Italian 'Convent' Scandals

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 46, 14 November 1907, Page 10

Italian ' Convent' Scandals

One gets a shock of surprise at seeing a staid and sober citizen, of aldermanic bulk and immaculate drapery, indulging in ' langwidge ' at the street corner. It was with a like shock of astonishment" that we perused, in the columns of the usually fair and highly respectable ' Weekly Press ' a re-hash of alleged ' convent ' scandals in Italy, couched in 'langwidge ' that was at times ' frequent and free. Thus, we are told of ',practices of a shocking nature ', of 'a particularly" 'heinous offence ' in ' a religious institute in Milan ', and of '.scandals ' among, the Salesians at -Va*azze and elsewhere. The ' religious institute at Milan ', and < the story of the ' orphan girls ', together with other particulars furnished by the ' Weekly Press ', complete in every respect, the identification of the ' institute ' 'with' the long-exploded Fumagalli fraud. . The real facts of this outrageous case, and the exposures of the anticlerical calumnies in connection with Varazze and elsewhere, have been so long before the English-speaking public that it is difficult to conceive how a wide-awake journal like the ' Weekly Press ' could have given circulation to these anti-clerical slanders at this time of the day. But even good old H6mer was known to nod, and we suppose a busy editorial staff must be allowed to commit an oversight now and then. But the incident serves as a further illustration of the jieed of-a Catholic paper, even for those families and individuals of our faith who limit their " journalistic reading to the more staid and fair-minded organs in the secular press. "

Now marie how plain a tale shall put these slanders down. We prefer to let .the writer of an article in the noted EngJish non-Catholic magazine, the Saturday Jteyiew ', record the facts, as to their main p3Xu ••■—

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procuress who had assumed the habit of a nun the better to carry out a most infamous traffic. Four years ago. she was denounced to the police by the Cardinal Archbishop of Turin, in whose diocese she had opened her first house of ill-fame. She left Turin hastily, and came to Milan with her associates, where the Archbishop .(following the example of the Arcbbishop of Turin) wrote to the police and to "the authorities, informing them of the true character of this wretch. . . Notwithstanding this,- the authorities paid little or no attention. to the matter ;- but when the woman Fumagalli was publicly turned away from Holy Communion and denounced at Milan, the ultra-secular papers espoused her cause, and described her as " a victim of clerical tyranny V ; among them being the " Secolo " which, having completely forgotten its former attitude! has glibly availed itself of a fresh outbreak of scandal m connection with this -woman and her colleagues to. rouse public fury nob. only against her, but against all houses of education and charity which, are under ecclesiastical, authority, or managed by the conventual Oroeis. All the sensational papers have followed suit, and have .so worked upon the public imagination, that m- a + se - and other incidents— which they are now obSiged to confess h&ve been concocted for the worst of purposes-pots have been fomented throughout the country, piiests and nuns have been outraged, three churches !*rl en ? ar * ial j y burn ed, and one school at SampierksS a o?SSSht dest 7 ?ed ' whilst ' several pe °p le have been killed outnght, and a great number seriously injur&d '

As to other ' scandals ' mentioned hy the ' Weekly Press ', we need only add the following information : At \-arazze the Salesians have-a college for boys. One of these, egged on by an evil adviser in his own family concocted a gross story implicating a youth named Lat^tuada. The case was tried, there was no evidence-or at least quite insufficient evidence—to sustain - the charge,. and Lattuada was restored to liberty. Another calumny against the Salesians was launched against a student of theirs named Disperati. "The accusers, however, found it necessary to withdraw their • charge ; Disperati was then liberated without a stain upon his chazacter; and the event was celebrated by • demonstrations of popular sympathy with the Salesian Fathers. This whole campaign of foul calumny together with the attacks on religious institutes 'was organised by the Freemason" and other anti-Christian organisations in Italy and their organs in the press, and IHie n-on-Catholia Paris correspondent of the. ' NewYork Sun ' stated some time ago .that it was subsidised to the tune of 125,000 francs (£6000) by the Grand Orient or ruling body of French Freemasonry.