THE IMAGE OF THE PRIEST IN THE
LETTERS WRITTEN BY THE SALESIAN
FATHER GIUSEPPE QUADRIO[1]
Enrico dal Covolo, S.D.B.
Anybody reading the Letters written by the
Servant of God, Father Giuseppe Quadrio[2]
would immediately notice a leitmotiv occurring through all the letters, which
appears to be even more evident during the course of his disease (1960-1963),
viz.: the identity and the mission of priests.
In his Letters, Father Quadrio develops this
subject with no preset course,[3]
addressing parents, such as Father Melesi’s mother, or individual priests, like
Father Palumbieri, Father Crespi, and Father Melesi...; or even groups of
priests, like the Salesian priests ordained in Torino-Crocetta in 1960; or priests-to-be,
especially his nephew, Father Valerio Modenesi.
Most interestingly – without having the intention to
do so, or even without realising it – Father Quadrio offers a beautiful
self-portrait of priests. As a matter of fact, according to those who happened
to know him, “the things that he [Father Quadrio] said and wrote" about
priesthood "were mainly referred to himself': what he told about, was
actually his life!";[4]
and he was "a priest always, everywhere and with everybody",[5]
as he repeatedly advised his fellow priests.
Going over a few passages of Father Quadrio’s Letters,
I would like to expand on the great concept of priesthood, bringing back to
light, at the same time, the unexpected and unintentional self-portrait that
Father Quadrio left us while talking about priesthood.
1. The priest: "A
man taken from among men "...
First of all, Father Quadrio was well aware of the
fact that the priest – as reinforced in the Letter to the Hebrews – is “a man
taken from among men”.[6]
Humanity is an essential component of priesthood for
him. Unfortunately – as he told with regret to his former students in 1960 on
the occasion of the third anniversary of their ordination - "there can be
a disillusioned priesthood, where the divine has not managed to take on a true
and thorough humanity. Then, there would be priests who are not true men, but
ghosts of men, ‘aliens’ fallen from heaven, inhuman and strange, unable to
understand and to make themselves understood by the men of their time and
space. They have forgotten that Christ, to save all men, ‘came down from
heaven…was born of the Virgin Mary….and became man’, ‘he would become like
them, except for sin'. If we are the bridge between men and God, the bridgehead
will need to be firmly laid on the bank of humanity, accessible to all those
for whom it was built ".[7]
To the same priests, a year before, Father Quadrio would
write: "The Word was made true and perfect flesh, to become the Saviour. Your
Priesthood won’t be able to save anybody, unless this genuine incarnation is
achieved. Men, who come to you or run from you, are all indiscriminately hungry
for goodness, understanding, solidarity and love: they unknowingly die for the
need of Christ. To all of you, they address a desperate prayer: 'We wish to see
Jesus!' (John 12,21). Do not disappoint the expectations of poor people. You
must learn how to listen, understand, look for, pity, excuse, love. Do not be
afraid: they are all waiting for this! Before addressing learned subjects, preach
the Gospel with simple and welcoming goodness, with peaceful friendship,
friendly involvement, selfless help, adopting the method of ‘working’
evangelisation, which is capillary, one-to-one, face-to-face. Climb in through
the window of man and go out through the door of God. Build a bridge of
friendship and let it be enlightened by the light and the grace of Christ ".[8]
These beliefs set the stage for Father Quadrio’s pressing
recommendation according to which priests should carefully cultivate their
human formation: natural resources, in fact, are not thwarted by the gifts of
grace. Conversely, they become more relevant.
To his nephew Valerio, who was taking his first steps
in priesthood, he said: "You are present every day[9]
when I say Mass and pray, because I care too much about your priesthood. You
don’t know how much the final maturation of your character in the human and
natural virtues that will make you become a true, complete and winning man is
dear to me. These human virtues are usually very modest and humble, but basic: sincerity,
loyalty, kindness, indulgence, generosity, self-control, readiness to act, imperturbable
calm when problems arise, unshakable faith, firmness in propositions, clear and
inflexible willpower".[10]
A few years later, he would again write to Valerio:
"I think that we, as priests, should build a bridge for everybody with
kind, friendly, warm and serene personality, which is also generous and simple,
rich in humanity and understanding, welcoming and obliging. Only through these
arches may the Gospel and the Grace walk and run!".[11]
Is there anybody who wouldn’t notice, behind these
recommendations, the good and welcoming face of Father Quadrio, his exquisite goodness,
his simple and open loving kindness, his deep respect for people?
In sum, his richness in human gifts, which is brought
to light in every page of the letters, makes Father Quadrio be a living witness
of what he is advising his priests to do.
Some typical features of the Letters may be considered in this light, such as the careful
attention to some feasts and occasions (name-days, anniversaries, wishes,
condolences), his ability to express thankfulness (for example to Father Magni and
Father Castano), the wise alternation of the polite or the friendly form, the fantasy shown in the attention paid to
people (see a funny letter written to the Baby Jesus in 1961, when he tried to
forge the large and shaky writing of a child, filling the page with typical childish
mistakes, making up a funny prayer for Sister Maria Ignazia, a nun working in
the hospital who was “so good to run and spoon-feed me everyday").[12]
2. ..."Whom he
appointed the heir of all things through whom also he created the world"...[13]
The priest, a man “taken from among men”, is consecrated
to God for the good of his brothers and sisters. A mysterious encounter of
salvation between the human and the divine is achieved in him.
In this regard, Father Quadrio warns his friends about
a “too worldly Priesthood, in which the human side has watered down and stifled
the divine". And he goes on: "We would then witness the sad view of
priests who may be good professors and organisers, but are no longer the ‘men
of God’, nor living epiphanies of Christ. They are just like churches turned
into profane museums. There’s an infallible meter to measure the consistency of
one’s Priesthood: prayer. This is the first and the essential task that a
priest has to perform, even if he is a director, a counsellor, a prefect or the
person in charge of the Oratory. All the rest if certainly important, but will
come along later. Otherwise, we would have built a bridge where the last arch
was missing: the one reaching out to God".[14]
And Father Quadrio’s constant care in the
“contemplative dimension” of the priest is deeply rooted in this. It should be
noted that three out of the “five recommendations” to newly ordained priests
concern the Mass (“say Mass each day as it was the first, the last, and the
only one in your life...[15]
A Priest who piously says Mass every day will never do anything foolish"),
the Breviary ("it is usually the first to be ruined by a half-hearted
priest…Be confident that with your Breviary you may change the world, much more
than with your learned lectures or lessons") and the Confession respectively
("remember than when faced with the many dangers of your priestly life,
your salvation will always be a man knowing everything about you, who will
guide you with a steady hand, and support you with a fatherly heart ").[16]
These are essentially the same recommendations he had made
to Father Tironi two years before: "Get prepared with great care", he
wrote, "live intensely and prolong your Mass over the day…All your days
should become a Mass. Live, love and taste your Breviary. Don’t forget that
through it you embody the whole Church and testify to praying Christ. Go to
confession every week and make daily considerations".[17]
To the "most dear friends of the 4th Theology
course”, who would be ordained in 1961, he wrote: "Don’t be afraid: prayer
can achieve anything! A priest praying well will never do anything foolish".[18]
And to Father Bin he said: "Devote your life to Christ and be transported
with joy towards Him. Don’t be afraid: He will guide you…Fall in love with your
Mass: that’s the secret!".[19]
And to his nephew Valerio: "Let’s pray together: meditating, loving and
tasting the inexhaustible treasures of our Breviary. By loving and enjoying our
divine ministry, lying every day in the heart of the Church, on top of the
world, face-to-face with human misery and divine majesty, we will be true
mediators between God and the world".[20]
And a few weeks later, he would also ask Father Valerio the following question :
"In regard to the Gospel, don’t you think that our ignorance and negligence
towards it is sacrilegious? A priest should take the vow of reading at least a
page everyday. Along with the Eucharist, there is nothing more sanctifying and
nourishing than the Word of God made flesh in his Gospel".[21]
And to Father Melesi: "Your first duty is to pray. The rest will come
along later".[22]
3. ..."True and truthful
Priest, in whom the man is always a Priest, albeit a perfect man".[23]
Finally, according to Father Quadrio, the two sides of
Priesthood – the human and the divine ones we have described so far – cannot
simply overlap, but should be deeply and harmoniously merged.
In the above-mentioned letter of 3rd
January 1963 he wrote: "There can also be the distortion of a torn
Priesthood, in which the divine and the human coexist but do not merge. Priests
behind the altar, but laymen behind the desk, in the courtyard, among men. They
are a bridge with two separated bridgeheads: the central arch connecting the
two is actually missing. A true and a truthful priest is the one in whom the
man is always a Priest, albeit a perfect man, with no exclusion of sectors or
areas. The man and the priest should perfectly coincide in an harmonious combination...Even
the most profane professions must be animated by a deep and transparent
priestly conscience".[24]
In other words, the priest is called to be the
incarnation of Christ – true man and true God – among men.
And to the very same addressees, namely the priests
ordained in 1960, Father Quadrio would write a year before: "Be always,
everywhere and with everybody a living and sensitive incarnation of the
merciful goodness of Jesus... Let’s truly and practically be the 'Christus
hodie' of your environment; a true Christ, in whom the divine and the human
side have harmoniously merged. The divine and the eternal, which are in your
priesthood, should be embodied (with no dilutions) in a rich and thorough
humanity like Jesus, taking on the style, the features and the sensibility of
your space and time".[25]
And to Father Crespi he wrote: "I often think of
you, the 'Christ of Cuorgné'. You must be the live and the visibile Sacrament
of the Goodness of Jesus to all your fellow brothers and children".[26]
And to Father Palumbieri he would recommend: "Be truly the ‘Christ’ of
your kids!".[27]
And the same he wrote to Father Melesi: "Dear Luigi, don’t be afraid of
being the Christ of Arese, the Good, Patient, Crucified, Agonising, Dead and
Resurrected Christ for your kids". [28]
And to Father Martinelli he reinforced: "Do not be frightened by the fact
that you have to be the Christ of Torre Annunziata: the Good, Loving, Patient,
Brave, Agonising, Abandoned, Dead and Resurrected Christ for your kids".[29]
Over the last years of his life, marked by disease and
suffering, Father Quadrio existentially realised that the human and the divine
sides of the priest are fully merged only in the sacrifice of the cross, the
ultimate epiphany of the Son of man and the Son of God. Back then, on the first
Passion Sunday in 1962, he wrote to his nephew: "I should be finally
convinced by now that a priest must sanctify his suffering and that of others. It’s
not suffering that matters, but suffering like Him. Even your priesthood, dear
Valerio, is a mystery of cross and blood...The Cross is truly the unique 'spes'
in our priesthood: we wouldn’t do anything if it weren’t for the Cross. I wish you,
Valerio, and myself to learn how to understand and live the mystery of the
Cross, and make a living Cross out of our priesthood, on which to build our
lives and the salvation of souls".[30]
Only in so doing, the priest – a man taken from among
men and consecrated to them for the things of God – may become ‘a clear
Sacrament of the Passion and the Death” of Christ.[31]
This is the more lively and truthful portrait of
Father Quadrio, the one he wasn’t aware of drawing while talking to his friends
about the sacred mystery of priesthood.
“The things he said and wrote” about priesthood were
truly “referred to himself”: he told us about his life!".[32]
He was a “tangible Sacrament of the Goodness” of the
Lord, and in the tragic days of his disease, he became also the “clear
Sacrament” of the passion and the death of Christ for the salvation of the
world:[33]
those who had the chance to meet him – at the altar or in the courtyard, behind
the desk or in his sickbed – know they have met a witness of Christ, a
"vicar of His love",[34]
a priest in whom “the goodness and the humanity of our Saviour was revealed".[35]
Enrico dal Covolo
[1]See FATHER GIUSEPPE QUADRIO, Letters. Edited by Remo Bracchi (= Collana Spirito e Vita, 19),
LAS, Rome 1991 [hereinafter referred to as: Letters].
[2]Father Quadrio was born in Vervio (Sondrio) on 28th
November 1921. He was admitted to the Salesian Institute of Ivrea in 1933.
After his noviciate in Villa Moglia, he made his first profession on 30th
November 1937. In Rome, at the Gregorian University, he attended the faculty of
Philosophy from 1938 to 1941. After two years of practice at the student’s
residence in Foglizzo, he resumed his studies at the Gregorian University,
attending the Faculty of Theology from 1943 to 1949. On 12th December 1946, in an important academic
disputation, he claimed the dogmatic definability of the Assumption of Mary. On
7th December 1949, at the Gregorian University, he made his
dissertation. On 16th March 1947, he started working as a professor
of dogmatics at the Pontifical Salesian University in Torino-Crocetta, where he
stayed from 1949 to 1960, being also dean of Theology from 1954 to 1959. In
June 1960 he was diagnosed with a malignant lymphogranuloma and died in Turin
on 23rd October 1963. Father
Quadrio’s beatification and canonisation process is currently under way (see E.
VALENTINI, Quadrio, Giuseppe, servo di
Dio, in Bibliotheca Sanctorum. First
appendix, Rom 1987, col. 1099-1100. Ibid.
short biography, and: R. BRACCHI, Don
Giuseppe Quadrio a 25 anni dalla morte. Atti della solenne Commmemorazione in
Valtellina [Grosotto-Sondrio-Vervio, 22-23 ottobre 1988] [= Collana Spirito
e Vita, 16], Rome 1989; E. DAL COVOLO, I
Padri della Chiesa negli scritti del Salesiano don Giuseppe Quadrio,
"Ricerche Storiche Salesiane" 9 [1990], pages 443-455).
[3]"The no preset course" is given by the fact
that the writings examined are actually letters; however, the above-said subject
is key to all of them in terms of references and cross-references: please see
the many references to the Letters to
Mary, seen as the “Mother of the Priest” (see Letters, pages 122. 209. 243. 338).
[4]That’s what Father Crespi said in his deposition in view
of the canonical process: ibid.,
pages 350 s.
[5]Ibid., page 313. See also the letters to Father Pauselli:
"Continue to be a Holy Priest. A priest always, everywhere and in
everything! Even behind the desk and in the courtyard, that’s how your students
should look at you, as their Priest" (ibid.,
page 241) and to the "most dear friends of the 4th Theology
Course": "Be priests in everything you do, always, with anybody, even
behind the desk or in the courtyard" (ibid.,
page 243).
[6]Hebrews
5,1.
[7]Letters, page 326.
[8]Ibid., pages 286 s.
[9]A few months later he would write: "I feel the
need to reassure you that I think of you every day when praying the Divine
master that is forming you as His priest " (ibid., page 155).
[10]Ibid., page 144.
[11]Ibid., page 258.
[12]Ibid., page 284.
[13]Hebrews 5,1.
[14]Ibid., pages 326 s.
[15]He used this phrase for the first time, as an addition
to the side, in a letter sent to priests on 26th January 1961, on the occasion of the first
anniversary of their ordination. In the same letter, Father Quadrio also wrote:
"Understand and live your Mass. Be in love with it and be jealous of it.
It should be the light, the joy, the soul of your life, your everything. And
all your life should be an extension of it, a fulfilment of your Mass: a
practical preaching of the Gospel, a generous Offertory, a total Consecration,
an intimate Communion with Christ with the Father and the Brothers. Save your
Mass from the violation of unpreparedness: the most fruitful Mass is usually
the best prepared one" (ibid.,
page 252). And again he wrote to the newly ordained priests in 1961: "say Mass each day as it was the first, the last, and the only one in
your life. Love Mass as the soul of your existence: defend it from the wear of
habit; make it be the shield of your chastity and the strength of your
apostolate" (ibid., page 254).
[16]Ibid., pages 288 s.
[17]Ibid., page 236.
[18]Ibid., page 243. In the letter sent to Father Crespi on 27th August 1955 he wrote: "There is just
one way to save our priesthood from sterility, sloppy and superficial habit,
disillusionment and failure, that is say trying to turn ourselves into true
saints…and the sanctity of a priest is measured through the way in which he
says Mass and reads the Breviary" (ibid.,
page 140).
[19]Ibid., page 260.
[20]Ibid., page 303.
[21]Ibid.,
page 305.
[22]Ibid., page 235.
[23]Ibid., page 327.
[24]Ibid., page 327.
[25]Ibid., page 286.
[26]Ibid., page 264. And to Father Crespi he would write four
years before: "A priest is either like Him or is a scrawl" (ibid., page 159).
[27]Ibid., page 314.
[28]Ibid., page 265.
[29]Ibid., page 266.
[30]Ibid., page 294.
[31]Ibid., page 265. In 1959 he would write to Father Ferranti:
"We must look for Jesus under the olive-trees of the Gethsemane and relive
his agony, repeating his prayer to the Father…these are not lost sufferings,
but the price we pay for our Priesthood" (ibid., page 196).
[32]Ibid., page 350.
[33]Ibid., page 265.
[34]In his application for priesthood, addressed to Father
Fanfara on 21st February
1947, Father Quadrio would write: "I’m resolved not to neglect anybody, so
that the Supreme and Eternal Priest, who is so merciful to make me be a “Vicar
of His love’ gives me a priestly heart like His: selfless, transported with joy
towards the Holy Spirit, generous in devoting his life and feel sorry for
people who are in suffering, passionate for souls in His love" (ibid., page 87). The same phrase
("Vicar of His love") was printed on the holy picture of his first
Mass: see E. VALENTINI, Don Giuseppe
Quadrio modello di spirito sacerdotale (= Collana Spirito e Vita, 6), Rome
1980, page 89.
[35]See Letters,
page 286.