SCALABRINI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA. – Bishop of Piacenza, founder of the Missionaries of S. Carlo (Scalabrinians) and of the Society of S. Raffaele, born at Fino Mornasco (Como) on 8 July 1839, died at Piacenza on 1 June 1905.
Ordained a priest on 30 May 1863, he was rector of the Seminary of Como from 1867 to 1870. Nominated bishop of Piacenza in 1875, during thirty years of episcopate he renewed the diocese through tireless apostolic work, distinguishing himself particularly through diocesan Synods, Eucharistic worship, and the dissemination of catechetical instruction. His work went beyond the boundaries of the diocese
and had national and international resonance, above all because of his clear and Roman Question (v.) and because of his many initiatives in the field of assistance to Italian emigrants.
In 1888 he published a pamphlet, Intransigenti e transigenti, osservazioni di un vescovo italiano, which, however, did not bear his name. The publication, already approved by Leo XIII, who had read the proofs, caused a great stir among the intransigents, who violently attacked it in the Osservatore cattolico, directed by d. Davide Albertario. He had clearly understood that the restoration of the Papal States in the form and extent they had possessed until 1870 was impossible. On the other hand, he perfectly realized that the pope could neither be nor ought to be in the condition of a subject. Having therefore affirmed the possibility of the coexistence of the Pontiff’s civil sovereignty with the unity of Italy, he hoped that Italians, conscious of the strength of the Pontificate and convinced of their own advantage, would spontaneously restore to the Pontiff as much civil sovereignty as would make his condition tolerable.
Equally clear was the position of Mgr. S. on the question of the participation of Italian Catholics in political life. He did not hesitate to call the formula né eletti né elettori ruinous. In social matters he advocated a more equitable distribution of wealth and the advancement of the workers’ and peasants’ movements. It was particularly to emigrants from all over Italy that he devoted tireless work, having been struck by the miserable and humiliating conditions in which they found themselves (v. DAMIANITI, EMIGRAZIONE).
The practical initiatives of Mgr. S. included, besides the foundation of a religious congregation of missionaries (Missionaries of S. Carlo [v.]) to provide religious and moral assistance to emigrants, particularly in the places where they went to settle, the establishment of an organization for the material and social assistance of emigrants, with the aim of freeing them from shameful exploitation (Società S. Raffaele), and the establishment of offices in ports of disembarkation for placing emigrants in employment. The works founded by Mgr. S. arose amid innumerable difficulties and spread particularly throughout the two Americas, where he went in 1901 and 1904 to visit and develop them. The Ordinary Process for his beatification has already been deposited with the S. Cong. of Rites.
Although they do not constitute his principal merit, his writings must nevertheless not be forgotten: The Vatican Council (Como 1873, with four subsequent editions); Little Catechism Proposed for Nursery Schools (1873); Catholic Catechism (1877); Italian Emigration, Considerations and Proposals (1888); On Assistance to National Emigration and the Institutions Providing for It (1891); Italy Abroad (1899).