John Baptist Scalabrini – His Writings

“A Bishop for whose heart a diocese was not enough”

Saint J. B. Scalabrini left behind works of various character and nature: his conferences on First Vatican Council when he was pastor in Como (1873); his writings on the catechism; his pronouncements on the issue within the Italian Church which was dividing transigents and intransigents (1885); his writings on emigration and his booklet on Socialism and the action of the clergy, which in 1899 enjoyed two editions.

After his death additional writings of his were edited and published: the 1905 Memorandum on the Congregation or Commission Pro Emigratis Catholicis; the Correspondence between Scalabrini and Bonelli (1868 – 1905); and the collection of his Pastoral Letters (1876 – 1905)

These writings show Scalabrini’s pastoral heart: a man of great thinking, first of all, as well as a Bishop and a shepherd attentive to the good of the people entrusted to him. And, even more, he was defined as A Bishop for whose heart one diocese was not enough, since he took upon himself matters, which concerned the whole Church, first among them human migration.