PART IV

MAN FOR MEN AND FOR MEN

Bishop Scalabrini wanted to be a man of his times, not a nostalgic dreamer of faded and irreversible periods of history. He wanted to keep abreast of history, to be attentive to the signs of the times, to have a realistic knowledge of the problems and needs of the People of his day, and to be eager to prepare a future that would be more human and truer to God’s plan in history.

He faced the main “concerns” of his times with courage, energy, and concreteness. During the period of associationism, he enthusiastically supported Catholic associations, while disagreeing with the political ideology of those who aimed at monopolizing Catholic Action.

Society was becoming rapidly unchristian: and so it was important “to bring Christ back into society.” These were the indispensable conditions: unity and concerted action, courageous efforts, and dependence on the Shepherds; for Catholic Action is an apostolate, not politics.

The formidable obstacle to unity was the Roman Question. Because Catholics were not allowed to take part in political elections, the Roman Question was blocking effective pressure on the centers of power and legislation, with the result that the anticlericals had a free hand in their attempt to destroy the people’s Christian way of thinking. Because of his pastoral concern, the bishop of Piacenza did not believe in protesting but in seeking a reconciliation of two sentiments, both equally legitimate: religion and country. The Church must be free, within and without, to exercise her authority, which is all spiritual, as well as her rights, which are evangelization and charity.

Reconciliation is an ideal that dominates all facets of Scalabrini’s life. He reconciles the realism of lived history with intrepid love for the truth; freedom and frankness with obedience; love for God’s beauty and goodness in creation with friendship for human beings

1. CATHOLIC ACTION

Illuminism, rationalism, materialism, and anticlericalism take Christ away from society. It is necessary to promote a return movement, especially among the people. Only in unity is there strength and only in organization is unity effective.

Associationism is on the verge of becoming the sole right of the enemies of the Church. Instead of whining, people must wake up, go out into the open and work, under the leadership of Pope and bishops.

“Jesus Christ was ostracized from society”

Since modern unbelievers are now convinced that not even they can overturn the throne of Jesus Christ, they have thought of confining, within the four walls of the church, this eternal King of souls, this invisible Sovereign of the universe, removing him from all aspects of life, private and public. They employ every possible trick and have recourse to every possible stratagem to achieve their diabolical goal. Unfortunately, thanks to the laziness of believers, they have succeeded.

Little by little Jesus Christ was ostracized from schools, ethics, families, and society. But (...), with Jesus Christ gone, we realized that the soul imparting life to all things had also been removed and that no foundation remained for the scientific, domestic, and social edifice. We realized we were on the edge of the abyss!

They had said: every school that opens is a jail that closes. But, as a matter of fact, the enemies of the Church could not find enough convents and castles to contain the ever increasing number of criminals. They had said: catechism in the schools is an offense against freedom of thought. So they replaced it with the handbook of the rights of man and then a book of natural obligations in which there is no mention of God. The result of all this? They have brought up a bunch of bomb-throwing radicals with whom society will really have to fight the last fight. They had said: secular science will purify the environment and infuse new blood into the veins of the new generation. But the statistics of suicides, duels, adulteries, fraudulent bankruptcies, bank robberies, public immorality, and heinous crimes have cut short the joyful hymns extolling the new godless morality.

In our families, the devastation of the bridal chamber, the lost peace and harmony, rebellious children, have all shown with great eloquence that only the Crucified One can save family life.[1]

“To bring Jesus Christ back to society”

The sight of the abyss before our eyes has made us recoil with horror, and we all instinctively feel the need to return to the holy traditions of our forefathers and mothers. The blows to the edifice and the dust from the rubble have frightened us, and we all feel the need to bring things back into balance by making Jesus Christ the foundation.

Now the purpose of Catholic action is precisely this: to promote this return movement through an organization that answers the needs of our times. The need to put Jesus Christ back in the school, in moral behavior, in the family, and in society has by now entered into the consciousness of all good people.

Hence, we have no intention of engaging in politics, as our adversaries would have people think. We wish, above all, to work for a moral renewal and then to get busy about the legitimate economic concerns and aspirations of the working class especially. The exploiters of the poor people have made magnificent promises up till now, but they have kept none of them.

They promised bread and justice, and today the people have neither bread nor justice.

Now, it is precisely for these people that we want to organize and expand assistance and mutual aid societies, to promote the development of industry and commerce and to develop the charitable works that are most suited for our time. Above all, we want respect for the religion of our fathers and mothers and for their wishes. We want respect for the Lord’s Day, for our rights, for the sacred rights of the Church and her Supreme Head, respect for the rights of all.

We want the priesthood to be given its proper respect, young people to grow up with sound principles and good morals, and public offices to be held by upright and God-fearing people.

We want genuine greatness for our country. Hence we want freedom for righteousness, not for evil; or at least the chance to enjoy as much freedom as evil does. We want bad literature to stop disseminating errors and spewing blasphemies. We want public scandals removed and the people no longer fooled and betrayed.

We want to open for every child the book that teaches him or her how to be a Christian and a citizen. We want to tell the worker that he will never be happy, not even on earth, if he follows the dictates of socialism but that he will have at least a foretaste of real happiness if he follows the dictates of the Gospel. We want to tell people in power that, unless the Lord protects a country, those who have its fate in their hands will labor in vain. In a word, we want society to be once again what it really ought to be, that is, Christian: in its laws, institutions, and customs and in its public life.[2]

“We must organize, we must unite”

The need for Catholic action is indeed urgent and clear. But to be effective, this action must be disciplined and concerted.

Yes, we must organize and we must unite because only in unity is there strength. Unity alone is the secret of victory.

Hence the importance of, and the need for, Catholic associations and parish committees.

I will not repeat what I have often told you before in this regard, publicly and privately, by voice and in writing. Rather, I will tell you what the Pope desires, for he is the sure interpreter of the will of God (...).

The Pope wants all the parishes in Italy to have their Catholic committee. This committee must definitely be set up in every parish of the Diocese of Piacenza. It must not only be set up but, once set up, be kept alive and active.

This time my word to you is not a word of exhortation but of command, and I address it mainly to you, my venerable co-workers in the salvation of souls, because to you especially the Pope solemnly addresses those weighty words: “In the present-day conditions of the Church, priests have to take upon themselves also this task of leading the faithful with their authority; they must do so publicly; they must do so by their example.”

I have witnessed your proven filial devotion and perfect docility to the Vicar of Jesus Christ in all things. I know you will roll up your sleeves, if you have not done so already, and get down to work with energy and determination.

Dearly beloved, let us do away with discussion, hesitation, and fear![3]

“The hour for action has struck”

In every country of the world, the working class makes up the great majority of the population. To imbue the workers with the essentially peaceful and salutary spirit of Christianity is to save society.

Workers are the favorites of the Church, for in the Carpenter of Nazareth she discerns and venerates her own Founder (...).

I am indeed happy that in some places in our diocese, especially in Piacenza, these Workers’ Organizations have been set up. I beg the Lord to bless the wonderful priests and lay people who have promoted them. Now I turn to all of you, beloved and venerable confreres, and I repeat that it is my consuming desire that in every parish or, where the parishioners are too few, at least in the more important centers of the vicariates, a Workers’ Organization be organized and that it grow in activities, in numbers, and in fellowship (...).

Impatient to fall on its prey, Socialism raves and rants, trying to scare the whole world with its menacing roar! It is the voice of heaven warning us that the hour for action has struck and that you can no longer lull yourselves into thinking you can save yourselves, your children, and your possession without erecting a solid dike against the impetuous torrent. And what will this dike be if not a far-reaching, united association of people formed in the school of the Gospel (...)?

Association and Catholic action: these are the characteristics of the true children of the Church in our day; association and action which must have as their aim to endorse all the wishes of the Vicar of Jesus Christ, to restore the necessary freedom to the Church and her Head, as well as greatness, prosperity, and peace to Italy, by making families, communities, schools, laws, the people, and the workers above all, Christian once again (...).

To achieve this goal more readily, it would be very useful for you to have the Parish Committees, which I have already recommended to you in the past and which, once again, I strongly urge upon you today. What an immense good they do! Make every effort to set up these committees in your parishes and get personally involved in them. God’s blessing cannot fail to descend upon institutions blessed by his Vicar!

We must unite! We must unite! If all the Italians who have kept the faith were to unite and work together, what great achievements they would attain!

If Parish Committees were to be set up in all Italy and if, instead of just two thousand committees, as there are at the present time, there were ten thousand ‑- as many as there are parishes ‑- what marvelous results would accrue to our religion and our country.[4]

“Catholics are coming out into the open”

In fully closed ranks, Catholics are coming out into the open with their banners proudly gleaming in the sun. They debate, make plans, take decisions, fight, and work.

And, thank God, this reviving spirit has penetrated even here among us.

The jubilant voices of the participants at the fraternal meetings of Alseno, Bedonia and Chiaravalle are still echoing in my mind. Thanks to the enthusiasm of some very zealous pastors, we saw several Catholic Committees come to life in a short time. We too now have our youth clubs, our Sunday oratories, our workers’ organizations, and our credit unions.

But let me say it at once and say it clearly: all this is precious little compared with the needs of the present hour.[5]

“The priest must come out of the church”

We must be deeply convinced that what was good enough in the past is no longer so today. For new times there must be new ways of doing things; for new evils, new remedies; for new forms of war, new forms of defense. Today, as I told you before, the priest, the pastor especially, has no choice but to come out of the church if he wants to do something worthwhile within the church. However, let us be clear: the priest must come out of the church but only after having drawn light and strength from prayer and meditation there. Let the priest come out of the church but let him keep his eyes always on the church. Like the sun coming forth from its pavilion, the priest too is to come forth from the church radiant with the light of God and the fire of love that illumines, warms, and engenders life (...).

In our priestly minds and hearts there must be no hatred, no passion, no harsh zeal, no rash outburst against people, only love that suffers, weeps, and grieves over the sins the people commit to their eternal ruin.

It is with these sentiments, venerable brothers, that we must enter the field of Catholic action. I repeat: we have no choice but to enter there because today this is our principal and essential task. He who judges otherwise shows himself to be very superficial, very thoughtless, not to say, of little faith!

We must not fool ourselves. If we do not act, others will act without us and against us. I could not care less if some people accuse me of ulterior motives and worldly designs.

Some hurled this accusation against Jesus Christ before hurling it against us. Even though he taught that we should give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, Jesus was still called a seducer of the people. It just is not possible to do one’s duty and be at peace with everybody. You can be sure of that.[6]

“With all my heart I recommend the young people to your care”

Once again, with all my heart I especially recommend the young people to your care.

Once you have admitted the children to First Holy Communion after loving care and preparation, you have surely fulfilled a very serious duty. But a pastor’s responsibility does not end there. In fact, now is the moment when it becomes heavier, because now is the time when the passions begin to awaken in the heart of a young man or woman. Now is the moment when error, prejudice, scandal, and the allurements of the world begin to severely test the virtue of the young. Woe to the pastor who is so careless and heartless as to leave these young people to their own devices!

If at all possible, we must stand at their side. We must enlighten them, support them, encourage them, and spur them on to goodness, gently holding them close to the Church and to their religious practices.

The best thing to do is to organize a Youth Section alongside the Parish Committee. Some, even among us, have tried this and have had excellent results. I urge all of you to follow this example.

Of course, you will run into aggravations, but you will be repaid with great consolations. If you do not do this, how will you replenish the Committee itself and the other Catholic associations?

To keep these associations flourishing and active, it would help very much if every dean were to appoint some able priest to give these associations simple conferences several times a year, going from parish to parish in the Vicariate. Better still, the dean himself might want to take this task himself.[7]

“Dependence on the shepherds”

If we want our action to be truly Catholic, we must remember to act, at all times and in all things, in a disciplined and orderly way. Soldiers must not presume to go ahead of their officers. In our field, especially, discipline is everything. Without discipline, without that full, strict, and constant dependence on their shepherds, priests can easily fall into an excess of individual zeal, which, in turn, brings about discontent and discord, divides and weakens people of good will, leads astray and disgusts the better people, and corrupts with the disintegrating venom of self-love the reasons for giving orders, as well as for obeying them.[8]

“Strict dependence on the hierarchical principle”

I want everything to be done in the strictest dependence on the hierarchical principle. If they want to be instruments of salvation in the hands of God, lay Catholic people must keep to their place. They are not officers in the Church but soldiers, not teachers but disciples, not shepherds but sheep. Their eyes should be fixed on the bishops, especially on the Bishop of bishops, the Roman Pontiff, and on no one else. We do not know Paulinus; we do not know Meletius. I do not want to hear any ifs, ands, and buts, objections, disagreements, or mental reservations of any kind. God never blesses works that have not first been blessed by his legitimate representatives. A parish committee acting against or without the approval of the pastor, a diocesan committee daring to assume the slightest initiative or taking the smallest decision independently of the bishop would ipso facto cease being Catholic and at once incur my denunciation.[9]

“Two hundred Seventeen Parish Committees”

Count Paganuzzi suggested I send you a brief report on the 4th Regional Meeting of the Catholics of Emilia, held here in Piacenza under my chairmanship on June 14 and 15. I do so willingly, knowing that Your Holiness will be pleased to receive this report.

Because of the presence of almost all the bishops of the Region and the attendance of so many priests and lay people, the meeting could not have been more successful.

Pursuant to my Pastoral Letter of Oct. 16, 1896 (of which I respectfully submit a copy), in addition to the Youth Sections, the Workers Associations, etc., we organized in our Diocese two hundred seventeen parish committees, all of them well represented at this meeting. The priests of the city and diocese were also very well represented at the meeting. In this matter, as in all others, they were truly exemplary and worthy of praise.

Everything went along in peace and harmony, with great order and discipline. The decisions regarding Catholic Organizations, Decent Literature, Administrative and Political Elections, the establishment and expansion of Rural Banks, etc., were eminently practical and timely. Even more importantly, they were imbued with a spirit of sincere submission to the bishops, which is so necessary especially in our day and so dear to the heart of Your Holiness.[10]

2. THE WORKING CLASSES

The rise of atheistic and anarchical socialism has put fear into Church and State. But it is the “voice of God!”

Atheistic socialism must be opposed by Christian social action rather than by sterile condemnations that would also strike at its “valid postulates.”

We must fight the Marxist propaganda seducing the working class through an analysis of the social problems and their moral and religious implications and through initiatives that answer the real and legitimate needs of farmers, workers, and proletarians. It is a work of justice and social vindication inspired by charity and accomplished harmoniously by all classes. To save the working class is to save the people.

“The causes of socialism

For some time now, society has been prey to anarchical forces. Now that every authority has been shaken, social and family ties loosened, the religious principles sanctifying human sufferings denied, made fun of or ignored, society is daily becoming more and more a wild jungle where everyone does his own thing and looks after himself, where the good of one becomes the evil and privation of another. And thus is fulfilled and realized the savage program contained in the aphorism of the Scottish philosopher: “Homo homini lupus” (man is a wolf to man).

From this comes the fever for immediate gain, the anxious acquisition of power, the envy of other people’s well-being. It is this that drives one to supplant others, to cheat them, to remove every inhibition or obstacle standing in the way of one’s cravings and pleasures. This is the sole goal of an atheistic and materialistic society.

As if these terrible evils were not enough, now we have the pangs of economic hardships, painful for all but unbearable for the common people. With the loss of the consolations of the faith and of Christian hope and with the achievement of new rights and the awareness of their power, these poor people feet more starkly than ever the emptiness they live in and thus become gullible and fervent followers of all things new.

To this great economic crisis and moral decline we must add the power of big capital, which is so powerful and overwhelming in the present social and industrial setup as to draw off a very large percentage of the profits from labor without risk or effort. It can be compared to a gigantic tree which, with its thousand tentacles and thick branches, robs of nourishment, air, and light the smaller plants that are withering at its feet. Here you have the causes for the rise and expansion of socialism.

Socialism has recruited its converts from the shops, the fields, and the universities, from the nobility and the common people, from the common people especially. In just a few years, socialism has become an imposing army. All the simple folk, all the oppressed and the unfortunate feel attracted to it by the hope of something better, just like all those insubordinate and restless people who want to change the present order of things at any cost. Joining these as allies or associates are the people ‑- and they are perhaps the most dangerous and certainly the most respectable ‑- who feel a deep compassion for the unfortunate and experience a revolting and loathing disgust for the corruption that penetrates and permeates all governmental bodies up to the very top. These people cannot tolerate, without protesting, the social injustices, the well-fed laziness of the few, and the poverty of the workers, as well as the wealth, power, and unworthiness found together in one individual.[11]

“Personal experience”

What I am about to tell you is the fruit of personal experience. I did not learn these things from reading books but from seeing with my own eyes so many social wounds and so much misery, over which I poured the balm of faith and the alms of charity.

In the early years of my priesthood, during the months I was not teaching, I served in various towns in my native diocese and had the opportunity to observe at close quarters the life of farmers in its different forms and varying degrees of well-being, as well as the farm contracts with their economic and moral consequences.

I used to walk among those rich fields ‑- the property of a wealthy gentleman known for his display of civic charity ‑- made fertile by hard-working people, a number of whom suffered from pellagra. I went into their damp, shutterless hovels with a heavy heart.

I was also pastor in a suburb of Como for several years. Among my parishioners there were several thousand silk workers, weavers, spinners, and dyers. During those years, I was able to observe at close range the miserable condition of these workers, miserable in itself and because of its potential dangers. Every political or financial crisis, however distant, which slowed or halted industrial activity ‑- what an effect that had on their lives! How deeply they were affected by every small event -- for example, by a sickness or an accident that kept them from daily work! In addition to these brief interruptions ‑- each of them taking a loaf of bread from their poor tables ‑- there were from time to time those great industrial crises when there was no work at all. The result was sheer misery, hunger at its worst, barely disguised for a while by credit at the local store or a salary advance from the employer. There followed a mad rush of men looking for jobs and of women pleading for help.

Oh, the sadness of the days when, as I climbed the rickety stairs to visit sick workers, I failed to hear the dry, rhythmic clack of the loom. They were sad in every way because disorder and dishonor often came into the family with poverty. As I observed all their sufferings and heard their complaints ‑- knowing as I did the tireless employers who were wrongly accused of exploiting the poor, and that kind, charitable landowner whose field hands were infected with pellagra ‑- I came to the conclusion that the evil lay not so much in the will of individuals as in the way work was organized and that it would be good for everyone if more equitable conditions could be created.[12]

“The basic principles of socialism”

If labor gives value to capital, why should it not have a greater share in its profits, enough at least to assure a decent, secure, and healthy livelihood for the workers? If labor is a physical law and a moral duty, why should it not become a legal right? If education is a duty, why is the worker not given time for it by fixing the age of his employment and limiting the hours of work? If hygiene is a social obligation, why are certain jobs poisoning and shortening people’s lives permitted without due preventive measures? Why is the worker not insured against eventual accidents and why is not some dignified provision made for his helpless old age?

This is what I used to think, and this what many of you must have thought on seeing and touching the social miseries.

Now, those demands, happily translated into law by Parliament recently, contain certain basic principles of socialism.

In these principles there is some truth and justice, which all people of good will should accept and try to carry out as best they can. In fact, truth and justice do not change character by the fact that they are espoused also by the wicked or are mixed in with evil. Besides, in so doing, we remove from what is evil and false its greatest power of spreading, a power founded on the fact that what is evil and false is served up along with the truth, thus giving the appearance of justice.

So we must not be fooled by names or appearances.

We must calmly examine the basic principles of socialism. With the confidence that comes from possessing the truth, we must set Catholic social action against socialist action, for Catholic social action is society’s tonic and medicine.[13]

“The economic question gives rise to moral, political and religious problems”

In itself, modern socialism is an economic question. However, as in all questions that touch human beings individually or collectively, the economic question intertwines with other questions and so changes nature and form. A human being is one. Everything having to do with this inseparable oneness gets intertwined, intermingled, and integrated in such wise as to reflect the many different aspects under which a person may be viewed.

The social question, essentially an economic one, becomes in its immediate consequences a moral, political, and religious question.

In fact, the formula common to socialism, communism, and collectivism ‑- the three main branches into which socialists split up ‑- is this: all that produces wealth (namely, capital, lands, and instruments of labor) is the property of the State, which distributes its benefits with perfect equality, according to some; or according to individual needs, according to others.

Now, when put into practice, this social formula will wound human nature at its very roots and in what is dearest to it, namely, religion, family, and individual freedom.

Though basically economic, modern socialism cannot ignore religion because all theoretical and practical questions affecting people are closely connected.

It is true that socialists, either out of real indifference or for tactical reasons, never, or hardly ever, talk of religion. Sometimes they even invoke the example of Jesus Christ and of the first Christians: Jesus Christ as the precursor of their teachings and the first Christians as those who first practiced them. But all this must not fool us about their real feelings for religion. Their revolutionary background and their altogether materialistic scientific underpinning make them intrinsically irreligious. At the top of the page of his newspaper, Blanqui had these words: “Ni Dieu, ni maître” (neither God nor teacher), and these two ideas pervade the whole socialistic ideology.[14]

“To point out the causes and find appropriate remedies “

The present state of the social question and the progressive dissemination throughout our city, towns, and countryside, of ideas that are either purely socialistic or akin to them should make your work even in the social field more active, more suited to the needs.

Now, such work, to really succeed and be effective and not worsen the evil we want to cure, calls for prudence, serenity of spirit, fair-mindedness, sure knowledge, and awareness of what we must oppose as well as of what we may properly accept.

So, dearest brothers, go to your books and get ready to refute (using their very jargon) the sophistry with which the books, newspapers, and speakers of the socialist propaganda are filling the minds of workers and farmers.

With the recommendations I have just given you, I have wanted to show you how to go about this task. They are meant to give you encouragement and guidance.

Not everything the socialists say is bad, as I have shown you. The effectiveness of their propaganda is found precisely in a deplorable situation, that is, in the spiraling misery of the majority of people amidst a real upsurge of industrial and farm production that should signal increased wealth. Hence, you must take pains to point out the causes underlying this situation and find appropriate remedies for it, accepting and recommending the ones that work, without asking who thought them up or who is espousing them.

In this way, you will in fact show that what is really good in socialism either conforms to the teachings of the Gospel and can be put into practice without destroying society or is actually useless and not commensurate with its stated goals.[15]

“Modern ways of doing good to one’s neighbor”

Every care must be devoted to the societies, varied in their form and purpose, flourishing among us, so that the spirit of association may increase and strengthen the bonds of brotherhood, supply what the weakness of the individual cannot, and remedy the unexpected blows of misfortune: “A brother helped by a brother is like a fortified city.” Rather than opposing this new spirit of association that is spreading and reaching everywhere, you must keep promoting it and make every effort to direct it into the right channels when inexperience or bad advice seem to be diverting it.

You must also support and champion social welfare and mutual aid societies. Social welfare and mutual aid societies are two modern ways of doing good to one’s neighbor. They combine the benefits of charity and those of education because, by taking part in the beneficent activity, the beneficiaries acquire the habit of thinking of the future, of being provident and foresighted.

One of the scourges of the countryside is usury, practiced under the guise of an advance offer of food, seed, or money for the purchase of animals, etc., to be repaid later at a high interest or in kind through a given quantity of products, something even more profitable for the creditor.

Now, most and the best of the poor peasants’ produce ends up enriching the suppliers. The peasants, compelled by necessity or misfortune to resort to them, see their meager profits go up in smoke in a very short time and have little or no chance to recover and balance their budget. Against this situation one of the most effective tools is found in the cooperative societies for production and consumption and in mutual insurance companies that have had much success in Italy and elsewhere. Most of all, the Catholic rural banks provide the little farmers with the small amounts of capital they need at a reasonable rate of interest.

Recommend these institutions and promote them to the best of your ability wherever they exist. Encourage upright and intelligent people to take part in them. His Excellency Von Ketteler, the illustrious bishop of Mainz (who first studied the labor question from the Catholic point of view), correctly observed: in the past the rich endowed the Church with convents and public charitable institutions; today they could do something more pleasing to God if they headed organizations of workers, producers, consumers, and cooperatives in order to improve their conditions, because a work of benevolence is indeed an act of charity.[16]

“I have set up agricultural professorships in my seminaries “

Some of you have already acted as mediators in smoothing out the frequent conflicts between employers and workers. During my pastoral visitations, I myself, together with you, did what I could to eliminate certain customs and impositions of the past.

Follow this policy with prudence and firmness and, as far as you can help it, do not allow abuses and immoral practices to make the life of workers and of the poor even more arduous and burdensome than it is. You can secure other benefits for the peasants by inquiring for them about the new agricultural inventions and methods that are meant to greatly increase the produce of the farms, almost without cost or major effort (...).

During these last twenty years I have seen many parish properties in my diocese, formerly hardly productive, transformed into vineyards and fertile fields through the praiseworthy initiatives of the pastors. Following their example, whole tracts of land were recovered and made productive by more intense and functional cultivation. I should like to see this work now being done by a few become everyone’s task in the future. To this end I have set up agricultural professorships in my seminaries so that the young clergy will have the necessary knowledge to give the people entrusted to their care bread for their bodies as well as for their souls.

In the meantime, it should not be hard for anyone, who so desires, to learn from books those few notions one needs to be able to give the peasants ‑- too often attached to old habits ‑- suitable recommendations and practical advice that are easily understood and put into practice and are really the results of long years of study and costly research. The Agricultural Seminars are also very useful for this purpose and I strongly recommend them.[17]

“Do work of social justice”

I have briefly outlined some of the economic needs of our farms and the corresponding remedies found to be effective in many places. But the evil is multi-faceted and the remedies have to be adapted and modified according to times, places and persons and always applied with great prudence and never for partisan reasons. You must never forget that you are the spiritual fathers of all the souls entrusted to your care. Your intervention in affairs outside of church, which you might undertake for the common good, must not stir up anger or partisanship but unite everybody in the holy desire to do good on behalf of the poor.

Fundamental principles of modem socialism are the following: limitation of the hours of work, the minimum wage for workers as fixed by law, the right to strike, and so on. Now, all these principles, taken in the abstract, are good and in no way contradict either divine or human laws. These principles are like those regarding arbitration, pensions for the incapacitated, protection for working women and children, and safe working conditions, all of which have already been translated into law even in our country and will surely bear much good fruit (...).

However, beloved co-workers, your efforts will be more useful and practical if applied not to matters of a general nature but to the particular and local problems you have before you every day. In a word, you will help and advise the poor, work with others to extirpate abuses and injustices, and teach the uninformed many useful and beautiful things (...).

The evil that afflicts society is not purely economic, as the socialists assert, but also moral: moral, above all. This evil is found not just in the way society is organized but even more so in the individuals themselves.

So, my beloved pastors, when