A Particular Episode
On the Sunday following the festival just mentioned, at two in the afternoon I was at recreation with the youngsters. One of them was reading L’Armonia when the priests who usually came to give me a hand in the sacred ministry appeared in a body. They were decked out with medals and cockades and carried a tricolour flag. Worse, they had a copy of a truly immoral newspaper called L’Opinione.
One of them, a man of respectable zeal and learning, came right up to me. Noticing the boy reading L’Armonia beside me, he sneered,
This is outrageous! It’s time we finished with this rubbish.
With that, he grabbed L’Armonia from the boy’s hand, tore it into a thousand pieces, threw them on the ground, spat on them, and stamped all over them.
Having thus freely expressed his political fervour, he stood facing me. Now this is a worthwhile paper, he said, thrusting L’Opinione in my face. This paper and no other should be read by every true and honest citizen.
His manner of speaking and acting took my breath away. Not wishing to compound the scandal in a place where good example should be given, I limited myself to asking him and his colleagues to discuss such matters in private and amongst ourselves only.
No, sir, he answered. No longer should anything be either private or secret. Let everything be brought into the clear light of day.
At that moment the bell called us all to church. It summoned also one of those priests, who had been charged with preaching a short sermon on morality to the poor youngsters. But on this occasion it was really immoral. Liberty, emancipation, and independence resounded through the whole sermon.
I was in the sacristy, impatient for a chance to speak and put an end to this disorder. But the preacher left the church immediately after finishing the sermon, and no sooner was benediction given than he invited priests and boys to join him. Heartily intoning national songs and passionately waving the flag, they marched straight to the Mount of the Capuchins. There a formal promise was pronounced not to go back to the Oratory again unless they were invited and received with all their national insignia.
While all this was going on, I had no way to express either my thoughts or my reasoning. But I was not afraid of anything that clashed with my duty. I let those priests know that they were strictly forbidden to come back to me. The boys then had to report to me one by one before they were readmitted to the Oratory. Everything ended well for me. None of the priests tried to come back. The boys apologised, pleading that they had been misled and promising obedience and discipline.