The Amicizia Christiana Groups Did Everything for the Good of Souls

The organization Amicizia Cristiana (Christian Friendship) referred to its local groups as colonies because each new one was founded by members of an already existing group. These colonies met twice weekly, and their “assemblies” lasted a maximum of two hours.

Each session began with a religious lecture, followed by a discussion about the most suitable means for the colony’s members to make spiritual progress. Then, they decided on the admission of new “researchers” who did the work of finding, reading and reviewing books to bring to the members’ attention. Then, one of the members would summarize the book he was assigned to read and determine its orientation in order to catalog it. Other members would then describe their activities over the previous days.

The session closed with the so-called “family workshop.” This was a more personal half-an-hour conversation about anything that might interest the apostolate. Members discussed news reports and political matters. When appropriate, the first librarian advised the Amicizia members about the conduct each should have in this or that circumstance.

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The statutes did not foresee this family workshop, but it seems to have developed gradually. In his biography of Venerable Lanteri, Fr. Tommaso Piatti says the assemblies “closed with a half-hour family workshop during which they conversed about the most important daily news, as they rightly considered very important to read and discuss newspapers reports.”¹

The family workshop’s existence is confirmed by Piatti’s authority and the similar organization of the Aa and Amicizia organizations. Aa also devoted half an hour to general conversation at the end of its meetings. Father Lanteri naturally adopted this practice within Amicizia. This addition gave its members a broader vision of the needs of the apostolate and prepared them to wage the spiritual counter-revolution for which the association was created.

Amicizia’s primary purpose was to establish libraries. However, that was only the first step in Father Nicholas Diessbach’s vast apostolic plan, encompassing all human activities. At a meeting of Turin’s Amicizia Cristiana in 1804, Father Lanteri gave an account of the work of its various colonies and recalled the purposes for their creation. After explaining the association’s plans, he concluded:

“Amicizia Cristiana is not content with carrying out such vast plans in only one country but turns its gaze attentively to all parts of the world, longing and striving so that Jesus Christ may become better known and reign everywhere. To this end, with timely travel instructions, it suggests that its friends establish new colonies wherever possible. They should try to meet good people or at least correspond with them and bookstore owners, learn about book reviews or any exciting news to further perfect our means and vision to influence people anywhere we can, promote every kind of good, and prevent every kind of evil. No genuine friend of Christ can be uninterested in any place, person, or anything concerning the glory of God and the salvation of souls and, therefore, the Sacred Heart of Jesus.”²

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In addition to better preparing the association’s members to spread Catholic culture, the family workshops opened new perspectives for the apostolate. The following resolution, incorporated into the report of one of the assemblies, seems a significant example of the results of these friendly conversations on current topics:

“Armenian Catholics are suffering in Constantinople and throughout the Levant a cruel and obstinate persecution by their nation’s schismatic patriarch. The French ambassador’s intercession (perhaps very weak) has not succeeded in stopping it. Newspapers have reported that His Majesty the Catholic King has concluded a treaty with the Ottoman Gate. Hence, it seems that one could and should try to give our suffering brethren some relief in their extreme need through the court or the ambassador about to be sent there.”³

So far, Amicizia’s functioning and immediate goals have been described. Father Diessbach, a master of the spiritual life, conceived the apostolate only as an outgrowth of an intense interior life. Les Lois de l’Amitié Chrétienne (The Laws of Christian Fellowship) firmly insists on the need for a solid spiritual formation. It prescribed to members a profound devotion to Our Lady and the spirituality of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. It also required that members read the works of Saint Alphonsus Mary of Liguori to preserve them from the Jansenist danger.

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Obligatory practices of piety included receiving the sacraments at least twice a month, meditating daily for half an hour and doing another half an hour of spiritual reading. Members also fasted on the prescribed days, four of which entailed consuming only bread and water. Members made three annual vows: not to read any forbidden books, to devote one hour a week to the attentive reading of a book on religious formation provided by Amicizia, and to obey everything concerning regular activities and the observance of the rules.

The “Laws” also strongly recommended that each member should make, once a year, an 8-day or at least 3-day retreat according to the methods of Saint Ignatius.

Above and beyond these obligatory practices, the desire for holiness and the firm resolution to achieve it were the main characteristics of a genuine Amicizia member. Here is what Father Diessbach wrote about solitude in his Suite des Lois de l’Amitié chrétienne (Continuation of the Laws of Christian Friendship):

“It would be extremely desirable if all Amicizia members could regularly spend four months of the year in some hermitage, solely occupied with cultivating their soul, feeding it slowly with the great truths of Religion, chosen readings, severe and quiet meditations, and solitary walks which, dedicate sweetly to remembering God’s presence and their own reflections, they could feel the full force of the thoughts that sincere and enlightened piety is capable of producing.

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“Nothing in the world is better suited to strengthen Christian virtues, indelibly engraving on one’s heart the knowledge of the nothingness of creatures, the immensity of God, and the importance of everything concerning incomprehensible eternity. Nothing is more suitable for this than severe but wisely tempered solitude. Only far from the turmoil of passions agitating one’s heart, human frivolity vainly amusing it, domestic cares distracting it, idle life staining and enervating it, is it disposed to listen correctly to the voice of God and eternity and irrevocably resolve to make every effort to teach others the lessons of heavenly Wisdom it has learned to enjoy.

“However, as most of our people cannot afford to have this great good every year because of their situations, we need at least to desire and seek it when possible and punctiliously follow the prescribed rules to this end by doing readings, daily meditations, spiritual exercises eight days a year, and holding country retreats when Divine Providence deigns to grant us some solitary house adaptable for this purpose.”⁴

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