399 - APOSTLES OR APOSTATES

First Encounter with Father Piamarta - By Pier Giordano Cabra

Chapter nine

1. Father Piamarta wanted his boys free and strong. Free so as not to be subjugated by the current mentality, strong to resist easy evils. Free so as to not be roped in by the gang, strong so as to live with adherence to their own certainties. His times were full of social and political contrasts between laissez faire and socialism. The first concerned itself with accumulating goods, the second with distributing goods equally. Father Piamarta, emphasizing the practical, said to his boys, “it is necessary to be free, to be useful to yourselves and to others”. He insisted they learn the civic virtues: honesty, a sense of duty, honoring their word, and participating in public life with a sense of service. To those who told him that he spoke too little about rights, he answered that to learn our rights it takes a week, to learn our duties it takes more than a life time.

2. He was also convinced that in modern society, a young boy works hard or fails. He behaves as an apostle or risks becoming an apostate. He shines or is absorbed by mediocrity. An apostle is one who cares for the needs of others and is ready to go out of his way to do what is possible. In 1902 Father Piamarta heard of plans to impede the civic procession of Corpus Christi. He called his boys and he deployed them to protect the procession; and the procession took place. An apostle is willing to pay for his ideas. An apostle “does not follow the path of the wicked, but walks in the law of God”.

3. He did not want morose, sad, pessimistic, introverted, severe boys. To them he repeated the “Maxims” of Saint Philip Neri, which are short and simple words of human and Christian wisdom born from deep spiritual meditations and the school of life. “Boys be happy; scruples and sadness leave my home.” “Blessed are you young boys because you have the time to do good.” “You must work hard, God does not know what to do with slackers.” He often said, “A rich person is not one who owns more, but the one who needs less”. He also said, “Do not be like people who live as though they never have to die. These die as if they never have lived”.

4. He supported all the free spread of the happiness, alternating the hard daily duty with lively recreation, frequent day trips to the country, solemn choral singing, popular musical bands, and acclaimed theater productions; reaching in these sectors levels of excellence well known throughout the city and province. The Artigianelli band was the one chosen for the occasion of the majestic inauguration of the monument to the Savior on Mount Guglielmo on August 20th, 1902. It was an unforgettable day. Among the many present there was a reserved and clapping boy, Giovanni Battista Montini, destined to become famous. A century later he was present again in that place with a statue representing him in the role of the Roman Pontiff Paul VI. Perhaps in the solitary limpid stellar nights, he sometimes listens again to those merry and solemn notes that Father Piamarta and the young boys played there that day as a homage to the Savior of the world!

Traduzione a cura di Mary Levine e Matteo Toschi