The Catholic secret association known as Aa spread throughout France in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. Many Catholic institutions, either directly or indirectly, owe their origins to it. Among them is the Foreign Missions Seminary in Paris, which famously accomplished the vital work of propagating the Faith.
In 1781, a churchman took Aa to Turin. Only his last name—Murgeray—is known. He probably came from the Bordeaux nucleus, with which he corresponded. Pio Brunone Lanteri and Father Luigi Virginio were among the first to join. Curiously, 1781 was also the year that then-student Lanteri consecrated himself as a slave of Our Lady, which, as we have seen, was one of the pious practices the association recommended.
It is not known if Father Nicholas Diessbach was familiar with Aa before it was established in Turin. In any case, given his relations with Lanteri and Virginio, he was able to study their organization. He probably adopted it as the model for Amicizia Cristiana (Christian Friendship). Looking at the latter’s constitution, the reader will see the profound similarity between the two.
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In his aforementioned book, Le Amicizie—Società Segrete e Rinascita Religiosa (Friendships, Secret Societies and Religious Revival),1 Fr. Candido Bona reproduces in full the Amicizia’s two fundamental documents. Les Lois de l’Amitié Chrétienne (The Laws of Christian Friendship) regulated the society’s functioning. The Suite de lois de l’Amitié chrétienne (Suite of Laws of Christian Friendship) set out the principles that guided it. A good idea of the society is provided by these documents and other studies on the matter, including Father Bona’s excellent book.
By the late seventeenth century, the secrecy that protected the Aa was even more crucial. It was on the eve of the French Revolution that Amicizia was founded. Prudence demanded that Father Diessbach require the strictest secrecy of its members. These precautions not only prevented the work from being harmed by untimely intrusions, but they also kept the sodality away from the turmoil that preceded the revolutionary storm. Only its members and ecclesiastical authorities knew everything about its internal organization. Members adopted a particular terminology to speak about their most important activities. They also had a code that allowed the various nuclei to correspond freely; unfortunately, it was lost.
Amicizia was not a religious association for all the faithful. It was made up of elite groups called ‘colonies.’ Each colony consisted of twelve people—six men and six women—recruited from the upper classes, especially the nobility. Members were admitted after a year’s novitiate. Colonies depended on each other, the more established ones guiding their offshoots.
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However, that dependence was not rigid. A degree of flexibility enabled each colony to continue when circumstances prevented contact between them, which was frequent at the time. The statutes governing the Amicizie could also be adapted to suit the applicable environment. Hence, there was a wide variety in the organization of the various colonies. Each presented its own characteristics, although all had the same spirit and devoted themselves to the same apostolate.
A simple description of Amicizia’s architecture reveals its similarity with Aa. Amicizia was the successor to Diessbach’s first foundation, the Pious Association for the Press. Aa replaced the Pious Association around 1781, the year Aa was introduced in Turin. This coincidence further proves that Father Diessbachs’ knowledge of Aa profoundly influenced his apostolic plans.
While the organization of both sodalities was very similar, their purposes differed. The Aa’s primary function was to promote its members’ spiritual formation and sanctification. Amicizia was an intellectual apostolate focused on forming a veritable arsenal of Catholic culture to fight the Revolutionary ideas spreading throughout Europe. To achieve this end, Amicizie began by building a library for the use of all interested parties. Additionally, it mustered the means to inform every member about each book’s orientation. Such a library was highly useful to the Catholic movement in the local city or region, which could thus be asssured that the apostolate’s intellectual guidance was safe. As mentioned, Amicizia also aimed to promote Catholic culture in all its forms. This library was the starting point of the whole apostolate that Father Diessbach sought to form.
Les Lois de l’Amitié Chrétienne minutely regulated the colony’s six male members’ obligations. One of them was to be the first librarian. He presided over all activities and had two votes in deliberations. His office was perpetual. The second librarian was to add to and direct the library’s material resources, around which the colony’s life revolved. (In their parlance, the library was called a “pharmacy.”) A third officer, the promoter, was responsible for observing the statutes and seeing to the establishment and functioning of new and dependent colonies. The other three were assigned the positions of secretary, master of novices or instructor, and missionary. In addition to his ordinary duties, the secretary had to “attentively monitor newspapers or other news sources of interest to Amicizia Cristiana and report on it. The master of novices prepared the male candidates. The ladies also had an instructor, the only position to which they had access.
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The missionary’s tasks included making frequent trips to observe people and make contact with them. In this context, he was to study the environment of the city he was visiting. He was also responsible for finding new colonies that would depend on his own. Additionally, he was expected to inspect and encourage the dependent colonies.
The data obtained through the missionary and other information, such as newspaper reports, was presented to the members by the secretary. All members were admonished to use the information with utmost diligence. This information empowered Amicizia to make a “geographical map” of the city in question. The map enabled the members to study the possibilities of apostolate there and to compile a list of people to contact. This work facilitated the formation of a new colony or to further the work according to the association’s spirit. Prominent people required special care. As Father Lanteri often said, “They support necessary good works with their authority, credibility, influence or position, or [by interceding] with sovereigns.”
Additionally, each Amicizia member had to recruit at least two assistants, called “researchers.” These men helped the member research and read books. The numerous “researchers” did not belong to the colony. They constituted what might be termed its periphery. They did not attend meetings. To be admitted to membership, they had to be unanimously accepted by a vote of the members, including the ladies. Besides the members and researchers, each Amicizia also had access to many priests and laypeople who helped in its campaigns.
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