Opera Omnia

of practical pastoral action. In it one shall find parts that I have set aside:
1. Governo della parrocchia (Government of the parish) - Rivarolo.
2. Parroco novello (The new parish priest) - Frassinetti.
3. Il Curato d'Ars (The Curé of Ars) - Monnin.¹
They reflect the works and the needs of all times.
4. Guida pratica del beneficiato (Practical guide of the beneficiary) - Fino.
5. La paroisse (The parish) - Lesêtre.
6. Le prêtre et le ministère paroissial (The priest and the parish ministry) - Désers.
7. La cura d'anime nelle grandi città (The care of souls in the big cities) - Swoboda.²
8. Nella luce d'Ars (Under the light of Ars) - Retté.
9. Lettere d'un parroco di città (Letters of a city parish priest)- Yves le Querdec.
10. Lettere d'un parroco di campagna³ (Letters of a countryside parish priest) - Yves le Querdec.
They especially reflect on the needs and the works of today.

HEADING I
THE FACTS AND THEIR CAUSES
To observe the facts and draw the general law that governs them, this is an excellent manner of reasoning. To take into consideration the evil, look for their causes in order to prescribe remedies for them, this is the wise work of a doctor, of a sociologist, of an ascetic, of a teacher, etc. The facts I am about to narrate are true, but fortunately they are few. Nonetheless similar facts are not few and they could be cited: in them the deplorable evils would be minor, but more or less of the same nature: the more or less does not change the substance of things.

What worries the zealous clergy today almost entirely is to bring a bit of medicine to sick society; in experiencing the inconveniences of pastoral care the clergy shall not think of receiving an affront, but a friendly word that says: brothers, let's watch over our steps.
Here is one fact: there is a certain number of parishes in Italy and particularly in France wherein the priests, including the parish priests, seem to be destined to no one else but the devote souls, to retreats, to hospices, to the hospitals, to some ladies who pass for spiritual women. These souls keep the parish priest for very long hours in the confessional, they visit him at every instant for petty things and most useless chatter, invite him to a thousand parties and small occasions, to nice made up meals, etc. When evening comes, those priests and those parish priests draw a deep breathe and as if with an air of complacency exclaim: how much work in this parish! How many things have I accomplished today! How tired am I! Some rest I do deserve! - Meanwhile, one could say: Such time lost by working: in nihilo agendo occupatissimi!⁴ A saintly bishop would say. Time was wasted because those long hours at the confessional were in large part wasted, inasmuch as the saints would have drawn better fruits by cutting short with those persons: time was lost because also a

thought, also a prayer for the great mass of the population was neglected: time was lost, because that small herd of devote souls perhaps counts only a hundred, while the parish is made of some thousand souls.
Another fact. - A parish priest was mentioned with so much praise. The person speaking was a good woman, one of those, however, who want to know and pass judgment on why a priest said the Creed and another, not... And she was saying about that good parish priest that he spent an average of four hours at the confessional. It happened that I came to that parish and stayed there for a week or so: I wanted to check on what I pleasantly heard. But I was truly disillusioned. That parish priest, an otherwise good persons, spent indeed four hours at the confessional...; but in four hours he could hear the confession of but about a dozen persons among single ladies, some sisters, and old ladies, a few pious souls... These were about seventy in the village, and they confessed every eight days, spread through the week... The parish, however, had about four thousand inhabitants: what of these great mass of the population? At the religious instruction, one could see about two hundred persons, including little children; also during the principal feasts the number and the quality of those receiving communion varied little; more than a thousand and two hundred adults did not accomplish the Easter obligation! - And yet that parish priest calculated the number of hosts

distributed during the year and was saying: the spiritual level of the parish is improving because the number of communions has increased since I came... In fact, some more daily communicants were added: but the number of those receiving communion yearly had tremendously decreased: from five hundred from among those who neglected the Easter obligation, there were now about one thousand two hundred!!!
Third fact. - In a small village there were about twelve thousand inhabitants distributed in four parishes, with a total of thirty-four priests, including parish priests, assistant parish priests, beneficiaries, employed in confraternities,⁵ abbeys, etc... As one could see all the classes of persons could be spiritually cared for and some more could be added! And yet the result is quite negligible. Little conflicts, empty petty talks, ridiculous competitions! Great zeal is as if reduced to grab about two hundred or three hundred women, some nitwits, some cripples and a bit more! And towards this end, if in one church the devotion of the month of May is started, in the other, in order not to let go some of the flock, tries to make it more solemn: if in one church an hour of adoration is done, in the other the exercise of the good death is done: if in a parish, the way of the cross is held, in the other at the same time the ceremonies of the tertiaries are held... Go and preach in the city, visit all the churches, after a month,

you shall know all the two or three hundred persons referred to above, persons who run from church to church and form the great audience of all! At rare times someone is added to those who are not of this number of privileged persons! Let us cover with a merciful veil some efforts that the Lord shall judge in order to increase the number of penitents!... Meanwhile, there are no classes of religion held on holidays to students, who would count something like two hundred fifty. Meanwhile no one takes care of the weavers and of the seamstresses who grow up shameless if not worse. Meanwhile, the three hundred workers of the small factories, enrolled in the subversive parties, are abandoned in vice, lack of religion and in misery... There is someone among those priests who are in contact with some doctor or lawyer, but by reason of interests, or else for reasons of entertainment; there are some who get along with some professor, but for reasons of artistic culture. Then there is a certain number of men who do not even know by sight the parish priest, and with many others of this type, he does not exchange greetings other than a tip of the hat.
Fourth fact. - This is told by a young priest, for about three years an assistant curate in a parish of three thousand souls. From the human point of view, so he says, my life would not be that bad. In the morning the Ave Maria is rang quite late, I work very little

in the church, much freedom in the convent, discrete treatment. From the supernatural point of view, however, I suffer much! I move about town and everywhere in the village, in its roads and squares, I find children who never attend catechism classes: oh, if only there were a holiday oratory! And here it would be something very easy inasmuch as there are persons who have the means and are charitable. On Sunday mornings, on the first Mass celebrated by the parish priest, there is a crowd of men: the only sign they give of their religious life, because they hardly listen to God's word, and very few come for the sacraments. - What a priceless opportunity, when they are at mass, for telling them some gentle and strong words, where they could meet a priest, a pastor! Well, no! I, at the second mass, the parish priest giving instructions, we waste our breath with a few devotees, preaching what is suitable for one who is in the tavern. As for me, I can't do it: the parish priest does something, but he does it with a few women who often for us and for the prestige of being religious are more harmful than those who do not go to Church themselves. Greatest envy rules over these persons, a summary contest takes place among them so they be called devote, there rules a boundless passion for being considered and also most loved by the priest and especially by the parish priest. Thus, sometimes I notice them count, watch in hand, the minutes spent at the confessional: then with a refined cleverness, in some

to find pretexts to go to confession themselves, thus extending the spiritual conversations: then they make of the confessional the information office of all the news in town: then, there is always one who is on the lookout to find out who goes to the convent, who stays there more or less: then follows endless criticisms from every part of him who believes less welcome in the convent: and not only criticisms but vile calumny against the parish priest, cast here and there by persons who, the next day, would go to communion. And such things, believed or not, gets known throughout town and soon we see ironical and malicious smiles that are exchanged sometimes among young people when we pass by. - What a life of piety is this? Who shall still hold in high esteem devote practices, the rites, the holy communion, the priest?
Here, however, we do not need to examine all the causes of these most serious ills; these would be: not looking at the great mass of the population, lack of modern means for pastoral care, little enthusiasm among the clergy, etc. I have tried my best to deal with these matters in the Notes of Pastoral Theology.⁶ Let us narrow ourselves to study here some causes in view of established goals. Unfortunately: the ordinary course of events in life, long lasting habits, lightness, self-love, the multiplicity perhaps of occupations block many from doing it. We would always want to be able to say that we have done every one of our