Up to now, this series of articles has presented the history of Amicizie in Italy. However, this was an international movement inspired by the ideas of Father Nicholas Diessbach. Therefore, it is logical to cover – at least briefly – the activities of its counterparts in other countries, especially since these naturally had a bearing on the life of Italian Amicizie.
Father Diessbach was obliged to travel constantly. He often called Father Virginio from Turin to replace him in Vienna during his absences. The Viennese sodality progressed rapidly. This agreeable development allowed its founder to realize one of his most cherished projects, forming a school for Catholic writers. In such a setting, intellectuals could gather to study, meditate, and write articles and books to spread genuine Catholic thought without worrying about material difficulties. That would be the most effective way to combat revolutionary errors spreading rapidly in the years preceding the French Revolution. The initiative’s success can be seen in that St. Clement Mary Hofbauer was formed in this school and left only to join the Redemptorists. In the early nineteenth century, he returned to Vienna, becoming one of the mainstays of Catholic renewal in Austria.
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By 1785, seeing the Amicizie multiplying, Father Diessbach decided it was time to establish an association in Paris. He wanted this Amicizia to be the model and driving force for all others. Therefore, this effort was endowed with all the resources necessary to fulfill that mission. Clearly, Father Virginio was the best man to execute this project. He had proven his skills as a sharp observer in all the cities he visited as a “missionary.” He revealed his organizational capacity in Milan by creating that city’s Amicizia. Father Diessbach thus sent him to Paris, although he would be sorely missed in Vienna.
Given the project’s importance, this trip would be considerably longer than the others. Father Virginio would need to study the environment to create favorable conditions for the founding. Then, he would have to guide the new association, at least in its early years.
Since it was necessary to leave one or more substitutes at Vienna’s Amicizia, Father Diessbach called Father Sineo de la Torre and Father Pietro Rigoletti from Turin. The Turin Amicizia did not suffer because of the two members’ departure, which proves how strong it had become.
While a complete reconstruction of the sodality’s activities in Turin during this period is impossible due to a lack of documentation, it considerably increased its library and organized catalogs of selected books. Although it lacked a house of writers like Vienna’s, it decided to publish a collection of books expounding the most controversial questions of Catholic doctrine at the time. Many were published before the troubles that struck Piedmont during the French Revolution and Napoleon’s Empire. Those upheavals limited the realization of the Turin Amicizia’s plans. They prevented the completion of the projected collection. They also hampered the release of the bibliographical bulletin Father Lanteri had planned to launch, which included book reviews helping subscribers choose good books.
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At this point, a brief account of Father Virginio’s work in Paris is in order. Father Candido Bona inserted an account of that work in his book on Amicizie.1
Upon his arrival in Paris, Father Virginio lodged at Saint Nicolas de Chardonnet’s community, founded by Bishop Adrien Amboise. His friend, Saint Vincent de Paul, praised the Bishop’s work for the sanctification of the clergy. A vibrant Aa had been flourishing in this community since the seventeenth century. Its members likely offered Father Virginio lodging to help him set up Amicizia in Paris.
Living in the same house was Father Joseph Picot de la Clorivière, a former Jesuit2 well-connected in French counter-revolutionary circles. He, too, considered establishing a work similar to the one planned by Father Virginio. They worked together, and their labors became so intertwined that today, it is impossible to distinguish one from the other. After the French Revolution, Amicizia disappeared. However, Father de la Clorivière’s association prospered and valiantly promoted the Counter-Revolution. Amid the revolutionary storm, the two friends worked underground and faced great dangers. They saw many of their collaborators win the palm of martyrdom.
Father Virginio describes the difficulties faced in this fight against the intolerant and brutal revolutionaries who took over France. A sharp observer, he records the harm that “prudent” Catholics, supporters of appeasement, did to the intrepid defenders of the faith. He writes:
“This persecution by the wicked made more vivid another kind of persecution. Albeit less frightening by nature, its consequences were often more painful and harmful. It came from people seen as virtuous and enlightened, often of irreproachable conduct, and whose good intentions could not be doubted, at least among many. Led by prejudice, lack of situation awareness, weakness, timidity, or the habit of judging things in the light of faith, they would consistently condemn plans that might jeopardize in any way its executors or displease the evil ones bent on domination. They criticized even plans conceived with the purest and most prudent zeal.
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“Their criticism, often accompanied by a thousand thoughts inspired by panic, introduced the seeds of distrust, uncertainty, and discouragement into weak souls. To prevent or remedy those dangers, we had to be cautious and resign ourselves to adopting long-term measures that considerably delayed good initiatives. After all such precautions, we saw with sadness that these timid politicians’ reproaches led most useful initiatives to failure and diverted many souls who, dominated by fear, confused with Christian prudence, abandoned their chosen path. Few works of zeal and charity promoted by the Christian Friends did not have to face these difficulties and expose themselves to the persecution of the ungodly.”3
Father Virginio remained in France until 1801. He hid during the Revolution, constantly fighting alongside his counter-revolutionary friends. He saw the Parisian Amicizia destroyed, many of its members persecuted, and France immersed in bloody Terror. Only when the danger began to subside did he return to Vienna and resume guiding that city’s Amicizia.
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