Note 4 — Chapter IV · THE EUROPEAN WAR AND ITS EFFECTS

To refer to one single district and to facts directly known by the author, it may be stated that in May, 1920, most of the province of Udine having been organised under Don Sturzo’s white banner, the peasants had their minds perverted by the very priests to whom they had looked hitherto for moral guidance, to the extent of starving their own cattle, of ceasing to milk their cows, leaving hundreds of beasts howling day and night for a week. (Some of the land-owners, above all those who were sportsmen, did their best, at the risk of their life, to relieve the poor animals, but could not manage to go round the stables every day.) The present writer is a Roman Catholic, a friend of peasants wherever she goes and an animal lover; she could not therefore speak with equanimity of a party who used the priests of her own church to speak words of violence on the steps of the altar or in the parsonage-houses, making bullies of country folk she has known for thirteen years as excellent people, looking after their cattle with so much humanity that they never sit down to a meal before their beasts are fed. It is therefore better to state a few facts with names and dates. In May, 1920, in San Martino al Tagliamento, Count Francesco di Prampero was sequestered in his house with four men of the white legion mounting guard on his doors, to compel him to yield to the will of the priests and their followers. The same might be said of all the land-owners of the villages where Don Sturzism flourished. But Count Francesco di Prampero is selected here as being such a friend of peasants, that he never lived with his family, since he was in his teens preferring the company of his tenants, although he belongs to the most ancient aristocracy.

In the same year groups of followers of Don Sturzo and some Arditi Bianchi went about with their white flag compelling people to kiss the hem of it and caning those who would not, the Arditi Bianchi, who were the armed legion of the party, being ready to shoot the obdurate men or women. As a matter of fact, the most terrible harm was that of the sacraments, in a province as religious as that of Udine, so that it is no wonder that Benedict XV, asked by the present writer if he could approve such things, was absolutely shocked and let her understand that since the war it was his greatest torment.

Space compels to bring this note to a conclusion, and it may be said that one of the foremost lieutenants of Don Sturzo, in that Province, was Monsignor Gori, a canon of the cathedral of Udine, a man who rejoiced over the defeat of his country at Caporetto, befriended the invaders, and betrayed two women who had said to him that they were praying for the victory of the allies, so that on his denunciation they were condemned by the Austrians. This may give a fair idea of what was a party that took such a man not only in its ranks, but as a main agent, knowing him to be even then, before the advent of Fascism, in antagonism with his Archbishop, whose patriotism has since brought upon him the underhand persecution of the clergy that had been contaminated by Don Sturzism even in its ecclesiastical discipline.