Very Eminent Prisco, archbishop of Naples, sitting on the mystic throne
where the great pious soul of Sisto Riario Sforza shone of deepest
faith, where the simple and kind soul of Guglielmo Sanfelice shone with
the tenderest religious charity, you, whose loving heart as a minister
is certainly aching, you who have already spoken to the people and
to the clergy in the name of Christ, you who have already helped and
promoted help, look very Eminent Prisco, our archbishop of Naples, look
at the despair of the people of Naples. The calamity which strikes
us all, more or less, is indeed tremendous! But its aspect above all
has something so dreadfully threatening, to fill even the coldest and
most courageous, with a sense of apprehension and awe. These immense
clouds now gray, now livid, now reddish now black, towering over our
heads, stretching from Vesuvius till here, covering the sea, the city,
hiding the sun, darkening the air, these clouds, which will later fall
in a long and heavy shower of cinders, these clouds which science and
experience declares perfectly innocent it is true, and which enfold
the whole city, oppressing it, and giving it such gloomy look, are
terrifying, and frightening every body.
In the first days of the disaster, Neapolitans have maintained their
usual calm and serenity, but now terror has stricken the most,
and has almost grown into a frenzy. We know, of course, that all
these phenomena are more terrible in their appearance than in their
substance, but the lower classes don't know this, and don't wish to
know it, and their fear assumes now a furious dangerous character.
Through the papers we can do nothing, as the people don't read us, and
generally do not know how to read us, neither can Government notices
stuck on the city walls have any effect on them, since they cannot
read them. And yet they seem to go mad, to lose complete control of
themselves, they cry, scream, run madly, they yell, they don't pray
anymore before the images of saints and madonnas. They have the despair
of the child, of the savage, and this very frenzy is a rapid contagion
rendering life more desolate and difficult before this calamity.
All the most terrible instincts give way before this mad terror. We
tremble at this new coming danger, and see no way to conquer it.
*
* *
You, our dear bishop must conquer it. You must speak to the people once
more, and with a calm and firm word, tell them that their life is in
no danger, that they have nothing to fear from these black clouds sent
by the eruption, from the ashes which fall on the streets and on the
houses. Call your clergy, and tell them to speak to the people, in the
churches, in the chapels, in the congregations, in the sacristies. The
priests of Naples are all very kind, they are quite near to the people
for their virtues of Christian simplicity, and humility: they know how
to make the people love them by the gentleness of their manners, and by
that fatherly familiarity which is such treasure among us. Set these
priests, rectors, parsons, speak to the people, especially in this
holy week, when sacred services are so frequent, when, oftener than
ever, people go to church. Let the rectors, the parsons and all these
men of holy moral authority, say to them that they must be calm, and
serene, that there is no fear of death, that nobody will die under the
lapillus, under the ashes, and that all these screams and moans are not
acceptable to God, nor to his saints. Let those who always speak to
the people from the altar, from the pulpit, from, the confessional,
from the sacristies, speak now, using all that influence they possess
to control the soul of the most ignorant obscure. Let religion glorify
itself in this civilised work of peace in the minds of this population.
Let yourself and your clergy have the merit as Christian and as
Neapolitan citizen, to calm this delirium of fright and give back
tranquillity to all this population in confusion. Repeat, repeat to
these poor people, that for them and their families no danger is to be
feared, and people will believe it. Let this noble and great, work be
one of those beautiful and glorious social events, of which religion
has always been and is always capable when any misfortune has befallen
to this city. Neapolitan people are accused of being superstitious
and are despised for this: Be it your work and that of the clergy to
demonstrate that only faith in its civil form, in its form of high
moral beauty, can accomplish certain moral miracles where no other
power of mind can reach.
April 12th 1906.