If this resolve were wanting, the real notion of duties of the parish priest would also be wanting, or else would be wanting the vocation for becoming one. One who is chosen to be a parish priest cannot say: finally here I am with the reward and the rest for so many labors! On the other hand he could take for himself the statement of a saintly parish priest: The cross has been placed on my shoulders: it is a heavy cross, and yet sweet! I will no longer have peace on earth: I must work and die on the field of work in behalf of souls.
In this kind of general program the parish priest must understand all the work which the other free priests have to do: he has some obligations more, but he is not dispensed from their duties. Hence, what could be done from the confessional and those other things that can be done without an external or local organization, these already fall within the scope of his work. Here, we mean to speak only of parish activities that comports public associations; and with what criteria could the parish priest choose them?
Two rules:
a) Let him study first of all the needs of his parish. - In some places, mutual assistance may be necessary and in others, cooperation: here there are the female students, there the workers: there are places where subversive parties dominate and others where indifference rules. More: every center has its own mentality, its own customs, its own habits. Some populations are diffident, others indifferent, others full of enthusiasm.
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At times very serious ills exist in the parish: one cannot cure them without studying their causes first. In the Diary of a country priest, the author narrates himself that, having entered a parish of about 600 souls, he immediately noticed the religious indifference and the deep division between the people and the priest. By means of visits, conversations, friendly relationships, he started a diligent investigation of their material, individual, and social ills. Four he especially noticed: no money for buying things; mortality among farm animals; difficulty in marketing products; lack of a health officer. He resolved the problems with a rural mutual fund,1 an insurance association against the mortality of farm animals, a cooperative, a night school. It was a long and burdensome work, but not an unrewarding one: inasmuch as, after a few years, the people was in intimate relations with the parish priest: the parish priest was a real father and counselor of his people: almost all the men were doing their Easter duties.
Not precisely the same, but quite similar should the study and cure of moral ills: what counts is in order that one achieves the purpose of uniting souls with God through the practice of religion! It is repeatedly heard: Let a parish priest who has come to a village, for a year, observe more than work. And what are the means for achieving knowledge of one's own surroundings? Diverse: and, first among them, is home visits. With just
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announcing it would perhaps make some wonder: but wait a minute.
There are visits that are useless, others harmful and others spiritual and advantageous. The useless ones are those that absorb a notable amount of time, without any advantage, for merely human motives. The harmful ones are those that include unreasonable preferences for one family to another, those that hide a danger for the priest, those that elicit petty talks among the people. Spiritual instead are those visits that are directed to knowing souls, to establishing intimate relations with them, in order to do some spiritual or material good. Jesus Christ ran after the lost sheep,2 sought the company of sinners,3 invited himself for a meal at Zaccheus' place.4 When a shepherd does not know his flock,5 what traps are set, ignores the quality of the pastures and the sources of water with which it feeds, how can he guide them through good paths? From the confessional, one knows only the better part, and one who narrows himself in that would surely run the greater risk of committing a mistake in his evaluations.
Because of this, in Germany, in England and now also in France and in some parishes in Italy, among the priest's occupations, has been included also the home visits. They are visits that in some place is once in fifteen days, in others monthly, in others once every two months or once every six months. It is a visit done
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methodically, with a specific purpose, promptly and cordially. Especially in Germany, there are forms to fill: concerning the number of members of the family, frequency of attendance in church and especially in the catechism of children, the publications being read, the associations of which they are members, special needs, etc. Among these pieces of information, and without seeming like an inquisition or a policeman, those that refer to women assume an important place.
Aside from the visit, one could undertake: conversations. A parish priest, who does not keep himself in his convent, who does not limit himself, when he goes out, to greeting left and right with an aristocratic tipping of the hat or of measured and directed greetings, a parish priest who, instead is hospitable, affable, gentle, finds frequent occasions to speak with his parishioners. Loved, he gets visited in the convent, stopped along the way, detained by his people in many circumstances that he artfully conceives. Esteemed, he enjoys the trust of his children who open their hearts candidly to him. Saintly, he knows how to raise those questions that, without putting him in embarrassing situations, raise the veil also over the more serious wounds.
Then, in the third place, there are the surveys. These are done for particular reasons such us: the Sunday rest, the observance of the laws of work of women and of children, the morality in the boarding houses of workers and students, emigration.
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With all these things, the parish priest shall have before him, as if in a picture, all the work that needs doing in his parish, those that are necessary to cure the ills at their roots. And so he shall have to measure his strength and not only his but also that of his male and female cooperators. Here the second rule becomes handy.
b) Let him study the aptitudes of his men and women cooperators. - The first condition is that they should be living good lives, that one has to demand a more perfect life the more delicate and religious are the works. Then follows the need for adequate instruction, love for souls, the desire for making oneself useful.
Neither shall the parish priest prudently believe words, but he must observe life, if he does not want to run the danger of falling into serious mistakes. Granted as well that each one sincerely wanted to candidly reveal himself, the fact always remains that everyone commits mistakes, more or less, in judging himself. To watch life means to observe the spirit of humility, of sacrifice, of goodness that is manifested in works: to observe what is the strength of character, what dominion over one's heart is exercised, what constancy is manifested in doing good: it means to observe the spirit of piety, the seriousness, the withdrawn lifestyle of women cooperators.
Neither should one pretend to find many of them: it is enough to find them as they should be, very few of them are enough. Neither should one want to add others to them
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too early. When the first ones are truly guided by the right spirit, they shall become true apostles: the new ones, arriving few at a time, shall assume the spirit: while a too sizeable mass could overload the first ones and seriously endanger the work.
Then6 if one should want to give to the same work the necessary stability, then one should think as well of successors. Among the works, there are those that are temporary, but there are also those destined to outlast the founders. Now for these, to train personnel that is capable of guiding them is a great wisdom. To infuse to this personnel love for work, to cultivate the ability to daily care for what is there, to instruct them regarding the defects, the dangers, the projects: this is all that is needed for the purpose.
Also here, history is the teacher of life, as Cicero said it: life tells us of great founder, of religious orders, of pious institutes, of charitable organizations all intent in training successors. Rather, there are not a few of these organizations that, having begun well the works, gradually relieve themselves of the occupations, of tasks, of offices, and pass them on to others, narrowing themselves to a kind of overseers or even mere onlookers.
2. [Two warnings]
Having known the needs of his parish and the forces on which he could count, two things remain to get done in the parish:
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Above all, possibly make use of what already exists. If, for example, one desired to establish a roving library, because people love to read, one could supply a few chosen books for the older ones of the oratory. Perhaps, brought home, they would be read by the mother, by the sister, by the father, by the brother: they have to understand that the books should also be lent to them; all it takes would be a request. Thus in this oratory for girls, it would not be difficult to choose the more pious, more serious, young ones, who have ascendancy over others, for setting up the foundation of a group of Daughters of Mary or of a school of sewing, of home economics, of volunteer catechists.
A most zealous priest said: We need to expand the goals of old associations according to the needs of today. And truly so: because no one has to doubt this truth: to choose the most convenient means to the intended goals to reach. Today, it would be ridiculous to persist on using the primitive systems of navigation, of the press, of military tactics, etc. Religion, dogmas, Christian morality, are unchangeable in their substance, but our manner of knowing and applying them progresses. The Catholic Church is indefectible and from the word of the Gospel, not even an iota and neither a dot: but the Church and the Gospel possess marvelous ease
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in adapting to times and peoples... The more one can say this with regards to religious groups, associations and congregations. Explaining his thought that parish priest said: Today, a fraternity of tertiaries could assume the task of spreading the good press, of promoting, when occasions arise, gathering of signatures against parliamentary bills adverse to the Church, of obliging themselves to support with all sorts of assistance the oratory, etc.
This manner of doing shall bring about numerous advantages. Advantages in the negative since is avoided that spirit of novelty that feeds the vanity of one who works, almost always alienates a certain number of persons, stirs murmurings; to be avoided are the creation of duplicates, of encouraging competition, of leaving inactive precious energies.
Positive advantages: older cooperators shall have a new area for their zeal, the modern ones shall see themselves included, in their right aspirations, and agreement of minds, of wills, of action shall be had; the goal shall be reached sooner inasmuch as less work of persuasion will be required; there will be more confidence for stability inasmuch as it has to do with a foundation that has already overcome the great trial of time.
In the second place: whether one utilizes what is old or creates something new, just distribution of work is most important. This is a principal part of one who governs: not only for those who occupy eminent positions in the hierarchy, but also for those who find themselves at the helm of a limited parish work.
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Look for those who have the capacity for specific roles and place them in the possibility of accomplishing their mission: do not leave anyone with no occupation, a brooding critic of the others: use well the precious energies that are hidden in that which, more than self live ought to be called personal dignity, or the foundation of sociability. God sends good workers to his harvest: should one think that He would not give the adequate human means?
It is the task of the harvest master to repeat what the Gospel landowner said, referring to his vineyard: Quid statis tota die otiosi?7
Let all have8 something without being a burden to anyone. There are those who would be more visible and those less; those who have to lead and those to obey; those who will be engaged in works of mercy, others in charitable activities and there are those who will fall within the name of women's social action. Thus it is not difficult to understand that one who is married and a widow can attend to the more difficult things than one much younger: that a teacher enjoys much more ascendancy over children in catechism classes than a country girl; that a noble woman is more ordinarily followed than a woman of the masses: that the mayor's wife has an influence that is well beyond that of ordinary women: that a soul, which is very much into things of the spirit, better understand the victim souls than those who attend less to virtues... And the examples could be expanded to infinity.
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An inactive person would not be on the parish priest's side, and one who is not with him sooner or later will be against him. It is the task of the parish priest to keep gently the lineup of pastoral work, unite it, lead it to his ends: but every worker is one more resource.
3. [An objection]
At this point perhaps a difficulty would be raised by some. Would it be practical to suppose to find the woman so docile under the guidance of the parish priest?
The objection is already answered in part this soon: when it is said that women have to train themselves in humility, to the spirit of sacrifice; when the importance of pastoral solidarity among the clergy is noted: nonetheless an observation still proves useful. Before availing with her services, the priest shall bind the woman to him not only with prudence and amiability but especially through the confessional. Inasmuch as one has a soul under his direction, it is most easy to let her perform as wanted: she becomes a most docile instrument of her spiritual father whose counsels are commands for her. The parish priest shall then pay much attention on the confessional although leaving much freedom in it: he shall spend long hours therein, waiting and welcoming all with paternal kindness: otherwise, he communicates his pastoral designs to other confessors, he shall have them as cooperators also in this holy ministry: to them the occasion to say
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a good word regarding the parish priest and his works would not be wanting.
4. [Priority]
Much work is perhaps needed in a parish. Which has the precedence? We have four rules in this regard. Prefer the most urgent ones: prefer the strictly religious: prefer the most welcomed and secure; prefer the most neglected. Above all the most urgent ones: and this is understandable by all. If fire is burning and threatens to reduce the house to a heap of ruins, I am not going to go on painting a fresco on the hall's vault: if the ship is about to sink due to too much weight, I am not going to throw into the sea the little bread left to me, but the superfluous, the artful, the comfortable, or also simply useful.
In the second place, the strictly religious works. Everything that the priest does should be called religious, at least after the set goal. He does not establish a cooperative purely for material purposes: through that he aims at souls. Nonetheless, there are activities that are strictly, or better, by nature religious, as are the Union for the communion of children, the associations of the apostolate of prayer, of victim souls, etc.: there are others that are religious only for their goals, like the dowry funds, the workers funds, homes for the aged, etc.
Well, all of us understand that the first ones
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become part of the parish priest's program, the second ones instead only indirectly, inasmuch as they are necessary, or useful for the moral-religious purposes.
Prefer the most welcomed and secure. Because it is especially in making the first steps that one has to make sure of not going out of path, or to alienate the population. One would endanger the entire pastoral work that should be following later.
Prefer the most neglected works. It is well understood: when they are truly useful. On this norm, Frassinetti insists so much in his book Industrie spirituali (Spiritual works). There are activities, so he says, that enjoy universal favor, either because they are better understood or because they are better known, or because they largely satisfy egos. Others, instead, no less necessary, are neglected by many: hence it becomes more meritorious to work on them. On the other hand, one will have the advantage of a broader welfare inasmuch as the first will continue having the general support, while the second ones will not be without the indispensable help.
* * *
I am transcribing here some of the results of a long study of a new parish priest on the moral-religious-material state, its causes and its remedies: while I forewarn however that I am skipping what refers
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exclusively to men. And this according to my goal.
Status of the parish
1. There are 400 boys and 450 girls to catechize. Catechism classes are held in church, by the parish priest, two assistant priests, four unmarried women: on the average, attendance is scarce. Many of them are neglected and on vacation days from school they are almost abandoned.
2. For girls aging 12 years till they get married, there is a group of Daughters [of Mary], with one-sixth of the total number of girls enlisted. They take part during processions and on burials. Only about twenty of them go to communion. Majority of them work in the factory: a certain number of them also come from the nearby villages.
Majority of them are superficial, a few truly bad. The number of marriages is very limited.
3. Mothers have a pious sodality under the protection of St. Ann: about one third of their number participate.
In large part they neglect their duties towards their children.
4. Many of the men are given to wine and card games. Among them, many of those who do not work in the factory do not observe holiday rest. They generally come to mass but very few listen to the parish instructions.
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They are not hostile towards the Church, but they are indifferent: also at the moment of death, one does not see any concern to having the comforts of religion.
5. There is a notable group of pious souls, among whom are unmarried women,9 many teachers, charitable single ladies, a music amateur.
6. There are a dozen students in junior high school; every year about thirty persons, men and women, emigrate, mostly to Germany.
Causes
1. Wanting is not only an oratory, but also any catechetical organization;10 children stay far from the priest; parents are indifferent and the catechists, demoralized due to limited success. Communion is neglected.
2. There is no special religious instruction whatsoever. Serious dangers for young girls11 are numerous pastimes, readings, common factory entrance and exit of young men and women.
There is no preparation whatsoever, material or moral, for marriage. Those who come from surrounding villages are gathered in a lay boarding house.
3. There is no organization.
Awareness of one's own duties is lacking.
Social and religious instructions are wanting.
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4. There is no organization.12
Wives do not adequately fulfill their part at home. They do not feel the benefit of religion and the obligation to practice it.
5. There are many special devotions, but almost none of the pious souls thinks of the religious welfare of her neighbor. Among them there is no organization whatsoever.
6. Neither the students are given directions as they go to the city looking for good schools, nor the emigrants for their safety during the trip and for their jobs.
Remedies - programs
1. To convince parents, catechists, children of the importance of religious instructions through sermons, advice, conferences, visits to families.
Classes for catechists, volunteers, held by the teachers and by the parish priest.
A practical organization of teaching, with precise rules, solemn awards, projections... To aim at establishing an oratory, pious union for the communion of children.
2. Spiritual exercises and special conferences for girls.
A cultural circle for women not only with religious purposes, but also social (clean entertainment, songs, classes for becoming good housekeepers, dowry funds) and religious (special instructions, particular conferences in preparation to
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marriage). A pension house for immigrant girls, maintained by the sisters. To insist upon the separation of the young men from the girls entering and going out of the factory.
3. Organize them with religious and moral purpose. Instructions and conferences on their duties, in order to make them aware of their responsibility before God, the family and society.
4. Special instructions (not excluding the brief Gospel commentary or also the instruction in every holy mass). Spiritual exercises for them: extraordinary occasions for them to go to confession: insisting on women that they solicit the participation of their husbands. Avail with women as well to group men together in an organization with material and moral purposes. Care for poor people who are sick with the purpose of informing the parish priest of those who, although serious, fail to ask for the priest.
5. Apostolate of prayer, victim souls for the welfare of the parish.
Patronage for catechism and pro erigendo (for establishing) the oratory, especially among those well off.
6. Choose a teacher or an educated woman to get in touch with the secretariats of the families for students and with the organizations in favor of emigrants in Germany. Choose a woman collector for the works of the Propagation of the Faith, Holy Infancy and St. Peter's Pence.
In order to obtain gradually this Christian women's work activities and these organizations one
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has to first of all establish among the excelling women a local committee of the Union of Catholic Women in Italy. Cultivating it with every diligence, it will be easy that out of it and for the persons who make it up, all the rest of the work would be conceived and accomplished under the guidance of the parish priest.
7.13 It is not generally difficult to understand the need of local work: it can be seen, it can be felt, it can be touched. What comports some difficulty, however, is to understand the urgency of work on the national and also international levels. And yet it has to be seriously thought of: general interests should precede the particular ones: many local works could not be promoted effectively without some conditions on the national level. How can the whole work regarding the young have good results if, having passed the administration of the elementary schools of the State, they would send us teachers who are not religious? How can preaching have good effects if, with the spread of bad press, our listeners would read errors every day? With this: comes the urgency of joining the national movement, and for some works also the international movement.
The general directorate of the Catholic Action,14 composed of the heads of the different branches, the Popular Union, the Electoral Union,15 Catholic Youth, Union of Catholic women, etc., studies, in
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complete agreement, the more important problems and draws the path that all have to follow. Then it communicates its deliberations in so many publications to the adherents: thus it is possible to have an only secure, enlightened guide during difficult times. Division, lack of discipline, selfishness are always the preludes of failures. No priest, however, could reach these considerations and develop this conviction without keeping himself updated to the great questions and without reading the publications of the different general unions that deal with them.16
8.17 Few works, but well cultivated. At times it is better to step on the brakes also in the care (of souls) and in one's good desires; this, in order not to fall victim of mental dissipation because of restlessness... The loss of energies would immediately follow while one needs to condense them in order that they remain effective. Thus workers, also the formidable ones, do not leave anything but miserable rough drafts; they did nothing to multiply and leave to languish or stop undertakings, perhaps before dying they remain pressed down and almost buried under numerous commitments.
Every work comports worries, conversations, relations, correspondence, visits, etc. How could an individual's forces not get exhausted? - One would say: but I shall also distribute the work... Very well: great wisdom, instead, is God's. But the parish priest, having to unite pastoral
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work,18 has to be its soul. And thus he would be agitated every day by a fever that shall consume his fiber and corrode his intellectual and spiritual patrimony since every priest needs discrete time for nourishing his mind and his piety. With nourishment of the mind wanting, he would become a man of the past, narrowed; his judgment would no longer mature and be premeditated, but fickle; his action would dominate him instead of it being an emanation like a beautiful work of freedom. With nourishment of the spirit wanting, he would become arid, deprived of effusion with God and the perfume of priestly piety.
Few and well: this was not only a maxim of the saints, but also of great men. He who does well one thing does enough. The venerable Fr. Cafasso, a great saint, a very good formator of the clergy, an assiduous worker, has left this written: The priest's life has to have more of the spirit than of action if one wants action to multiply in effectiveness and in fruits.
The Sisters
This is a very broad and very delicate subject matter: which, today, is acquiring an ever greater importance. It truly seems that what is happening is like what was happening to the deaconesses of the first centuries: with the difference, however, that their life comes to be regulated by practical norms and by common exercises, and that
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their goals are expanding according to today's needs. Rightly have they come to be called sisters of the priestly zeal. And where don't the sisters of today go without bringing the Christian sense? In schools and in child-care centers, in prisons and in conservatories, in youth hostels and in home for the aged, in correction houses and in prisons, in oratories and in hospitals, in shops and among boarding schools, in boarding houses, in civil countries, in mission lands: wherever there are lots of things to do: beside the priest you will see the sister. - Let us touch on some current or more significant elements according to our established purpose.
Vocations.19 - There are or, at least, there can be two opposite errors. Others would never give any advice to a young woman to become a sister; they say: it is a step that is most subject to dangers, that also in the monastery there are pitfalls, that in the world good mothers are much more than ever needed, that in the parish it would be a loss, etc. Others, instead, terrified by the scarcity of vocations on one hand and, on the other, persuaded by the usefulness of the religious state, they exhort very easily and, at times, with badly understood zeal, that girls took the veil. There are some exaggerations on both sides. It would be a lot better to recall here what the periodical Religione e civiltà (Religion and civilization), regarding a related question writes:
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There is no argument whether having more or less members of the clergy is better: it is necessary to examine if there is true vocation or not in those persons who present themselves. If there is, it will be a duty to cultivate it: if there is none, or is lost, it is necessary to exclude them. The Lord, the true master of the vineyard, does not give the vocation to so many, nor to so few workers: he gives to as many as he believes necessary: it is up to us not to unworthily get into it and that those called do not remain outside.
The religious state is said, by St. Thomas, to be a state of perfection: the work of the sisters can not be substituted by servants, or lay sisters and hired personnel: so much so that even the revolution respects them; their spirit of sacrifice makes them become true angels, the zeal that enflames them changes them into apostles, they are the most brilliant glories of Christianity. Hence, let us thank God if he sends them to his Church.
On the other hand, let no one believe as doing service to an institute by sending, or by welcoming, those not called: there would be lukewarmness, discontentment, the deterioration of discipline. And neither would one obtain the temporal happiness of the young person not blessed with divine vocation: she would always be like a dislocated bone that ends up causing endless pain. It shall be a good thing to speak in sermons sometimes of the perfect life of the religious, not so much with long exhortations, as much as with thoughts expressed
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almost in passing. The occasion may be given during conferences to the Daughters of Mary, during confessions, the ceremony of the religious clothing or profession, or when the girls themselves show some inclination to it. A good thing as well is to let girls read some biographies of saintly religious, or of missionaries, or some bulletins. If, however, in a village there are sisters, this part is sufficiently taken care of.
A certain risk of deceiving himself is run, however, by that priest who, in ordinary cases, would immediately admit as a sign of vocation any desire for it whatsoever: often it does not indicate anything but a good will to live a pious life; a more or less long trial is almost always necessary: rather, the internal forum is almost always not enough. The final responsibility is to leave to the superiors of the order or religious congregation, to whom one has to refer everything, according to the whole truth: there ought to be no pressure whatsoever on them: no one knows better than them the spirit of their institute and the qualities required. (See Il gran passo - Martinengo - Libreria Salesiana - L. 0.50).
Guidance of the sisters. - I set aside what concerns the spirit and the superiors of the different institutes: I would get into an area that is so vast, and already ventured into and cultivated by others. I limit myself to a few practical points. In almost every parish there are sisters: now how many times does it not occur hearing these words
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from those souls: I have chosen this state in order to be better guided in the path of perfection, and meanwhile I need a director and even a confessor in confidence, or freely chosen! Now the spirit of the last pontifical decrees is that this freedom, right, dear, necessary, be given: and while caprices are fought, let not the sacrament of mercy be changed into torture to souls.
Not only has the Church seen to it, but most learned men, saints, tried ones have written most beautiful pages: they could be consulted. Neither has egoism, jealousy, a badly understood zeal puts a veil on it.
There is, however, something that makes somehow reasonable the fears of him who wanted to restrict too much the choice of confessor of sisters. Something is to be feared not only in view of the beautiful virtue, but also in view of spiritual direction. Not all know how important for a sister is the fidelity to the rules of her own institute: many tend to dispense from all, or almost, the particular practices, and to change the sisters into merely, common pious souls. This is a disastrous mistake inasmuch as when they neglect those rules that, in the eyes of the profane are nothing but trifles, or even ridiculous, they as well lose the spirit of the institute, they no longer enjoy peace, they no longer work for the desired welfare, they become inferior to mere pious single ladies. What characterizes the congregation is not a trifle to set aside,
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it is the spiritual resource of a sister; it is not something of little value; it is something that with the religious profession one is obliged to observe.
Neither should one conclude in this that one ought to use serious rigorousness: above all there ought to be prudence, charity, discernment of the spirits.
To shed light on these virtues, it would be very useful to read the rules of the sisters that have to be directed, to consider them attentively in their spirit, to consult as well some commentary.
Other things concerning this direction can be found in books of asceticism, among which I would advice, aside from those that are already commonly used, by St. Teresa, St. Francis of Sales, St. Alphonsus, etc., also the following:
Prova religiosa sopra l'umiltà (Religious test regarding humility) - Prova religiosa sopra l'obbedienza20 (Religious test regarding obedience) - Prova religiosa sopra la castità21 (Religious test regarding chastity) - Prova religiosa sopra la povertà (Religious proof regarding poverty) - Ab. Maucourant (Tipografia Marietti - Via Legnano 23, Torino. L. 0.60 each volume).
Then as regards zeal it would be well to remember the letter sent by Princess Cristina Giustiniani Bandini,22 president of the Union of Catholic Women of Italy, to the institutes of religious women. With the full approval of the Holy Father Pius X, she invites the religious communities of women to adhere to the general Catholic-feminist movement. And this has a singular value:
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inasmuch as there is no doubt that the aforementioned communities constitute a truly considerable force: on the other hand, it is very clear, for him who looks at things from up, that there are cases wherein it is absolutely indispensable to be a single body, all guided by the same head. It is well known: each institute shall contribute to the common goal, according to each one's spirit and according to the sphere of one's own action, but unity of direction, unity in common interests, is what constitutes the strength that individuals do not have. And are not religious institutes under attack perhaps by anti-Christian sects? Now it is just right and also duty-bound that they defend themselves with all their strength. In Italy the religious congregations for women are strong: if they should take account of themselves, they would be afire; if they should act, in outward action, with a single direction, they would obtain much.
It is enough to say that out of 100,000 female students of the secondary schools, well about 80 thousand are in religious educational institutions! Now consider these words of Card. Merry del Val:23 To protect a perfect unity of direction and of action, it is the Holy Father's desire, already expressed in other occasions, that the organization of Catholic women belongs singularly to the Union among Catholic Women of Italy. And this unity shall be obtained if one took care of following up all the different publications of the aforementioned union.
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Another necessary thing is: to instruct the sisters in the local works of zeal. To let them know the environment to which they are destined, show the dangers, the possible and convenient works of zeal. This becomes even more necessary inasmuch as they are more often far from their principal superiors, they are in limited communication with the people, and they are rather shy. Teach them how in the hospital they can prepare the sick in resignation, to the holy sacraments, the last step, and how they ought to persuade them to remain good if, having reacquired health, they would leave the hospital again. Teach them how they ought to train, in the child-care centers and in the first grades, the children in prayer, in obedience and in virtue, how they ought to prepare them for the holy sacraments, how through the little ones they could arrive at their relatives. It would not be short here to mention all the advice, the directions, the suggestions that a parish priest can give as regards the practice of zeal of sisters. The local circumstances, the tasks they carry out, the aptitudes of each of them: these shall suggest many things. What matters is not to neglect them, draw profit from their good will and offer occasions for work. It is said that congregations for women have defects: most true: but who has none? But they as well have virtues and energies: and it shall be the better manner of correcting their ills by giving work rather then leaving them inactive. If one knows
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1 In Piedmont, but also in the rest of the kingdom of Italy, the problems of agriculture come in the first place. Farmers need credit lines at low interests to finance the necessary improvements in dwelling places and in farming. In order to oppose the liberals who establish here in there the rural banks according to the Wollenborg system (which Count Caissoti of Chiusano, during a meeting held in Cuneo on 14 April 1896 defined as “diabolical tool of liberal Freemasonry”), Catholics promote the birth of their own rural banks according to the method of Reiffeisen. The first of these, in the province of Cuneo, were formed precisely in the diocese of Alba by Cesara Algranati and Fr. Luigi Cerutti, president of the Italian rural banks, who came on purpose from Verona. In about ten years, the network of rural banks would be so tight to reach almost all the villages of the Langa and Monferrato area, where the Federations of rural banks would be established, one of them would have its office in Alba, the other office in Casorzo. Considered the apostle of the rural banks of Monferrato is Fr. Carogli, parish priest of Altavilla Monferrato, so-called the don Cerruti of Basso Piemonte.
2 Cf. Lk 15:4ff.
3 Cf. Lk 5:30.
4 Cf. Lk 19:2ff.
5 Cf. Jn 10:3ff.
6 The Italian DA has puoi = you can for poi = then.
7 Cf. Mt 20:6: “Quid hic statis tota die otiosi? - Why do you stand here idle all day?”
8 The Italian DA has abbiamo = we have, instead of abbiano = (they) may have.
9 Original Italian DA has signore celibi = celibate ladies.
10 This organization is one of the interesting themes in the Italian Church of the time. Only two months after taking over the diocese, for example, Msgr. Scalabrini addressed to the clergy and faithful his first pastoral letter, dated 23 April 1876, precisely on The teaching of catechism. “During our days, there is so much talk of constitutions of this or that nation. Christian humanity's constitutional document is the catechism.” To Msgr. Scalabrini is also owed the first catechetical magazine, Il catechista cattolico (The Catholic catechist) (from July 1876). In the parish of the cathedral of Alba the “Society of Christian doctrine” was organized. Every child had the “personal booklet” with stamps to mark attendances; monthly posters were shown with the names, addresses and grades of each child, etc.
11 The Italian original DA has per essi = for them (masculine). But the reference is to young girls and the idea of separation of young boys from the girls going in and out of the factory is repeated in DA 327.
12 The lack of organization, here repeated as in no. 3 (by mistake?), is already pointed out in no. 1 and would be taken up explicitly at the end of no. 5.
13 The original Italian DA has 5.
14 The Italian Catholic Action [Azione cattolica italiana (ACI)] was the national organization of the Catholic laity for special and direct collaboration with the hierarchical apostolate of the Church. When this organization was born towards the middle of the 1800, the conditions of Catholicism in Italy were especially difficult.
15 The Unione elettorale cattolica italiana (The Italian Catholic Electoral Union) was an organization formed after the suppression of the Opera dei Congressi following the encyclical Il fermo proposito of Pio X (11 June 1905) and at the tempering of the non expedit, in order to coordinate and direct the Catholic forces during electoral competitions wherein they were called to participate.
16 The original Italian DA has la = it. Reference, however, seems to be the “great questions” earlier.
17 The original Italian DA has 6.
18 The original Italian DA has lavorio = intense activity instead of lavoro = work.
19 The emphasis that the Author gives on the sisters in this context and, in particular to vocations, is the prelude to the foundation that would take place in 1959 of an Institute exclusively dedicated to the vocation pastoral: the Queen of the Apostles Institute for Vocations (Apostoline Sisters).
20 Cf. MAUCOURANT F., (priest of the Nevers diocese), Dell'ubbidienza. Riflessioni e pratica (Regarding obedience: Reflections and practice). New Italian version edited by the priest D. M. A., Torino, Società Editrice Internazionale, Corso Regina Margherita, 174, 194 pp., 1924.
21 Cf. MAUCOURANT F., Prova religiosa sopra la castità (Religious proof regarding chastity), Torino, Tipografia pontificia Pietro Marietti, 1905, about 210 pages.
22 DA has Giustiniani-Baudini. During the years immediately following the reform of 1906 subsequent to the encyclical of Pius X of 11 June 106, Il fermo proposito, women were organized also along the ranks of Catholic Action. Princess Cristina Giustiniani Bandini presented to the Pope her project and obtained consent dated 21 April 1908. Thus was born the Union of Catholic Women (MM).
23 Rafael Merry del Val, Cardinal, from a Spanish family, was born in London on 10 October 1865 and died, suddenly, in Rome on 26 February 1930. Having finished his studies in England and in Belgium, at 18 years old, having decided to embrace the ecclesiastical state, enrolled in the college of Ushaw (England) and transferred in 1885 in Rome, at the Pontifical Scottish College. Leo XIII decided that he entered the Pontifical Academy of noble ecclesiastics, where he was ordained priest on 30 December 1888. Even before ordination, however, while he was still a subdeacon, he joined different missions in the courts of London, Berlin and Vienna, with the title of monsignor. On 1
st January 1892, still Leo XIII called him at his side as a secret participating Camerlengo, in order to send him, at 32 years old and not yet a bishop, as his extraordinary apostolic delegate in Canada. Merry del Val became Secretary of State under Pius X and remained a most faithful interpreter of the papal will. He conducted a tough struggle against modernism considered by him as the synthesis of all errors, and against liberalism. He infused a great impulse to Catholic Action, and then to lay apostolate, and enacted incisive reforms in the dicasteries of the Apostolic See. For more than 25 years he uninterruptedly dedicated some afternoon hours to a youth Catholic association in the Trastevere area of Rome.