how to often give in, rather than to cause any break: at least for as much as conscience permits.
b) Personal contact. - That is, an intimate union between parish priest and flock: an exact knowledge of the miseries and of the needs, acquired by dealing directly with the people. At times it happens for one to find priests who are totally separated from the mass of people! In the convent, the little people find a thousand hesitations for entering: in church, they hear high-sounding sermons, completely beyond their level of thinking: at the confessional only a few more privileged women go: outside, the priest is not known, if not for the few times that they see him briefly pass, dispensing rarely hesitant and stereotyped greetings, or some aristocratic tipping of the hat. How can one ever do good to anyone he does not know? How can he be sought if he is not known? Was Jesus Christ doing the same thing? So did holy pastors? Is this the spirit of the church? Is this the doctrine of the Council of Trent in those areas that speak of the parish priest?⁵ What fruits has such a method of pastoral bear in places and in times where they are adopted? Let it just be remembered that this was fashionable before the terrible catastrophe happened in 1789! We know well how much real ignorance of things religious and what profound immorality it has caused. Now, how can this contact with the pastor be achieved? In many

ways. Through visits in individual homes, with the purpose of knowing each one of them and their needs, defects, virtues, etc. This, we will discuss somewhere else.⁶ Then (by visiting) Catholic associations, especially the youth and adult circles. Then by welcoming volunteers in the convent, by attending to all the needs, also the material ones, etc., that can arise among the people.
c) In the entire pastoral action, aim at gradually leading the people to the Most Holy Sacraments. The priest cannot exclude from his plan any means capable of leading souls to God. At times he shall do well also to attend to material things, to elections, to agriculture, to music, to gymnastics, etc. He shall act differently on the different social classes: the army, the learned, artists, workers, the youth, adults, etc. But in all this variety of activities and actions, he shall have as ultimate goal: to save souls; and a proximate goal: to bring as close as possible the people to the Most Holy Sacraments. It is here that the union of the soul with God is effected or at least started. And if one has not achieved thus, what has he achieved? We shall have but exterior things, sentimentalism, parades, but almost nothing of true religion.
It is true that this cannot be a day's work, especially when it means dealing with persons who are unbelievers or almost. More, in many cases, one does not even achieve it: in others, one achieves by the administration of the last sacraments: in other yet, instead of obtaining frequency, it would be much if he manages to lead them to the sacraments some times during the year. But this ought to be the purpose, the goal to propose for one's self and to which one will tend with al his energies and spiritual labors.

d) Aim at the entire mass of people. In too many places, especially in France, complaints are made of this very serious inconvenience in pastoral care: the parish priest attends to but a small group of devoted souls, of retreats, of hospices, hospitals. These souls take so much of his time at the confessional, visit the parish priest for a thousand petty things and small talks, invite him too often in their homes: and this would perhaps be accompanied by envy and criticisms of one another. And meanwhile there is a big number of souls, especially the more needy, which does not know at all the parish priest, or know him only by name or on sight: they are the working masses, the so-called educated class, they are the high class people, they are the most unfortunate poor, they are perhaps those whom Jesus Christ would have approached the most. Inveterate preventions cause so much evil: it is either that one believes the worker, the laborer, the learned to be naturally brought to hate religion; one is so used to receive only those that approach him and not go after those lost sheep; or the habit has been made of a comfortable life, of not wanting to face difficulties, struggles, disappointments, for the triumph of religion. Whoever does not have the courage of working at all costs, of calmly and firmly facing the difficulties of these undertaking, to stay firm face to face with those who criticize prudent zeal, can it be said that that he has the talents and thus the qualities and the vocation of a parish priest? The parish priest is the pastor of all: he might as well leave the ninety-nine secure sheep in order to look for the lost one: more so if the secure sheep are a pusillus grex⁷ and the lost ones are the more numerous. The parish priest then

has always to bear in mind the different classes of which his parish is made: often he shall pray, think, study for the sake of those who are left behind and, as a good father, he shall see more greatly to the most needy children, and as a good doctor, he shall take care of those who are more ill: Veni salvum facere quod perierat.⁸
An example would not be useless: let it be noted that in many parishes, while the number of those who receive communion daily increases among the devoted souls, the number of those who go to Easter communions, among those of the big mass, diminish: the parish priest adds the distributed Hosts and becomes happy the spiritual level of his parishioners is rising! This is the true sign that he does not know or does not aim at the whole of the population.
In order to avoid such an inconvenience, a zealous pastor of souls advised the pious persons of the parish (about 150) not to go to confession more than every fifteen days: thereby he could dedicate the time, saved thus, to all the rest of the population. And he truly dedicated such time!
These are the general principles pastoral action must know: and according to these principles the forthcoming topics shall be dealt with: rather, these shall almost not be other than the same principles discussed and applied.
If one wanted it broadly and masterfully explained he would not do anything else but read the stupendous work of Msgr. Swoboda, translated by Cattaneo with the title La cura d'anime nelle grandi città (The care of souls in big cities).⁹
It is sold also by Cav. P. Marietti - Torino.