Writings

[4154]
How unlucky I was not to have been in Verona when you were in Milan! A telegram which reached me in Austria, in Vienna (from where I went to Froshdorf to spend a day with the most holy of kings, Monsieur the Count Chambord), summoned me to Rome where I find myself very busy in order to reach the point when Propaganda can deal with the matters of Central Africa in full Congregation at the Vatican.
Consequently it is impossible for me to come to Switzerland for the moment. But I shall come to Switzerland or to Paris or to Prat-en-Raz to spend a few days with you and with the wives, the children and my dearest friends.

[4155]
I send you the letters that the Superior of Rome gave me, but I am a little embarrassed to send them to you because I am not very sure of your address. But I shall try. I shall insure the letters to reclaim them officially should they not arrive. Be kind enough to let me know immediately if you receive this letter.
I am also sending you the petition that was granted, for Carlo Igghiens of Paris. A thousand compliments to M. Auguste and to his wife and to you all the mind and the heart of your ever devoted

Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa


Translated from French.

[4156]
Having explained, although succinctly, in the Report presented in April, the history and progress of the Missions of Central Africa and demonstrated their secure stability, in order to prove even better the stable nature these have acquired I believe it is necessary for me to add the present Report to show the rules followed in Africa by my Missionaries from the Institute in Verona, thereby proving their sufficiency for the maintenance of the present and future Missions of the Vicariate and, through the explanation of the temporal administration, proving also the stability of sufficient resources. After this, I shall give an account of the development of relations between the Vicariate and the two dependent Religious Congregation and the behaviour of Fathers Carcereri and Franceschini as regards the Vicariate. In the first place:
[4157]
1. The Missionaries, lay and ordained, who, after unifying their principles in the Verona Institutes from which, under the governance of a single Rector, once their spirit has been tempered to the conditions of Africa, move on to join the Missions of Central Africa in the mansions assigned to them by the Superior, must busy themselves not only for the material benefit, but also and especially for the spiritual good of these poor souls who have remained for so many centuries a prey to the wiles of the devil. But the work of the Missionary would be in vain, or at least would bear little fruit, should he and his actions not be governed by a law. Thus, in addition to the supreme Superior who assumes the general governance of the whole Mission, a local Superior is appointed to govern the individual Mission entrusted to his care.
[4158]
Normally fulfilling the duties also of the parish priest, these Superiors must move around in the local population and visit the families so as to find out their needs, settle arguments, suppress evil practices, encourage among Catholics the observance of the precepts of the Church and of God so as to prevent evil and promote good wherever they can, and always with prudence, while trying at the same time to promote and preserve by their own behaviour esteem for Religion and love and respect for the Mission. They must keep the parish records and the register of the Masses celebrated; they must order and direct the Church services and the established Solemnities with as much decorum as their finances allow, in the conviction that what attracts the minds and hearts of the Africans more than words, especially at the beginning, is external pomp. For them, as parish priests (the purpose of the work being the well-being of the population), there must be no other law, tempered by prudence alone, than the needs of the population; while as Superiors, in accordance with the varied and different requirements of this law, they can and must also avail themselves of the assistance of the other Missionaries immediately dependent on them. Moreover, they must supervise the proper internal running of the house; in other words they must ensure that all fulfil in the best way possible their individual and communal duties.
[4159]
It is the specific duty of the lay brothers, after reciting morning prayers and attending Mass with the African boys, to see to the manual chores in the house, to tend the land and to teach crafts to the African boys. At the end of the day they must gather in the church to recite the Rosary with the Fathers and the African boys, and for their examination of conscience. Just before retiring, they must again gather in church with the African boys to recite the evening prayers. These are the specific duties of the lay brothers, just as the specific duties of the administrator priest are to supervise the work, seeing first to the needs of the house and then also to what might be useful to it, etc.; and those of the teacher priest are to attend with due interest to the schooling of the African boys at the established times.
[4160]
It is the specific duty of the Director and extraordinary Confessor of the Sisters, as distinct from the parish priest who is their ordinary confessor, to abide by the Constitutions of the Congregation of St Joseph of the Apparition: and he must not infrequently inform the supreme Superior on his work, just as the parish priest must do, and the special administrator likewise; he must present an exact general administrative report every quarter.
[4161]
To each priest, in addition to saying Mass and the Holy Office daily, is prescribed a daily 3/4 hour meditation, preferably before Mass. Only in certain extraordinary cases of impediment may a dispensation be granted from such practices. Similarly, all the priests, lay brothers, Sisters and the African boys and girls are obliged to participate in the hour of prayer which is held each Wednesday morning and in the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament which, preceded by the established prayers and a sermon on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, is held in the evening of the first Friday of each month, as well as all the other usual Benedictions and Novenas. While for the lay brothers and the African boys and girls Confession is the rule every fortnight, priests must avail themselves of the Sacrament of Penance once a week. Once a year, separately from the Sisters, in an eight day retreat in the solitude of the Spiritual Exercises, they must restore their spirit and thus sharpen their zeal for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.
[4162]
With these general and common dispositions, to which I would add that it is forbidden, especially to the lay brothers, to visit families without permission from the Superior and to the African boys to go out without due permission, and that to all, including priests, it is forbidden to communicate with the Sisters except out of necessity or for official reasons, I have described the discipline that has so far been maintained in Central Africa by the Missionaries of my Verona Institute. It is indeed light, but sufficient to preserve the virtue of the individuals and appropriate for the activities which, under the Superior’s direction, must spread energetically for the benefit of extremely needy and destitute populations. And in truth, with the practice of this discipline the sufficient contingent of my Missionaries has so far given me consolation and comfort.
[4163]
I. As regards the number of Missionaries, although I spoke of this in the April General Report, I should add another indication here to show how the Verona Institute provides a sufficient number of Missionaries for the maintenance of the present and future Missions of Central Africa.
[4164]
In the first place: that the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition with the African women teachers are currently sufficiently numerous for the present Missions can easily be seen from the declaration on this subject in the April Report. Nor is there any doubt that, however rapidly the Mission may be about to progress, the influx of the female element will not be insufficient, since there would be not only the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition, which the Mother General must provide by virtue of the Convention stipulated in 1874, but there is also the Institute opened by me in Verona of the Devout Mothers of Africa where there are already fifteen, and it will never fail to supply candidates constantly for the Missions of Central Africa.
[4165]
While there is no doubt surrounding the sufficiency of the female element for the present and future Missions of my Vicariate, it is also just as certain that the male Institute in Verona, just as it has provided for the present, will also provide a sufficient number of Missionaries for the maintenance of future Missions. In this respect, given the singular effectiveness of women in the Sudan and thus the great help the Sisters are to the Missionaries because of this, the male staff needed to maintain each Station of the interior is sufficient when it consists of three priests and two lay brothers. Therefore, leaving aside the Station in Berber and my two Institutes in Cairo which have the necessary personnel according to their own conditions, as I declared in the General Report last April, the personnel of the three Missions of Khartoum, Obeid and Nuba is sufficient according to these proportions. Besides, in the Vicariate there are three clerics who have nearly finished their theology studies, as well as five lay brothers now provided by the Verona Institute with six students, including two clerics and five priests, Missionaries for the existing Stations.
[4166]
From all this, it is easy to understand that the Verona Institutes have so far provided more than enough to our beloved Mission. There is therefore no reason to doubt that they will continue to offer sufficient personnel in the future. The love shown for Central Africa by the province of Verona is truly great. And great enthusiasm is stirring in Germany and elsewhere. There have been many requests for admission from priests wishing to join the Institute for the Missions of Africa in Verona. We may therefore believe that the ever growing distribution of the Annals of the Good Shepherd is making the Work known more widely and will multiply and determine an ever growing number of vocations, both among women, among the clergy and among craftsmen.
[4167]
III. Having thus proved the sufficient supply of missionaries, provided and to be provided by the Verona Institutes for the present and future Missions of Central Africa, I should speak of the general administration ensured by me over the last few years. In this respect, I should: a) prove the exact fulfilment of the remuneration agreed with the Congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition and the Camillian Order; but I shall have the opportunity to speak of this in the section in which I shall discuss the relations between the Vicariate and the dependent Religious Congregations; b) prove the appropriateness, indeed the necessity of the expenses incurred; but most of these having been for the constructions in Cairo, Khartoum and Obeid, I shall have the opportunity to discuss these in No. 2 of the report on the behaviour of Fathers Carcereri and Franceschini. Moreover, I believe I can leave aside the proof of the need for the expenses incurred for the opening of the Mission in Jebel Nuba and to provide sufficient stable resources to the Verona Institutes under my orders to the wise Rector and able Bursar of the latter, Fr Antonio Squaranti.
[4168]
Daily provisions are also a source of serious preoccupation and great expense. Since these can only be purchased in Egypt, as has been done so far at my request once a year by the Superior of the Cairo Institutes, to these copious provisions in food, clothing, cloth, hardware, wood, etc. must be added the transport costs from Cairo to Khartoum and from Khartoum to the different stations by boat or camel. All these must be seen in conjunction with the individual expenses which each station must make daily in the Sudanese shops, and the travel expense of the missionaries and Sisters from Europe to Cairo, from Cairo to Khartoum and from Khartoum to the different stations.
[4169]
To all these various expenses, if I were to add the considerations that the journeys last five months or more, that the missionaries must live on the general provisions, that due to difficulty of rapidly getting provisions from Cairo and the resulting need to buy these at high prices in the Sudanese shops, that there is a variety of needs of the individual stations, and that the value of minor currencies is subject to variations in different places and in different times of the year: it will be easily understood that the Vicariate’s expenses are considerable and that its administration is not all that easy. Nevertheless, the Vicariate is burdened by no debts. Each Station and each establishment has so far been provided with every necessity without excessive or unnecessary spending, whether for building, travel or provisions, etc.
[4170]
However, should a missionary, distinct from the supreme Superior, be specifically employed in the general administration, he would be able to direct and manage the multiple and diverse expenses more easily. This is why I have already chosen and appointed an appropriate priest for this task, since I am so thoroughly beset by all the other duties as supreme head of such a difficult mission. The Vicariate of Central Africa, thanks to the powerful aid of the illustrious Patriarch, St Joseph, who after the Holy Father proclaimed him the Protector of the Catholic Church became the true Bursar of Central Africa, will never lack resources. As I write to you now, not only do I have no debts at all in Africa or elsewhere, but all the Missions of the Vicariate are quite well provided for both in money and in provisions for the whole of this year 1876; and in addition, I have 20,000 francs invested at 6% interest with the English banker Brown here in Rome as well as the money required for the next expedition of Missionaries and Sisters to Egypt.
[4171]
How could anyone ever doubt God’s Providence or the care of the ever industrious Bursar, St Joseph, who in only eight and a half years, and in such disastrous and difficult times, has sent me more than a million francs to found and set in motion the work of the Redemption of Africa, with houses in Verona, in Egypt and in the African Interior? The material and financial means to keep the Missions going are the least of my worries. It is enough to pray.
[4172]
IV. In fact the Vicariate today possesses the following steady annual resources:

a) the Khartoum garden producing a net yearly income..................fr...........................3,000
b) the revenue of two stores in Kordofan......................................"...............................500
c) the regular annual offering of a most devout Sicilian Canon
to maintain 30 African boys........................................................"............................4,000
d) income of 2,000 florins from the family of the ruling
Prince of Liechtenstein in Vienna, a hundred-year fund
for the redemption of slaves and, since four years ago,
following the devout practices of that noble family,
devolved to Central Africa: equivalent to......................................"............................4,500
e) offerings for the Mass stipend for Missionaries,
calculated in minimum..............................................................."............................3,000
f) interest from the 50,000 franc legacy left to me by the
Duke of Modena, which I will certainly receive in October,
as I was told two weeks ago by the Comte de Chambord,
the executor of the will, and which I shall certainly invest
for a yearly income of................................................................"...........................3,000
.......................................................................................................................________
.............................................................................................."..........................18,000

[4173]
In addition to the very small income from the parishes, there is the prospect of soon receiving very impressive legacies which I shall convert into fixed income.
There are also my private benefactors, extremely rich Princes, who are being ever more generous. But apart from all this, there are the European associations of benefactors, which in the last four years, since I have been Pro-Vicar Apostolic, have provided me on average per year:

Propagation of the Faith, Lyons and Paris..................................fr..................50,000
Society for Africans, Cologne...................................................."...................20,000
Societies of Mary, the Immaculate Conception and the Holy
Childhood, Vienna; St Ludwig, Munich, etc.
contributed ad minimum........................................................."...................20,000
..............................................................................................................________
..........................................................................................."...................90,000

[4174]
Now to support the Mission, excluding extraordinary building costs, etc., 50,000 francs are sufficient, including travel costs and the maintenance of the stations, etc. Therefore, as long as the offerings from the European associations continue as in the past (and there is even the prospect that they may increase), I can deploy the rest in stable capital investments and to provide for the development of the Mission. If there were to be a collapse in France, annihilating the donations of the Propagation of the Faith, the resources of Cologne and Vienna, that is, Prussia and Austria, would remain to me. If a cataclysm took place in Prussia, the resources of Lyons and Vienna would remain. If there were a disaster in Austria, then I would still have the resources of France and Prussia.
[4175]
If a cataclysm happened in France, in Prussia and in Austria, then along with Central Africa nearly all the Missions in the world would suffer the same fate. Then there will always be St. Joseph, who will triumph over every collapse in the world, and for my part, hope will always remain unshaken. This all applies to the Missions of the interior of Central Africa, not including the Verona Institutes, which have possessions to ensure their maintenance.
I believe that what has been said so far, in addition to the Report presented last April, will suffice to prove the stability achieved by the Mission of Central Africa. I will therefore proceed at once discussing the Relations between the Vicariate and the dependent religious Congregations

[4176]
Also working in the Vicariate to help the Missionaries from my Verona Institutes are:
1. The Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition.
2. The religious of the Order of St Camillus de Lellis.
As regards the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition, the convention stipulated between myself and the Mother General in August 1874 has been carried out on both sides to our mutual satisfaction. To begin with, there were some difficulties encountered by me and by the Superiors of the female establishments, given the peculiar state of the premises. But then everything was done in accordance with the spirit of the convention to the great satisfaction of the Mother Provincial resident in Khartoum. Moreover, as regards the zeal, the self-denial and the activities generally shown by these Sisters in the Missions of Central Africa, I can only be proud, in the same way that they are generally satisfied with the proper way in which I respond to their careful attentions.

[4177]
As regards the religious of St Camillus, I say: a) that the convention stipulated by me and the most Reverend Fr Guardi on 24th August 1874 was enthusiastically carried out on my part;. b) that it was not carried out in some substantial aspects by Fr Carcereri, Prefect of the Camillian house in Berber. Indeed, Carcereri having failed to do his duty caused me some quite considerable expense.
a) Quoad primum: This is what Fr Carcereri wrote to me from Rome on 17th July 1874: “It is certainly my first duty to thank you with all my heart for the convention drafted and signed by you for our canonical existence as Camillian Missionaries in Central Africa… now it is up to you to prepare the house and chapel in Berber… at least ten rooms are needed, corresponding services, kitchen, refectory, parlour… as well as the chapel and if possible space for the school, the infirmary and the boarding house for students”.

[4178]
Appendix A

If one considers that the number of Catholics in Berber at that time was no more than six, one quickly sees how much too vast these demands were. But he did not even allow a little time. He wanted a house to be immediately bought or built. In fact, this is what he wrote to the Superior of the Cairo Institutes on 18th August 1875. “With the next post I shall send you a copy of the Camillian convention just signed by Bishop of Verona, Fr Guardi and the Cardinal. (The convention was in fact dated 24th August 1874): you will be kind enough to send it on to the Pro-Vicar immediately, with the request that he should instantly prepare the house in Berber, this being the will of Propaganda and the General, so that the canonical installation may be held as soon as we arrive.

[4179]
Appendix B

I do not believe that Your Eminence could have given this order. It is certain that when I got this news I stayed put in Khartoum because I judged it imprudent to risk making new outlays (in addition to the many others I was in the midst of and with insufficient funds, through Fr Carcereri’s fault, as will be seen below), until I had officially received the convention from Propaganda. I had already written to Carcereri a few months before that for the time being he should bring his confreres to Khartoum, where they would have stayed only until I had provided them with their house in Berber and furnished it.

[4180]
Instead, on 27th September, he wrote to me from Cairo as follows: “I am sure that upon my arrival in Berber everything will have been made ready there for our installation: on this I can show no transigence, and even less bring my confreres to Khartoum on a temporary basis, as it appears you would like me to do. Since the contract stipulates execution by 1st January at the latest, as you will see from Propaganda’s approval… be so kind as to have the house in Berber made ready for us immediately so that by the end of November it may be ready and in order”.
[4181]
Appendix C

And on 4th October Fr Carcereri wrote to me flatly as follows from Cairo: “I tell you clearly that I am absolutely not bringing my confreres to Khartoum, and that if I do not find the Berber house ready I shall return with them and report the matter to whom it may concern”.

[4182]
Appendix D

This is the sort of language Fr Carcereri uses in other letters to me and in one to Fr Franceschini, who read it to me, in which he declared that by November he wanted a large house with 13 rooms, halls, schools, an infirmary, a church, a pharmacy, a garden, etc.
Now please allow me an observation. At the beginning of November, when I received the Camillian Convention, with the task of maintaining the other Stations and the obligation to provide the house in Berber, I did not have sufficient funds for all this, because Fr Carcereri had forced the Superior in Cairo, with threatening letters from Europe and then in person in Cairo, to hand all my money over to him, for he wanted to bring it to me himself. He forbade the Superior to send it to me by the safer and quicker usual means of the Egyptian Government; which meant that it took not one month but four to be delivered to me. The official notification of the Convention only reached me in early November; and Fr Carcereri, who knew that my funds were low, insisted that by the end of November I should have bought and furnished the house he so threateningly demanded. Such a fact explains Fr Carcereri’s character.

[4183]
It seems to me that when Propaganda approves a Convention for the foundation of a religious house in such distant lands, where there is a complete lack of the skills and commodities of Europe, it is understood that it grants the head of the Mission the time required, perhaps even a year, to put the project into practice. However, Fr Carcereri did not wish to adapt to my position, and with unseemly pretension instantly obliged me to undertake the purchase or the construction, which was difficult at that time. Business requires time and calm. I could have taken my time; however pro amore pacis, knowing Fr Carcereri so well, I made every effort to satisfy him.
[4184]
I rushed to Berber, which is 15 days away from Khartoum. The Lord allowed me to find one of the largest and strongest houses in this city. I resolved to buy it right away, although if I had been able to wait a couple of months, I would have been able to buy it cheaper. I paid 25,200 Berber piastres for it. I settled Fr Franceschini and one of my lay brothers in it and returned to Khartoum, still within the month of November. The well-furnished and equipped house fully satisfied Fr Franceschini, who described it in a letter to his General, of which, with Franceschini’s permission, I sent a copy to Your Most Reverend Eminence. So far I have more than abundantly complied with the Convention.
[4185]
Furthermore, article X of this document stipulates that the Vicariate must contribute a yearly 5,000 francs to the Camillian house in Berber in one or two six-monthly advance payments. I did this too.
Indeed, as regards the first year, from 1st March 1875 to 1st March 1876, I advanced the whole year’s contribution, calculating the expenses made by Carcereri in Europe for his confreres and which he recognised. And since Fr Carcereri did not wish to recognise certain sums spent on my behalf, telling me that they were not to be covered by him but by his General, in June, that is, in the fourth month, he instructed the Administrator of the Camillian house in Berber, Fr Franceschini, to check on and close the accounts.

[4186]
Indeed, Fr Franceschini, after examining everything, gave me a regular receipt for the full payment of the accounts to 1st March 1876, as I told Your Eminence from Khartoum, and I took on the obligation to advance him 2,000 francs (as in fact I advanced him) on the future allocations. But since Fr Carcereri did not accept Franceschini’s assurance of the fact, despite letters from the latter and from the other Camillian, Fr Alfonso Chiarelli, assuring Fr Carcereri that I had given much more money on this account for the sake of peace; in order to free myself of such a nuisance, I gave him the 2,000 francs as well as more money, and paid this the way he wanted; and on 1st January of this year he gave me a proper receipt saying he was satisfied. To tell the truth, I lost quite a lot of money in all this; but I did it all in hopes of a better future.
[4187]
As regards the 1st semester of this year 1876, from 1st March to 1st September, I declare that I have paid it; and this is how. The Vicariate in Khartoum always received the money from Cairo by means of the Government. The Pasha Governor of Khartoum, having to remit the income from all the Egyptian possessions in the Sudan to the Khedive, willingly accepts letters of credit from the Ministry of Finance in Cairo and pays them to whoever they are made out to. However, since there was the war in Darfur and the Equator, the Khedive ordered the Governor General of the Sudan, Ismail Ayub Pasha, to pay the Sudan income for the wars. For this reason the Ministry of Finance at that time did not agree, for the time being, to have my sums paid in Khartoum, as can be seen from the letter sent me by the Austrian Consul in Cairo of which a short extract follows: “I am very sorry that I cannot send you the sum of 100 gold Napoleons because the Egyptian Ministry of Finance declares that at the moment is not able to arrange this payment in Khartoum”.
[4188]
Appendix E

In view of such difficulties in conveying Mission funds to the Vicariate, for the time being, I have made the following arrangement: since a generous lady in Berber, who always had excellent relations with me and the Pro-Vicars before me, needed to spend about 14,000 francs in Cairo, when I passed through Berber on 1st January of this year I asked her if she would charge these to me and allow me to pay out the above-mentioned sum from my funds in Cairo, and keep the 14,000 francs in her safe in Berber so as to transfer them to our houses in the Vicariate at my bidding. It should be noted that the keys to this Catholic lady’s safe are in the possession of Fr Carcereri who keeps them, because the servants and agents this lady has in her house are all thieves. So each time she wants to withdraw a sum from the safe she has to depend on Fr Carcereri who brings the keys and is present while the agents take the money out, for she is ill.

[4189]
Now already on 7th February I gave this lady the order to pay Carcereri the 2,500 franc advance for the semester on my account, and at the same time I advised Carceceri to collect his funds for the semester from the lady. I know that my letters reached Berber on 2nd March. This lady was always ready to obey me; in any case Fr Carcereri has the keys to her safe and he only has to open his mouth to receive any sum he wants from this lady. It was therefore to my utmost astonishment that I heard from Fr Guardi last May that Fr Carcereri had not been able to withdraw the money for the semester until 5th April. I therefore asked Fr Franceschini, who was with him at the Maddalena, to find out whether it was possible that Carcereri had not received the money. In any case it seems to me that I have done my best to do my duty. It is impossible to do more since I do not have the means.
[4190]
b) Quoad secundum. Article 1 of the Convention establishes that the Camillians to be sent to Central Africa must have already professed the four vows of their Order. Now Fr Carcereri, with the permission of his Most Reverend Father General, brought to the Vicariate the following individuals clothed as Camillian religious who not only had not made the four proper vows of the Order, but had not even done the noviciate, as can be seen in the statement written by Fr Carcereri himself which he sent me in Khartoum on 30th April 1875.
[4191]
Appendix F

1. Br Giuseppe Righetti, 36: equipped with the letter of obedience from the General, with permission to make his noviciate in Berber.
2. Br Giuseppe Bergamaschi, 40, who as a member of the Verona Institute swore to serve the Mission of Central Africa for 10 years under me. He was clothed by Fr Carcereri in Cairo with the Camillian habit, without a word to my representatives or to me, but nevertheless with permission from the Reverend Fr Guardi.

[4192]
The reason why in the Convention I wanted no Camillian to be sent to Africa without already having taken the Order’s four vows was to be sure of the vocation of the Religious so that I should not waste money by taking them to Africa if they had no vocation. This happened with the above-mentioned Bergamaschi, who after travelling at my expense from Verona to Cairo, from Cairo to Khartoum and Berber, in the last few months cast off his Camillian habit, fled from Berber and took refuge in the Mission in Khartoum. Fr Carcereri wanted me to recognise the Noviciate in Berber. I firmly refused with regard to future postulants from Europe, because I said, “the enormous expenses of their journey from Europe to Africa are certain; the successful outcome of their vocation is uncertain” as in fact proved the case with Bergamaschi, for whom I have already spent more than 1,000 francs in vain, and because of Carcereri’s vainglorious dreams.
[4193]
Article III of the Convention prescribes that the Camillians should be fully available to the Pro-Vicar, who can send them to any office and station in the Vicariate.
Fr Carcereri has failed to do this, under the pretext that Propaganda (???) ordered that they should all remain in Berber for a year. He failed: a) by denying me Fr Franceschini in April. He granted him to me after various requests; b) by denying me Fr Alfonso Chiarelli for Khartoum in January, under the pretext that he had to stay in Berber as confessor of his brother Fr Battista (Carcereri), since the latter did not want to confess to Fr Camillo Bresciani because he was too young.

[4194]
Article VII entrusts to the Camillians the ordinary parish task of visiting Catholics in the provinces of Suakin, Taka and in the kingdom of Dongola. In 16 months since the Contract has been in force, not one of these places has been visited. On my return journey to Europe, I stopped in Suakin; there I arranged religious matters and celebrated the first Mass that had ever been celebrated in that city on the Red Sea.
[4195]
In Article XVI, the last, it is prescribed that every year the Superior of the Camillians should present a Report on Berber, on the progress of the Camillian Work, to the Pro-Vicar Apostolic who must forward it to Propaganda with his own observations. In the 16 months since the Camillian house was erected, Fr Carcereri has not presented me with a single Report, and as a result I have none to transmit to Your Most Reverend Eminence.
[4196]
And here, without continuing any further, I think I can conclude:
a) that the Convention concerning the Vicariate and the Sisters is being adhered to, to the mutual satisfaction of both parties.
b) that the Convention with the Camillians has been carried out as far as I am concerned, but has not been kept to in its entirety by Fr Stanislao Carcereri.
Conduct of Fr Stanislao Carcereri and Fr Giuseppe Franceschini with regard to the Vicariate

[4197]
When in 1874 I consented to draw up a Convention with the Order of St Camillus of Lellis, my one and only purpose was to increase the number of good Gospel workers in my immense Vicariate, to help me save a greater number of souls, and at the same time to comply with Propaganda’s wishes (as is noted in several letters which Fr Carcereri wrote to me from Rome and which I will cite here), according to which I was to found a Camillian House in the Vicariate to assist my Missionaries in those works which are proper to the spirit of their Institute, which consist in assistance to the sick.
[4198]
It is true that I realised from the start that Carcereri was aspiring to shake off his dependence on the Pro-Vicar one day, and to make the Mission entrusted to the Institute of Verona his own. But I did not ever think that he would succeed in doing so:
1. Because the nature of the activities of the Camillian Institute necessarily brings with it dependence, on the Ordinaries, in the care of souls. 2. Because I never believed that the Holy See would agree to entrust an independent Mission to this Order which has never had a Mission, nor governance of a Diocese, since St Camillus until today; but it always worked under the dependence quoad curam animarum of the respective Ordinaries. 3. Because in the Vicariate of Central Africa’s present state, it is essential that there should be a single head of those Missions, even were they to number a hundred; and that I think that it will be necessary for many five-year periods, and even for a century; for if there were several heads, and they did not proceed according to one and the same principle, they would all run the risk of being destroyed, through having different relations with the military Governors of the Sudan. 4. Because from the experience I have had in the last eight years, I share the firm opinion of the most wise Bishop of Verona, Mgr Canossa, and of many other personages, that the Order of St Camillus, given its nature and special goal, is not suited to running a whole Mission on its own, and even less that of Central Africa which is the most arduous and difficult in the world.

[4199]
Nevertheless, to see what the Camillian Order could do in Central Africa, I consented to founding the House in Berber for the Camillians, and to stipulating with their Most Reverend General, Fr Guardi, a convention ad quinquennium, to see how the Camillians can benefit Africa, so that if they were to prove really useful, I would make a new and permanent Contract; and were they to prove of no significant use or even harmful, they would be sent back to Europe.
[4200]
Now not only have Fr Carcereri and Fr Franceschini attempted prematurely to make themselves independent from the Pro-Vicar Apostolic, but they have made every effort to undermine my work and to erect the Camillian work on its ruins; and they have done so with calumny, with illicit means and in the most despicable way. To prove the truth of my assertion I could continue at length; but it will be sufficient to submit some documents still in my possession to the keen understanding and profound wisdom of Your Most Reverend Eminence, making only a few brief observations.
[4201]
At first he attempted to destroy the preparatory Institutes for acclimatisation in Cairo; and he did this against my will, duping me and Propaganda. And here it is necessary to state beforehand that in 1872, after my nomination as Pro-Vicar Apostolic, I did not accept the advice of Mgr Ciurcia, Vicar Apostolic of Egypt, who suggested that I should close the female Institute in Cairo, and board my Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition at the Convent of the Good Shepherd Sisters. Thus I left for Central Africa and he sent me a message through the Superior of my Egyptian Institutes that I had to come to an Agreement with him on the modus vivendi of my Institutes in Cairo. I sent the Convention to Cairo; but nothing was done about it.
[4202]
When Fr Carcereri left for Europe in 1874, I charged him, and he accepted, with stipulating the desired Convention as appears from the letters he wrote me from Cairo on 8th and 13th March 1974. “Last Monday I visited Mgr Ciurcia… having introduced the subject of the Convention, he replied that Fr Comboni must already have had the answer from Propaganda… I answered only that if it was the case that His Excellency wanted to abide by the ius comune, it was not easy to understand why he had requested the Convention, that there was no need to write what had already been printed”. Then feeling the force of my remark he replied: “but do you want me to be called an ass by my Successor?” I was silent, and so was he.


Appendix G

[4203]
“Last Monday, as I promised you in my last letter, I went to see Monsignor Delegate and give him another shock. He took pains to explain to me that the convention would be useless even if there was a desire for it… So it is he who now refuses the Convention; he indirectly praises you because you did not draft it, and blames himself for having wanted it so insistently. I did not fail, as everyone knows, to point out that he was contradicting himself: very politely, yes, but in vain. I possess two documents of his, to show that he is contradicting Propaganda in the case…”.


Appendix H

[4204]
Hence it becomes clear that Fr Carcereri was not charged by me to close the Institutes in Cairo, but to stipulate the Convention, which implies their existence, with the Apostolic Delegate. When instead he wrote to me from Rome for the first time on 7th April 1874: “I have just come from Propaganda… I answered comme il faut for the Convention with the Archbishop and showed a handwritten letter in which he confessed that he did not know on whom the Sisters depended in spiritualibus; this proved that it was he who gave rise to the Convention. They shook their heads; but they told me I had done well to get rid of the Cairo Institutes, and wanted notice of it in Propaganda”.


Appendix I

[4205]
Taken aback by the first unexpected news of this event, warmly approved by Propaganda, a few days later I received from Fr Rolleri, Superior of the Institutes in Cairo, the letter that Fr Stanislao had written to him from Rome, dated 18th April 1874, which reads: “The new Contract with the Sisters has already been more or less agreed; it lacks the formal signature, which I hope we shall be able to add next Monday… With regard to the Sisters, it has been agreed that there should be none in Cairo: aspirants for Central Africa will be accepted at the hospital, and we will pay for their board. The orders regarding this will be given after the Contract has been signed… Do not say anything to the Sisters about this for the moment, but act prudently and secretly, at least until their General writes to them; which she will do after it has been signed, that is, in the coming week…”


Appendix J

[4206]
Thus the destruction of the Cairo Institutes was about to take place, and he announces the final decision as already put in practice by the General. This is what he wrote to him from Verona, on 11th May: “For the house, if there is some hope for the land, of which you speak, accept it; it is now a question of a simple house for the Missionaries, since the Sisters will stay at the hospital with the others as boarders. I am speaking of the Sisters who must be acclimatised, and who have the obedience for the interior: the others have been made available to the Mother General…”


Appendix L

[4207]
If the destruction of the Cairo Institutes has really been advised by Propaganda, and if it really were agreed with the General, and she has started to carry out the decision taken, as the quoted letters of Fr Carcereri reveal, I did not believe it; but there is no doubt that Fr Carcereri wrote in this vein. He also wrote telling Fr Rolleri that Propaganda wanted at all costs to give him a Prefecture Apostolic in the Vicariate that would be independent of my jurisdiction; but that since he is a gentleman he resolutely refused, indeed he had to send his Most Reverend Fr General Guardi to Propaganda, to beg His Eminence to dispense him from the said Prefecture (???).


Appendix K

[4208]
From the above-mentioned letters it likewise appears clearly that Fr Stanislao had agreed to close the Cairo Institutes, not only temporarily for that year, but permanently, for ever; that furthermore Fr Stanislao intended it against my will, as can be deduced from the letter he wrote to Fr Rolleri from Verona on 18th August 1874: “I agree with you that it would really be a useless expense to keep four, or two, Sisters permanently in Cairo without anything to do, while they could easily be replaced as has been done in the Convention, already signed and underwritten… In Propaganda they all agreed that I was right not to have a permanent loss-maker in Cairo”.


Appendix M

[4209]
If that is so, what he answered the Mother General, as he wrote to me from Rome on 3rd July 1874, cannot be true: “Mother General accused me… of releasing the Sisters abruptly… I said that in April I had begged the Mother General to withdraw those Sisters who did not want to come to the interior; and since only one remained who wanted to come with us, if they ordered her to, I implored her to give her the definitive obedience and allow her to join the other Sisters until September, when I would take her with me… since she was alone, she could join the others temporarily at the Mission’s expense. Now does she say that I have put them out on the street?”


Appendix N

[4210]
Nor can it be true what he swears to me in his letter from Verona of 26th June 1874: that is, that he agreed with the Mother General on the Sisters’ transfer to the hospital on that one occasion only, and until his departure for the interior. Here I quote a large part of the cited letter, as well as the one which, with Fr Carcereri’s inflexible nature, also reveals his hatred for the Mother General of those Sisters, against whom he protests in various other letters that whether they behave well or badly, they can even go and hang themselves as far as he is concerned; that they have become greedy and disagreeable, so that they can be considered one thing only: useless and despicable, etc., etc. “Mother General is tricking or wants to trick you, me and all Central Africa. I swear that I absolutely agreed with her on 1. The removal of the Sisters hac vice to the hospital, until the departure for the interior, by boarding them out. 2. The new contract. She is now accusing me to Propaganda over it; but poor thing… She thinks that Fr Stanislao is like Mgr Comboni, and on the contrary she does not know that I am a Cimbro.
[4211]
I settled her nicely with the documents, and now I am hurrying to see her in her house, so scared did I become about them. This time it promises to be rather bad; Cardinal Franchi is not Barnabó: he is more on my side than hers. She will realise it with the facts. I don’t know whether she has written to you. But I advise you not to judge until you have heard my side; but don’t worry; I am a Cimbro: Indrio ti e anca muro (1). You will judge later. She won’t be the first I have tamed; when I am in the right, I am a beast which no one can overcome. Poor woman! If she has never had one, this will be her first solemn disaster. She ruled rather despotically as she pleased under Barnabò, now it is a different epoch which she does not yet realise, and I have followed the scent like a truffle hound…”.


Appendix O

[4212]
It appears from this letter that Fr Stanislao was accused by the Mother General in Propaganda. If this occurred, it could only have been after a letter I wrote to the Superior of my sisters in Cairo, in which I declared that I did not want the Sisters to move to the hospital but to stay in the Institute, and I therefore ordered that Superior not to move unless an order came from Propaganda. I was spurred to write this letter by the news of the coming transfer of the Sisters to the hospital at the beginning of July, as appears from Fr Stanislao’s letter dated 11th May 1874, which is cited. I was forced by necessity to write the aforesaid letter to the Superior of the Institutes of Cairo, and not to Fr Stanislao, because I had already received the news of the removal late, as otherwise, had I written about it to Fr Stanislao, I would not have been in time to prevent it.
[4213]
The above-mentioned Superior must have forwarded my letter to the Mother General, and she in turn must have used my letter to undo what had been agreed in Propaganda against my will. If this was so, I do not know what reason Fr Carcereri has to complain to me so bitterly, to give up his office as Vicar General, to declare himself indifferent to all future events of the Vicariate, etc., and with resentment and lack of respect. He would have liked to justify himself; but for some reason he could only produce contradictions, like that in his letter of 18th August 1874 to Fr Rolleri, previously cited, in which he says: “the imprudence of compromising myself before the Mother General and before the Superior of Cairo without being heard, and trusting in their reports on a point that had not yet been decided, causes me a great deal of worry”.


Appendix M

[4214]
He could only come up with vain pretensions, as in the same letter to Fr Rolleri: “one judges after matters have been concluded, when both parties have agreed, not before”, as if 1) it had not been he who wrote that everything had been agreed, and 2) to prevent an event, you have to wait until after it has been concluded.
[4215]
From what has been said so far, it appears that Fr Carcereri attempted to destroy the Institutes of Cairo against my will, and that he then resorted to lies and contradictions to justify himself. From the letter which he then wrote to me about the Mother General, the inflexibility of his character, his bitter hatred and dislike that he had conceived against her, clearly appear. This would be better recognised if love of brevity did not oblige me to omit quoting from various other letters of Fr Carcereri concerning the Mother General and the Sisters. Many letters subsequently written to me and to others against me, shed light on the pride, spirit and despotism of Fr Stanislao and the lack of respect towards me that has grown in him.
[4216]
On this topic I shall quote from just one letter which he wrote to me from Turin on 18th May 1874, on a matter I shall briefly explain, concerning a certain African girl called Marietta Maragase, an intimate friend of a certain Caterina Valerio, a former Franciscan. Begged by a most devout benefactor, I took the girl from Marseilles to Cairo so that she could enter the convent of the good Franciscan Tertiaries where she said she had been accepted; and where, for reasons unknown to me, she did not enter but was given hospitality by my sisters of St Joseph; she left after three months to direct the female school in Old Cairo, in a House annexed to the Franciscan Latin Parish, with the help of my African women Teachers and my cousin, Faustina.
[4217]
These two women, that is, Marietta and the former Sr Caterina were, I believe, the main cause of the perversion and demoralisation of the two Fathers, Carcereri and Franceschini: and it all happened while I was far away, that is, during my two-and-a-half-year stay in Europe, from 5th March 1870 to 15th September 1872, for the Mission’s affairs, mentioned above; during which time Fr Stanislao Carcereri, in my absence, was directing my Establishments in Cairo. This Sr Caterina Valerio had been Novice Mistress of the Tertiaries at St Bernardino for ten years, and she always used to tell me that she had had to leave her convent after the suppression of the Religious Orders in Italy. But when I was in Europe I was assured that she herself requested and obtained the rescript of secularisation, and that reports about her from Egypt were not very good, so I ordered her expulsion from my Institute, to be carried out by Mgr Ciurcia.
[P. 46 is missing and the following pages 47 and 48 are incomplete: we publish what remains].

[4218]
[P. 47] Fr Stanislao got wind of something, and he punished Fr Giuseppe with 10 days of Spiritual Exercises… Well, really!!! He did them in the house of Fr Pietro (Fr Pietro of Taggia, a most devout Franciscan, Parish Priest of Old Cairo), and the room set aside for him was the one overlooking this house; thus the Exercises he was doing…
[4219]
[On this page, p. 47, there are these two notes]: There was and there always will be the Rule in my male Institutes that no Missionary can visit the female Institute without asking the Superior’s permission. Fr Carcereri who, from Cairo in 1871 denounced a pious missionary to me in Verona because he once visited the Superior of my Sisters of St Joseph without permission, was always most indulgent towards Fr Franceschini, and for him there were never any rules.
[4220]
In sixteen months in 1870–1871 Fr Stanislao spent more than thirty thousand francs of my money, making the poor Sisters of St Joseph suffer great poverty and treating them harshly, while for Marietta and Sr Caterina there was plenty of money, clothes, carriages and extravagant outings. All my Sisters of St Joseph witnessed it.
[4221]
[p. 48] …With Fr Franceschini, dressed as a man, as appears from the following passage of the letter he wrote to me in Verona on 27th August 1871, a passage I crossed out in order not to leave such a document should I die, but which is still very clear, with the naked eye, or with a small magnifying glass.
“I do not believe it a mortal sin to dress Marietta as a man, or Caterina, or both of them… and to do so when we are outside Cairo, unknown to anyone and even to our own people, and so forth… Think about it, and reply to me privately”.


Appendix R

[4222]
It is natural that I replied negatively to this question (which however I did not take seriously but as a fancy of the rashest and most unthinking brain of Carcereri, who however showed great zeal for the conversion of Africa, and until then had never given me such serious reason to doubt his religious spirit); however his question made me think deeply about Marietta and Sr Caterina; and it was the reason why, after the departure of Carcereri and Franceschini from Cairo, I requested and received from my missionaries sufficient information on Sr Caterina and Marietta, which made me decide to have them removed from the Institutes, replacing the former Franciscan with the most pious Sr Giuseppina Tabraui of St Joseph of the Apparition.
[4223]
Subsequently arriving in Cairo in 1872, I myself refused to take the above-mentioned Marietta along with the Sisters, despite the requests Fr Carcereri made in many letters to me, and this refusal made him angry with me.
That being said, Fr Carcereri, on his way to Europe in 1874, having arrived in Cairo, and unknown to me in Khartoum, arranged to take Marietta with him to Central Africa on his return from Europe, to make her head the female class in Berber. I heard this from Fr Rolleri, Superior of my Institutes in Cairo, and from others; and in order not to exasperate Carcereri since I knew to what excesses he would let his rage fly, I wrote to Rolleri to ensure that Marietta, who had left the Institute three years before, did not join Carcereri to travel to the Missions in the African interior.

[4224]
Very rashly, Fr Rolleri warned Carcereri who had already left Rome for Verona, of my opposition with regard to Marietta; and this is why Carcereri wrote me the following letter from Turin dated 18th May 1874. While it exaggerated the plight of Marietta (who was well placed in Cairo), it proves his insubordination and irreverence to me who most gently and correctly had shown my will to be contrary to his, for the third time with regard to Marietta, and for the first after a long time.
[4225]
“I come to a private topic between me and you. It concerns the unmerited measures you ordered Fr Bortolo to take with regard to Marietta. I am speaking to you plainly… I thought I could arrange everything myself; but I now see that those who have no business with this matter want to stick their noses in. You have changed your opinion (sic) about her thousands of times, and will not have forgotten. I therefore tell you firmly that it is time to stop torturing a poor creature like Marietta. She was and is the victim of great jealousy and vendetta. I say so and I affirm and swear it to you, to Fr Pasquale and to all the sisters and to all the African girls. Marietta is out of the Institute because she was forced to leave it: now she is in a plight which would arouse compassion for her in every one except those who betrayed her. She has not yet reached despair, which perhaps is not far off. Let them leave her in peace, so at least she can die betrayed on a road, for all the promises you made her; to want to drive her to throw herself into a river is bestial. You have already been and are sufficiently criticised even in Rome, for the way she has been treated (sic)… but you were driven to treat her like an executioner. I will take care of Marietta. Neither you nor anyone else will be troubled by her. Let this be enough to you”.


Appendix S

[4226]
Now if the insubordinate spirit of Fr Stanislao reached such resentment and hostility because of my simple decision, the first which did not coincide with his plans, your Most Reverent Eminence will all the more easily understand the feelings aroused against me in Fr Stanislao when I was obliged through necessity to write, contrary to Fr Stanislao’s decision, to the Superior of the Institutes in Cairo, telling her not to move from them until an order came from Propaganda; and independently of my will, I caused him some unpleasantness and humiliation. In truth it was after this event that he, irritated, protested that he was indifferent to all future events in the Vicariate, that he resigned from being my Vicar General, that in the false supposition that I had spent no more than 5,000 francs for my caravan, although it was larger than his (of 32 people), he declared – and it will be seen later that he did – that he wanted to spend more, and lyingly asserted that the last time, the Sisters had complained to their General about the treatment they had received from Fr Losi.
[4227]
“You are counting on the 20,000 francs received from Cologne, and you believe that I can reach Khartoum with 5,000. Get that thought out of your head; you will receive what is left over: I am not spending a penny on myself; I have already given 5,000 francs to Fr Squaranti; (2) and with what is left I do not intend to make my caravan suffer (18 persons)”. “You make me laugh telling me that with 5,000 francs you transported yours, and that you kept them on fresh meat every day and all the necessities. If Fr Losi spent 2,000 francs for seven or eight people, that’s his affair; I know well (sic) how the Sisters complained to the Mother General.
[4228]
I will be a gentleman and I will spend what is necessary and no more. But make my caravan suffer, no. I would rather leave everyone in Cairo and stay there too. I tell you the truth about this, that I almost regret certain steps I took at the cost of thousands of personal sacrifices… I am most disgusted, and I am already thinking of peacefully settling in my Berber… Without having to bother with the Vicariate’s affairs any longer. So you would do well to think of replacing me… What you did recently, disapproving of me in the matter of the Sisters without hearing what I had to say has made me indifferent to all future events and has left all the Sisters apathetic”.
Verona, 3 September 1874.


Appendix F

[4229]
It was after this event, that on 4th October 1874, he wrote to me from Cairo as follows: “I wanted to lodge the Sisters temporarily at the hospital… ma aliter visum est; you have an absolute right to save and spend as you see fit; an absolute right to want a permanent house of lazy Sisters in Cairo; an absolute right to people Africa with useless Sisters at the cost of 500 francs for each one, but I also have an absolute right not to want to share the responsibility… I foresee a gloomier future than you think, and the ghost of Mgr Brunoni’s failure in Constantinople sometimes haunts me… In any case, you alone know on what you must and can rely… I tell you clearly that I won’t take my confreres to Khartoum, for any reason, and if I don’t find the house in Berber ready, I shall return with them and give an account of the matter to whoever has a right to hear it. Let us understand one another properly… I find it appropriate and now necessary to withdraw as Vicar General…”.


Appendix D

[4230]
And yet, as I have said, the words I used to prevent the destruction of the Cairo Institutes were neither very many nor very serious; and Fr Stanislao Carcereri himself could not but admit this to Your Most Reverend Eminence; he himself certifies it in the following letter he wrote to me from Cairo on 11th October 1874, in which he proves once again the anger of his resentful pride:
[4231]
“I will settle that Mother General well and truly… before the Cardinal I clearly described how she had thought it right to mention Mgr Comboni’s most lukewarm words in order to get the better of me… I will teach her how to live in the world. Be certain too, that when I have cause, I shall not fail to show her up for what she is, and to show what charity we have used till now by not saying anything about her and her Sisters. And they have already begun to recognise that they cannot expect much more kindness and sympathy from me; they have become so meaningless to me that I consider them only one thing. Whether they behave well or badly, THEY CAN EVEN GO AND HANG THEMSELVES… In Rome I recognised who they are, and I know in conscience that we must reply to the imbecile according to his imbecility, so that he does not become insolent: this is what the Holy Spirit orders”.
[4232]
After this I leave Your Most Reverend Eminence to judge whether what governs Fr Stanislao Carcereri, who however was formerly an active Missionary, is a spirit of insubordination and pride. But first it is essential to reflect upon his spirit and his humility.


Appendix V

[4233]
If I wanted to present the whole of Fr Stanislao’s administration, it would be clear how he mismanaged it in the first period in Cairo, where he sometimes deprived the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition and the rest of the female section for the comforts that were given to Caterina, the former Franciscan, and Marietta. It would be clearly seen how he then mismanaged it in Khartoum where, without having recorded either income or expenses for more than a year, when he left for Europe in 1874 he left a written declaration in the Register that until then the administration had been erratic, but that it would be precise in the future. It would be clear how he mismanaged it in Obeid too, where the requests I made him for six consecutive months to present me the accounts he and Fr Franceschini had kept for two years were in vain; and since Franceschini had quarrelled with our Procurator in that Station, he presented his own, in which appeared many excessive and useless expenses run up by the said Fathers, e.g., 687 francs for a donkey; and with a debt of 10,505 francs, which I was obliged to clear.
[4234]
But for love of brevity I leave all that aside; it is enough for me only to have touched on it, to explain how falsely Fr Stanislao used trust in me to justify his bad administration, which he even continued with, regarding his journey to Europe, lodging, expenses and return to Africa in 1874, despite the complaints I had made to him about his previous administration, and despite the letters with which I frequently urged him to keep an exact account of everything.

[4235]
Fr Stanislao, hostile to the Sisters because he had not been able to destroy the Institutes in Cairo, since the Mother General had realised that in this he was acting against my will, disapproved in Europe that I, for the agreed price of 500 francs each, wanted to transport a good number of Sisters to Africa, while he knew: a) that he himself had earlier discussed and agreed on this allowance with the Mother General; b) that truly, all things considered, this allowance is not at all excessive, and that given the exceptional effectiveness of women in the Sudan, the Missions of Central Africa could not do without Sisters.
[4236]
Fr Stanislao condemned my administration, as appears even from the few letters cited so far, because of the costs of the building in Khartoum, Obeid and Cairo, without taking into account: a) that this building work was absolutely necessary, since the Sisters had no sufficient housing as stipulated in the Convention, either in Khartoum or in Obeid; and that the houses in Cairo, as well as offering me the advantage of the land which was given to me by the Khedive of Egypt for this purpose, after various years of useless petitions, would have relieved me of the annual expense of 100 gold Napoleons for rent and offered me other most important advantages; c) that these buildings increased the Mission’s stability; d) that they should therefore be undertaken, since, having made my calculations, I found I could manage them without the fear of a financial crisis, which indeed did not occur. On this topic it will be useful to quote several passages of the letter Fr Franceschini wrote to Fr Stanislao on 3rd February 1875, of which Fr Franceschini sent me a copy: “You have firmly… determined to give up the office of Vicar General… because of the trouble Monsignor is in after following your advice.
[4237]
What is this trouble…? That he wanted to keep the Cairo Institutes you were working to destroy, for which he is now obliged to pay an immense cost for building. But could he have done otherwise? Where could his Missionaries and his Sisters be acclimatised…? Boarding out the Sisters in the hospital was the same as wanting to lose the best candidates… a House in Cairo is absolutely essential for the Mission, for correspondence with Europe, goods, provisions, etc. and then after all the obstacles put in our way in Cairo, which have had to be fought until now, to give up suddenly… it was neither fitting nor honourable for Monsignor… When these Institutes were founded, you yourself wrote about how necessary and important they are. And your articles have gone round the world in print; what would the charitable Societies and individual Benefactors say now if they knew that we are destroying them as easily as they were founded? And what was the good of all those donations for these Institutes?… Thus if Monsignor is involved in this trouble (trouble according to you), he was constrained by need and by impelling circumstances, by negotiations with the Societies, by his honour, and by what is proper…
[4238]
You suggest that with the building in Khartoum, Monsignor is in trouble and spending in excess of his resources, that he will therefore not have any more with which to meet the expenses for the other houses or for the new Stations to be founded. But I can assure you that until now he has not a penny’s debt for the building, although since July last year, he has only received 10,000 of the 73,000 francs which arrived from the Societies in your hands and in those of Fr Bartolomeo. The houses and Stations have always been well supplied with what they need; indeed, I have never seen such abundance, despite the various journeys for the changes in personnel between Khartoum to Kordofan. Will he be in trouble in the future?
[4239]
But have the 73,000 francs disappeared? You received a goodly sum from the Charitable Societies; the provisions for the caravan were made ready by Fr Bortolo, as appears in his monthly accounts; don’t you have anything left then to bring to Monsignor? I don’t believe that is possible. Furthermore, in January Monsignor will receive something from Lyons as usual; then he has at least 20,000 francs available for his use in Cologne, as you yourself wrote; in addition the Vienna Committee always sends him something… and then Monsignor has no lack of other channels from which to receive money… After all this, the building in Khartoum was a necessity: they did not want to sell the Latif House (where the Sisters were first), at any price, apart for the fact that it was very uncomfortable and there were no other habitable houses in the vicinity… Now, I do not know of any other scrape Monsignor might have got himself into, against advice. If there ever should be any, I will have the pleasure to hear of them and then examine them, and I am sure that I will find an explanation, while even in your absence we always acted with our brains, and upon mature advice, and never heedlessly, as it is too easily believed”.


Appendix W

[4240]
Thus Fr Stanislao in various letters wrongly and indecorously denounced my administration and even condemned it to some people in Europe: “you mean the building in Khartoum (this is Fr Franceschini who in his cited letter, expresses himself in this way to Fr Stanislao), and I have reason to believe it from what you yourself wrote to Monsignor, and from what you said in Cairo and in Europe, as we learned from the letters from Fr Bartolo and Fr Squaranti… The language you have used in these last months to Monsignor Pro-Vicar is certainly not loving. I have more than once had occasion to hear some of the expressions that you wrote to him… and if I had not seen your character, I would not have been convinced that you could write what you have written. That style of yours, so dry, bitter, cutting and imperious would touch the most insensitive, not to say dead nerves”.
[4241]
After this, excusing myself from producing Fr Stanislao’s rude letters on this subject, I continue quickly to explain the plan which, as mine was disapproved of, was suggested to me by Vienna on 15th June 1874, as follows: to increase the small stations: Shellal, Berber, Khartoum, Jebel Nuba, Kordofan, Sennar, Fashoda; to build little huts there and settle just one Missionary there with a layman in each. This plan was not accepted by me for various reasons: 1. Because such a plan would not make the Mission stable either materially, because the huts would have to be rebuilt each year after the rains; nor morally, because a single priest in a hut is not sufficient to gain influence among primitive and materialistic people. 2. Since the stations mentioned are from between three to twenty days and more walking distance from one another, they would be too far apart in the hypothesis that a single Priest were to be placed in each, and therefore it would not be possible to: 3. deal with all the physical and moral inconveniences possible in those lands.
[4242]
Nonetheless with its inferior advantages, this plan would not cost any less: and Fr Stanislao himself who disapproved of the enormous expense and my trust in St Joseph with regard to my plan, with contradictory feelings confessed that his plan would not have cost any less, and urged me to trust in Providence. It is certain that this project costs far more than staying together; but God will send more…”.
[4243]
Then if in Europe, and especially in Rome it would be thought most useful to multiply stations and missions in the way mentioned, and as Fr Stanislao says, “in Europe and especially in Rome they believe and hope will be done”, I do not know; it is certain that if I did not adopt the system proposed, it was because at the time it seemed to me damaging in every respect, and still does.
[4244]
However since Fr Stanislao was irritated because I had not followed the plan he advised which would have cost me more, as he himself avowed, he announced to me an imminent failure, due to my bad administration. This crisis did not occur; but as for Fr Stanislao, he would have done all he could to ensure it. Indeed, he did foresee a disaster; however he protested, as can be seen, that he wanted to treat, and then did treat the caravan more comfortably than necessary. On 4th October 1874 he wrote to me from Cairo as can be seen, claiming a house for his Camillians in Berber ready and equipped by November and which we had not even discussed before 18th August 1874, threatening me otherwise to go back with all his Religious; and although by the Convention the house was not required so soon, he caused me an instant expense of 25,200 Piastres for its immediate purchase.
[4245]
In the letter cited, he was reprimanded by Fr Franceschini from Berber, where he had gone with me to prepare the house “…You do not ask nor beg Monsignor for a house; you command and order, indeed threaten him, almost as if he were a subject of yours, like when it was a question of buying the Camillian house; you write resolutely I want and I do not want, as when you refused to have nuns and African girls in Berber, adding that you did not ever want them on the Mission there… If in your mind you foresaw that Monsignor would get into trouble because of so many expenses, why then did you so adamantly demand the purchase of the Camillian house, with threats… You could have had more understanding for his position, and been content with a rented house…”.


Appendix W a

[4246]
But Fr Stanislao’s objective seems to have been, almost as if for revenge, to cause the disaster he had proclaimed. Indeed, he foresaw the crises, and yet, when able to obtain the whole voyage from Trieste to Alexandria free from Lloyd Austricao, on condition that the Missionaries were sent two by two, he did not make the most of this and sent four Camillian Missionaries at one time, thus burdening himself with the whole fare for two. He foresaw a disaster; yet he did not refrain from causing an enormous sum to be spent, to replenish the Institutes in Cairo, which, since he could not destroy them, he stripped of everything, against that Superior’s will. She herself told me about it, with her letter of 14th December 1874: “They have stripped both houses, as you will see from my last three-monthly Report, and from the provisions I was immediately obliged to make; they even took away the little iron stove; all the metal things and tools, without leaving a single nail; they even took the old mosquito nets for beds, etc., etc., all things which were very useful and saved much expense; while for them, they only served to increase the cost of their journey…”.


Appendix X

[4247]
Carcereri predicted a disaster; yet despite the insistence of the Superior in Cairo, who wanted to send me the money through the government as had always been done previously, Fr Stanislao was absolutely determined to bring it himself, although he foresaw that he could not have got it to me any sooner than the Government. In fact, this is what happened: Fr Stanislao wished, contrary to general practice, to have the boats laden with provisions pass through the Aswan cataracts; one of them crashed on one of the many reefs and sank, and caused serious damage to the goods, as well as a grave loss. (3) By then insisting, against the practice of everyone who travels to Khartoum, on going via Wadi-Halfa, he extended the journey by 103 days for the personnel, and by seven and a half months for the provisions, thus forcing me in the meantime to keep the Missions day after day, providing for them by paying the Sudan’s excessive prices in the Sudanese shops.
[4248]
He foresaw a disaster; yet he wanted to justify that Total recorded in his Accounts, which in doing the sums correctly brings the excess to my detriment to 120 Francs. In the same Account, he records as debited to me and as spent by him the sum of 100 Francs discounted on a bill of exchange in Lyons, while it was paid by the Superior of the Institutes in Cairo, as appears in the latter’s quarterly Report. He debits me as though he had paid for the journey from Cologne to Bamberg, while it was kindly paid by the Charitable Society of Cologne, as its President told me, showing me the records. He charges me with the cost of the journey from Verona to Rome of 115 Francs in gold, and another time for 80 Francs in gold, while the rate of the second class places on the express is only 47 lire in banknotes. He charges me with 420 Francs in gold for the voyage from Brindisi to Alexandria, for himself and the Priest Fr Domenico Noya, while he had obtained a free passage from the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Visconti-Venosta, through his confrère, Fr Baccichetti, who is here in Rome, and the cost of the said journey is only 225 Francs, as can be seen at the Office of that Packet Steamer in Via Condotti N. 48, 2nd floor. Without any orders from me he bought a silver chronometer here in Rome, in Piazza della Minerva, for the sum of 500 lire in notes (which according to the experts I consulted in Rome should not have cost more than 250 lire new); and he debited me with 500 Francs in gold in the accounts.


Appendix R

[4249]
Carcereri predicted a disaster. Yet in Italy he spent 7,650 lire in notes (without bringing even a pin back to the Vicariate, apart from the chronometer and a few little things bought on impulse); and in the Report, he charges me with certain expenses made in gold, to my very serious loss of 765 lire, as can be seen in Carcereri’s Report.


Appendix Y

[4250]
For the yearly allowance of 5,000 francs which I must pay to the Berber house he insisted on receiving gold Napoleons at the rate of 77 piastres and 6 parà, while throughout the Sudan they are worth from 86 to 90, causing me with incredible injustice, the loss of more than 8 per cent. And the authority of the Austro-Hungarian Consul in Khartoum and the most honest merchants of Sudan did not prevail. For the love of peace, I had to pay as he wished and in his way.
[4251]
Many other items in his Report show exaggerated and invented figures. Not to mention the others, which would take too long, I end this article by submitting to Your Eminence the item of 1943 francs in gold, which Carcereri debited to me as his expenses for the Missionaries’ journey from Verona to Cairo, while Fr Squaranti had paid for this journey out of my funds in Verona.
[4252]
Having examined in Khartoum the expense of 1943 francs in gold debited to me in Carcereri’s Report, since I knew that for the missionaries a Pass from Propaganda had been obtained, and underwritten by the Austro-Hungarian Embassy in Rome, by virtue of which it is gratis from Trieste to Alexandria and since I learned from the missionaries that some of them were accompanied to Trieste by the Rector of Verona himself, and since I have quite an experience of journeys, I doubted the veracity of these expenses; and I wrote to Carcereri in Berber asking him to explain the said expense of 1943 francs in gold; and at the same time I asked for the same explanation in writing from Fr Squaranti, Rector in Verona. The missionaries went to Egypt via Trieste; Carcereri went via Brindisi.
[4253]
Now by return of mail, this is what Carcereri, with a show of openness, inventing figures on the spot and pretending the most delicate exactitude even noting centimes, sent me from Khartoum:

Declaration of Expenses made by Fr Stanislao Carcereri
for sending Missionaries and Laymen to Cairo

“7 August 1874 – Fr Paolo Rossi and Cl. Loreto Carmine:
for passport, trunks, clock, crucifix and other small items,
in the Note of Fr Antonio Squaranti...........................................................Fr..................73.75
Journey to Trieste, food and small expenses.............................................Fr................140.50
Given to Fr Paolo Rossi for necessary expenses.........................................Fr................103.00
For the storage and embarkation of trunks from Germany,
delivered to Mgr Schneider by Fr Squaranti................................................Fr..................50.00
........................................................................................................................___________
Total....................................................................................................Fr.................367.25
...........................................................................................................Fr.................367.25


[4254]
13 August 1874 – Fr Gennaro Martini, Cl. Vincenzo Marzano and Br Giuseppe Avesani
For journey and provisions.....................................................................Fr..................386.61
For various expenses............................................................................Fr....................90.00
.........................................................................................................................__________
Total..................................................................................................Fr...................476.61
.........................................................................................................Fr...................476.61

16 August 1874 – Fr Alfonso Chiarelli and Fr Camillo Bresciani
To Trieste via Udine to visit their relatives..............................................Fr....................71.30
20 My Brother and Fra Giuseppe Righetti
to Trieste via Venice and from there to Cairo with the other two,................Fr..................546.79
Extra expenses on this journey, according to my Brother’s note.................Fr..................151.51
........................................................................................................................__________
Total.................................................................................................Fr...................769.60
.............................................................................................................................769.60

[4255]
7 September 1874 – Fr Luigi Bonomi and Fr Giuseppe Bergamaschi.
Delivered to Fr Squaranti for expenses for their journey,
small provisions, etc...........................................................................Fr..................300.00

24 September 1874 – Compensation to Germano Carcereri in Alexandria
for his outlay in baksheesh (tips) for meeting and serving the groups
from the steamer, customs, Consulate, and Railways..............................Fr...................30.00
Having spent another 10;
or without debiting them to the Mission, as he can explain.
Total in gold......................................................................................Fr...............1,943.46

Fr Stanislao Carcereri"


Appendix Za

[4256]
Having received this account from Carcereri in April, completely invented, as though he had spent the amount debited to me, two months later Fr Squaranti, Rector of Verona, replying to my questions, declared that the Missionaries’ journey from Verona to Cairo was paid by himself, and not by Carcereri. Then the missionaries, questioned by me, told me that Carcereri spent nothing for their journey and that it is absolutely false that Carcereri had given them the sums quoted above in his Report, but that they had been given everything by Fr Squaranti, who, among other things, wrote to me from Verona on 28th May 1875, following passage from his letter:
[4257]
“Second Item. For Missionaries’ provisions and journey
to Cairo, including everything...............................................................Fr.................1,943.00

This item is false. All the provisions and expenses of the Missionaries’
journey from here to Cairo were paid by me,
and amount to lire in bank notes, itemised as follows:

For Fr Rossi and Loreto......................................................................It. Lire..............355.25
For Martini, Marzano, Avesani.............................................................It. Lire...............479.86
For the four Camillians......................................................................It. Lire...............332.69
For Bonomi and Bergamaschi.............................................................It. Lire...............203.50
Paid to Mgr Schneider in Trieste to cover expenses...............................It. Lire.................55.00

Total.................................................................................Lire in bank notes..........1,426.30

Thus this sum was improperly added to the debit section of Carcereri’s Report.

Fr Antonio Squaranti”


Appendix Z

[4258]
Then the money the Missionaries received from Fr Squaranti, which amounted to more than a hundred francs in gold, was given by them to Carcereri in Cairo; he did not credit me with it anywhere in his Report.
Now Carcereri never wanted, as he rightly should have, to repay me this sum of 1,943 francs in gold, nor all those mentioned above and very many others omitted from this Report and unduly debited to me (which amount to many thousands of francs) and he never wanted to give me a promissory note declaring he owed it to me; but he only wrote to others and sent to me through Fr Franceschini to say that if I wanted to be paid I should address his Order, and that if he felt like it, let his General Guardi pay me. But while he debited the above-mentioned sum of 765 francs to me in gold, as we said, if he spent it, he did so in Italian banknotes, when it was a question of reimbursing him for his expenses (for the Camillian House in Berber) in Verona in bank notes, amounting to 706 Francs, and debited to me in gold as appears from his Report Appendix Y, he calculated it in bank notes, but nevertheless for me reduced it to gold, crediting me (on the annual allowance of 5,000 francs to the Camillians) with only 623.30 francs in gold, instead of 706 francs in gold as he had debited me.

[4259]
Given this, I leave it to Your eminence to form an opinion of the kind of administration kept by Fr Carcereri, and if I have judged correctly, that he tried every means to make me bankrupt, and to produce that crisis in the Vicariate’s finances, which he had predicted to me for my future administration, guilty only of not being done according to his twisted advice.
[4260]
It is with sorrow that I lay before Your Eminence my humble judgement regarding Fr Carcereri; and I would be happy to be able to retract it and ask forgiveness of Your Eminence and of Carcereri himself, should I be mistaken. It seems to me that Carcereri is a very stubborn man, extremely tenacious of his opinions, who operates thoughtlessly, a man without a conscience, without a head, without a heart, without a spirit, neither ecclesiastical, nor religious nor apostolic. You can imagine, Your Most Eminent Reverence, how patient I have had to be with him and how much suffering he has caused me. But Jesus suffered more than me: may the pierced Heart of Jesus be blessed for ever!
[4261]
3. The proud spirit of Fr Stanislao was not limited to the actions described above, but went on to others.
a) When Fr Carcereri arrived in Cairo on his return from Europe, he invited a certain Giuseppe Bergamaschi to become a Camillian; he is a certain layman who as a member of my Verona Institute, had vowed to serve the Mission and me for ten years: one fine morning, without mentioning it at all either to the Superior of the Institutes in Cairo or to me, Carcereri clothed him as a Camillian with Fr Guardi’s permission, or so he said; he then wrote to Your Most Reverent Eminence saying that Bergamaschi was a member of my Institute in Verona; and to the Director of the Missions Catholiques he wrote, and it was printed, that he was a Camillian. When he reached Khartoum, Bergamaschi presented himself to me to be rid of his Camillian habit and to return to being a member of my Institute in Africa.

[4262]
I refused. He left and remained in Berber for a year as a Camillian Religious, then because of an altercation with Fr Carcereri, he left the Order in recent months, took refuge in Khartoum, where my authorisation is awaited. Carcereri attempted to do the same with the Priest Fr Domenico Noja, as appears from the letter cited, written by the Superior of the Cairo Institutes to me and dated 14th December 1874: “With regard to Fr Stanislao, you could also ask him what right he had to clothe and pass off as Camillian that certain Giuseppe Bergamaschi… You can also ask him why he told one of our secular Missionaries that soon he could also be a Camillian; that indeed it would be better, etc. Fr Stanislao, in describing to the Cardinal of Propaganda the departure of the caravan (he gave me the letters open to be sent) and the names of the individuals in it, put the above-mentioned Br Bergamaschi among the students of our Verona Institute. On the contrary, when he wrote to Lyons, he put him down as a member of the Order of St Camillus. Why did he do this?


Appendix X

[4263]
The same three Clerics, who are in Obeid, declared to me that they had been invited by Fr Stanislao to become Camillians. I am also perfectly informed that Fr Carcereri spread the rumour round Europe that in order to be Missionaries of Central Africa, it is better, even necessary, to be Camillians. Fr Franceschini reprimanded him for this in his letter, already quoted, from Berber of 3 February 1875: “You have clothed a certain Bergamaschi in Cairo… without even for propriety’s sake asking Monsignor’s consent… you have had a shot at getting others, saying that it is better, and other such things that you said in Europe to the sole advantage of the Camillians, and to the disadvantage of the Secular Clergy… the wrongs are too delicate and sensitive”.


Appendix W

[4264]
Nor was Fr Stanislao content with this, but continued to make my position more difficult, indirectly and directly stirring up trouble in the Vicariate, currying favour for himself, discrediting me and instigating my subjects to sign documents against me, etc., etc., to which end Fr Franceschini energetically co-operated, switching to Fr Stanislao’s side against me, after spending some time with him in Berber. On this subject I will not go into details of the letter Fr Carcereri wrote to the African girls in Khartoum who assisted the Sisters, winning them over by showing compassion; I shall not mention the frequent secret correspondence he had with the Mission in Obeid about which, though ignorant of its content, the Superior of that Station warned my Secretary.
[4265]
I shall only say that it was Fr Stanislao who repeatedly, although always in vain, sought to obtain documents from the secular Priests against me as a violator of letters, threatening to have recourse to the Italian Consul in Cairo; nor did he cease his efforts and threats, even after I kindly made a general peace with him in Berber on 2nd January, for the sole purpose of improving the situation. In fact, on 4th February 1876, with regard to the imagined violation of letters he wrote: “I shall take my cause to the Italian consulate to have the guilty person suffer all the penalties of the law”.
[4266]
b) If Fr Bartolo Rolleri, Superior of the Cairo Institutes, turned to backing Fr Carcereri against me, this happened after the most interesting correspondence that Fr Stanislao had with him. Before this, Fr Rolleri condemned Fr Stanislao’s procedures in Europe and in Cairo, and was completely on my side, as appears from all the correspondence in my possession. In this regard I would cite his whole correspondence of 1874; but it will be sufficient to add to his letter cited above what he wrote to Fr Stanislao himself on 20th February 1875 (which was sent back to him by Fr Stanislao with four sharp lines dated 26th March 1875 from Berber): “Telling me that you took the Dongola route because the Government had requisitioned all the camels does not seem to me a philosopher’s reasoning: since more camels were necessary for the route taken (as indeed proved the case), than for the route by-passed.
[4267]
Then recently with the many letters he sent me from Dongola, he sent me a note dated 17th January last year with these exact words: they say (who? … his lively imagination) that the Pro-Vicar is up to his eyes in debts; I have been maintaining and spending for my caravan for six months already. What shall I be able to bring him? I ask: when the caravan was in Verona, wasn’t it paid for by Fr Squaranti? And when it was here in Cairo was it not paid for by Fr Bartolo Rolleri? And can’t it also be said that it was Fr Bartolo himself who also maintained it on its journey, since he had made enough provisions (more than 14,000 francs) to last not only for its long journey but also for a while on the mission?
[4268]
Dearest Fr Stanislao! I have no more time. So for the moment I will only most warmly urge you to use all your good and respectful manners to a Superior, so as not to sadden our most beloved Pro-Vicar any more, but console him for all the suffering he has borne until now, and for all his kindness to you and your Order”.


Appendix D

[4269]
It was after the most interesting correspondence which Fr Stanislao had with Fr Rolleri that Fr Rolleri began to join ranks with Fr Carcereri, and then continued, reaching the point of undermining the Vicariate with letters, and inciting, although in vain, the secular Priests to write a Report against me, and to suggest that I re-elect Fr Stanislao as my Vicar General. In the meantime, while Fr Stanislao was acting in the same manner through correspondence from Berber, Fr Franceschini, who was travelling with me visiting the stations, was doing no more and no less. Simulating the greatest attachment to me, he provoked the unjust complaints which he was the first to cause, from two Sisters; with them he acted to discredit me in public and in private, and with the outsiders at the Mission in Obeid.
[4270]
Nor, when he accompanied me to Jebel Nuba, even scandalising the Missionaries of that station, did he cease to spread lies and slanders to my detriment, with one of the two above-mentioned Sisters. Fr Martini, Parish Priest of Gebel-Nuba wrote of it to my secretary on 2nd December 1875. In this letter, after condemning as unjust certain accusations which Fr Rolleri had made when writing to him, he continued: “Between ourselves, I am deeply shocked by the conduct of some people, who are spreading lies and above all seeking to discredit certain persons. Such anger was flooding my body, that I several times came to quarrel with Fr Giuseppe and Sr Germana, whom I wish I had never seen. But enough; the truth is one and holy and always wins”.


Appendix E

[4271]
Having returned to Obeid, he continued to be hand in glove with the same Sisters, in fact all the more so since his activities against me gained momentum there. He advised the Sisters themselves to complain of me to their Mother General; and one of them (Sr Germana) was proud to attest several times, that he had advised the second (Sr Maddalena) even with threats, to disobey the Provincial and me, who on the Provincial’s behalf told her that she was to stay in Obeid and not go down to Khartoum; indeed, in this regard he attacked me in public with a most scandalous tirade, as my secretary was told by Fr Martini and Fr Bonomi on 19th December 75: “as a witness I shall report that in Obeid… he (Fr Franceschini) spoke insolently against his and our Superior in public in the presence of us all and of our procurator, and even in front of a Muslim gentleman who was deeply surprised, and mentioned it to me a few days later…” Fr Bonomi.
[4272]
“Already – not to waste time with disgusting gossip – you will have had the opportunity in Khartoum to see how Sr Germana comports herself. Then Fr Giuseppe, to cite an indisputable fact, behaved really scandalously the last evening he was here: the insolence, anger and lack of respect with which he attacked Monsignor for something which had moreover nothing at all to do with him; that is, because Monsignor did not think it right to allow Sr Maddalena to go to Khartoum!!! The scandal was serious, very serious, because all the Fathers, clerics, boys, and the Procurator were present, and even a rich Muslim who was deeply astonished…” Fr Martini.


Appendix H

[4273]
c) the aim of these public and private slanders, of egging on the Missionaries and Sisters to sign documents against me, of these attempts to diminish the number of my faithful: was to oust me; and Fr Franceschini proclaimed this in Obeid, telling me, either you restore Fr Stanislao to his post, or you will be flattened. The despotic character of Fr Stanislao who would have attempted to achieve the same aim, to destroy the Cairo Institutes and creating a financial crisis, and the spirit of insubordination of Fr Franceschini, left no stone unturned to succeed in their intention of seeing me banished from the Mission and the Camillian Order take possession of it.
[4274]
The attachment of the Rector of my Institutes in Verona to the work and to me alone had not yet been openly attacked, although Fr Franceschini tried in vain to sway him, calumniating my Secretary and myself in a most ferocious
letter written last February from Cairo, where he had even pretended to be a true friend to me. He declared in that letter that it was impossible for him to believe my Secretary because he was a liar, while no one could accuse him of this; he falsely asserted that my Secretary, whom your Eminence knows well, had become odious to all the Missionaries by his low cunning; while instead he should have spoken, as he admitted on another occasion, of the friendly efforts my Secretary had made, despite Fr Stanislao’s offences and suspicions, to settle Fr Stanislao’s matters peacefully. He said in his letter that I am incapable of governing because a) no one under me is certain to stay in his post.

[4275]
He cannot have said this for any other reason than because the office of Vicar General had been removed from Fr Stanislao, and because he himself had been removed from Obeid in 1874. Now it was not I who had dismissed Fr Stanislao; he himself had several times refused to continue to be Vicar General by letter, and even in person and always rudely, hoping perhaps that I would entreat him to remain; but I accepted his resignation, not because of a feeling of resentment, but because of the incompatibility of the offices of Prefect of the Camillians and of Vicar General. Fr Franceschini himself, in his letter of 3 February already referred to, advised Fr Stanislao to resign, for this reason: “It is now really essential that you resign. If I were Pro-Vicar I would certainly accept your resignation so as not to have the trouble of dismissing you… it is now more honourable for you to withdraw nicely, and to give as the reason that you have been made responsible for the house in Berber”.


Appendix N

[4276]
The reason that Fr Franceschini was then removed from Obeid was because, due to certain imprudent goings on of his with an Abyssinian slave girl, together with the abuse of alcohol, it was being said in the colony that he had a concubine. It was to be rid of these dishonourable rumours, the truth of which he himself was virtually the proof, that I removed him from there under the pretext that his health required it, and it was really poor at the time. He said in his letter to the Rector of the Verona Institutes that I am incapable of governing because b) I am incapable of administrating; while in his letter of 3rd February 1875, already cited, in this regard he defended me so eloquently against Fr Stanislao. For the reasons given here, he concluded his letter to the above-mentioned Rector by saying that the Mission could not survive, if the Lord did not put a more positive mentality there, intending by this to procure a vote for Fr Stanislao, whose positive qualities, although unreal, he so frequently proclaimed.
[4277]
It was pride that advised Fr Stanislao to promote favour for himself and his own Camillians everywhere by discrediting me and the secular Priests, both in Africa and in Europe: in Rome, where with the conviction of his own positive qualities he left the conviction of my ineptitude: in Cologne with that charitable society, and in Salzburg, and in Verona, etc., where he left word that I am incapable of administrating, etc., etc. Pride persuaded Fr Stanislao that the Mission needed him, and he himself confessed to some of the members of his caravan that without him the Mission could not continue; while without him it has continued as it will continue, better in every aspect.
[4278]
d) Having prepared the ground in Europe, Fr Stanislao with Fr Franceschini, indirectly and directly, by the means listed at the beginning of this last point, would have proceeded to oust me and to take over the Mission. I am convinced by the facts and sentiments expressed in Cairo by Fr Franceschini, described in the following document, that this was Fr Stanislao’s goal:
[4279]
“I, Fr Domenico Noja, Priest… taken to the Institutes of Africans by Fr Carcereri in September 1874, certify on oath that Fr Giuseppe Franceschini, Minister of the Sick, in a discussion I had with him some days ago, said to me plainly: ‘if Propaganda considers, as is more than certain, that the accusations against the Pro-Vicar are true and correct, I shall immediately return to Central Africa with another eight or ten Camillians, who are already prepared’; and thus he explained to me that if the aim of the machinations against Mgr Comboni were not so much to oust him as Pro-Vicar of the Mission in Central Africa as to ensure that this Mission were totally and exclusively entrusted to the Camillians, and no longer to the graduates of the Seminary of Verona; and that if some of the Priests currently on the Mission were retained or if others were to be received later, this would always depend on the free will of the Camillians: which perfectly coincides with what I had been told a little earlier by a V. Rev. Father of the Order of St Francis: that the Mission of Central Africa, as he had been given to understand, was to be entrusted wholly to the Camillians. I certify this under oath”. From the Institute for Africans in Old Cairo, 20th February 1876.
Fr Domenico Noja.


Appendix L

[4280]
With deep sorrow, I present my Report to Your Eminence today. The reason for it was not so much the conviction that Fr Stanislao with Franceschini attempted to oust me; because I know that their efforts were in vain since a) my Missionaries of Africa, with the exception of Fr Rolleri, have remained faithful to me, with all the Institutes and also with the Institutes of Verona, governed by an excellent Rector, and presided over by the Bishop; b) the Sisters and the female Institutes have remained faithful, except for the two mentioned above, who are even disapproved of by the Mother General; c) nor did my favour diminish with those charitable Societies, nor with those persons with whom they attempted to discredit me; indeed, becoming aware of the Camillians’ plot, they supported me more and more; d) the Vicariate’s finances did not suffer the pretended crisis, indeed, they improved without a doubt, although Carcereri caused me to lose a lot of money. Thus it is not the conviction of the above-mentioned attempt that prompted me to produce this Report, but only the conviction that I have been denounced to the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide, as Fr Franceschini affirmed.
[4281]
However damaging to Fr Stanislao, the extent of which perhaps Your Most Reverend Eminence will advise me, I confess my soul is torn by grief in drafting this document against him, whom I have always loved so much despite his faults. Fr Franceschini wrote this to Fr Stanislao on 3rd February 1875: “I certainly know that in the past he (the Pro-Vicar) had full trust in you; in you he founded all his hopes. He often said he was lucky to have found in you a tireless co-worker for his work; he praised you to the skies all over Europe; he entrusted the Cairo Institutes to you; and the expedition to Kordofan (1891); to you he gave the most important office in the Vicariate by making you his Vicar General; he put you in charge of the expedition to Jebel Nuba (1873); and to you finally he entrusted his most delicate affairs in Europe (1874), issuing you a dimissory letter which I copied and know well, the most full of praise and magnificent ever. These are all points to show that in the past he trusted you completely. I would go so far as to say, and I am not mistaken, that no one has ever enjoyed his trust and confidence as much as you”.


Appendix W

[4282]
In any case, I totally submit to Your Most Reverend Eminence’s decision, since I have always put Africa’s good before my actions and aspirations. It was precisely for this reason that I always kept Fr Stanislao Carcereri close to me, because I never believed that his indiscreet zeal for himself and for his Order would ever reach the point of effectively destroying the zeal that seemed to motivate him for Africa’s good; on the contrary, that it would work in the opposite sense, to the point that he attempted to bring discredit on the Mission and its Head, by his words and deeds, to cause it to fail, with his unreasonable claims and with his expenses, some useless, some false, so as to try to paralyse the forces to be deployed for Africa’s benefit, and in so doing to separate the workers from the Head, and sow discord among them. It was for Africa’s good that I took special pains with regard to Fr Carcereri; but I never thought that he would be of such base sentiments as to forget so quickly the benefits he received from me, and the love with which I always treated him.
[4283]
And yet he had not the slightest compassion for me; neither was he moved by the difficult circumstances in which, in any case, I found myself. He knew in 1874–75 that the full onus of all the cares was incumbent on me, responsibility both for the Vicariate’s general governance, and for its general administration. The onus of the building work undertaken and the direction and overseeing of that in Khartoum fell on me; I was responsible for correspondence with the Stations and with Europe, and especially with our benefactors; and for taking measures to preserve harmonious relations with the Government, which anyone would have to admit are necessary, if he reflects on the distance of the Missions from civilised countries and of the temperament of the Muslim and of his normal feelings with regard to Catholicism. He himself knows what a great effort this involves, and how much prudence and skill must be used so as not to incur that dislike, always painful, into which he fell in 1873, because he was always unpopular with the Turkish government.
[4284]
Here is what was written to me in this regard by His Excellency Ismail Ayub Pasha, Governor General of the Egyptian possessions in the Sudan and conqueror of the kingdom of Darfur, a Turk like all the others, but one who has always done great good to me and to the Mission. This is what, on 17th August, this lofty figure wrote to me in El Obeid from Khartoum, where Carcereri was stationed as my Vicar. This is a letter written in his own hand:
[4285]
“Since your departure from Khartoum nothing particularly important has occurred, except for the return to Egypt of Sir Samuel Baker, which the newspapers will tell you about, and especially since you have seen a large part of his explorations, you will be able to judge better than anyone the result of his expedition and to see whether it truly deserves all the fuss it has caused.
I thank you very much Monsignor, for the good things contained in your letter in my regard. I accept them from you as an encouragement to be able always to do my duty.

[4286]
I am very sorry, Monsignor, to be obliged to complain of your Vicar in Khartoum (Fr Carcereri). This is what happened. A few days ago in Khartoum four African women committed a theft, stealing many things, and while the police were searching for them they went and hid in the Mission, without anyone knowing where they were. The other day Mr Hansal (the Austrian consul) sent them to me with an official letter in which he said that they had gone to the Mission to complain of their masters and that they wanted their letter of freedom. But since they were immediately recognised as the thieves who had disappeared a few days previously, I first sent them to the proper person to verify what they were accused of. Even before their trial was over, your Vicar sends me a letter through the same Consulate with today’s date, which commands me to let the four African women go within 24 hours and at the same time accuses all the government employees of not obeying the orders of His Highness, and that he will be obliged to turn to His Imperial Majesty of Austria, etc., etc.
[4287]
I believe, Monsignor, that the Church is not responsible for whether or not employees do their duty; and thus the Vicar has no right to interfere with government’s subjects. I am most displeased that he did not follow your good example … merely in order to create bad feelings between the local Government and the Catholic Mission. You have often honoured us with your presence in Khartoum so you can judge how our administration treats whoever it may be. I therefore write to you, Monsignor, to advise your Vicar not to get involved in things which have nothing to do with his mission… because I cannot tolerate the Church becoming involved in affairs of administration, for which I am ultimately responsible, etc.
Forgive me, Monsignor for having spoken at length to you about this unpleasant incident which your Vicar caused us, and be assured that despite it, I am ever your most obedient and respectful servant, etc.,
Ismail Ayub Pasha”


Appendix P

[4288]
Thus Fr Carcereri knew all the serious concerns to which I was subjected, and he likewise knew that I could not obtain sufficient help from the Missionaries nor from the Sisters who were stricken with the frequent illnesses of that year; therefore he could imagine how I had also to busy myself caring for the sick, looking after the parish, etc., etc.; he could imagine the long sleepless and troubled nights which I had to pass amongst so many worries and so many crosses (4). Yet he was not at all moved to show me compassion, he increased my hardships, ordered that I lay out more expenses for the House in Berber, that I be deprived of Fr Franceschini and send him to Berber to prepare the house; he continued to keep up with me an unmerited bitter correspondence, sharp and rude. He knew, after the caravan had arrived and the Missionaries and Sisters had recovered their health, that having just emerged from serious troubles, I saw myself beset by new ones, because of the delayed arrival of the provisions he had had to leave in Wadi-Halfa and because of the preparations for the Mission in Jebel Nuba, etc., etc.; yet Fr Carcereri did not cease his provocation and offensiveness: indeed he indirectly and directly exerted his activity to undermine me more energetically, with the intention, which in its full depths displays Fr Carcereri’s enormous ingratitude, of ousting me from the Vicariate.
[4289]
It all turned out to be in vain, it is true; the Vicariate is still peaceful, the Missionaries are persevering in fidelity to me today as they always have; its moral and financial state, far from having deteriorated, has improved. It was all in vain, yes; but Fr Carcereri who later with Fr Franceschini (5), even forgot the good I had done him and his poor family, caused me more suffering alone than all my many concerns and, to my sorrow, convinced me that I could hope for little or no good from him or from his confreres who appeared to back him.
[4290]
In any event, after so many sufferings I feel stronger and stronger than before with God’s grace: the conviction that crosses are the seal of God’s Works, comforts me; and trusting in that most Sacred Heart which also beats for Africa, and which alone can convert souls, I feel even more prepared to suffer and toil until my last breath, and to die for Jesus Christ and for the salvation of the unfortunate peoples of Central Africa. Firm in the conviction that the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, from all this storm, will be able to draw great good in favour of the holy Work for the redemption of Africa; and that my Vicariate, after such harsh trials, which almost cost me my life, will take on fresh vigour and will strike firmer roots in the image of the Church, which emerges ever stronger from persecutions, and rich in conversions and heroic virtues.
[4291]
The full strength of the Church and of God’s works lies at the foot of Calvary: from the summit of the Cross of Jesus Christ comes that wonderful strength and that divine virtue which will break Satan’s reign in Africa, to replace it with the empire of truth and of the law of love, which the immense peoples of Central Africa will win for the Church.
I kiss the sacred Purple, and take pride in remaining

Rome 29 June 1876
Your Most Reverend Eminence’s most humble, devoted and obedient son,

Fr Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa


(1) The expression of An Austrian soldier in Verona, to denote inflexibility and firmness.
(2) Carcereri then had Fr Rolleri in Cairo reimburse him these 5,000 francs.
(3) At the cataracts near Shellal, Giuseppe Avesani, one of the lay brothers from my Institute, drowned.
(4) When I broke my arm following my fall from the camel frightened by a hyena in the desert, I spent 104 days without ever going to sleep. Then, in 7 consecutive months last year, out of 24 hours, I never slept a single hour, but increasingly less, etc., etc., etc., and suffered more from Carcereri than from everything else.
(5) Although I was not obliged to do so, I gave Franceschini’s extremely poor family 400 francs, etc., etc.

N.B. Page 46 is missing, and pages 47 and 48 are incomplete. Comboni himself did not respect alphabetical order in the Appendices.

[4292]
In the hope of having the honour of visiting you after I finish my business with Propaganda, after the general Congregation of Cardinals which is to be held I hope in August or September, I beg you, Mr President, to send me here in Rome the cheque that the two Councils of the Propagation of the Faith will have allocated to my Vicariate for the year 1875, for here I have the means of transmitting the funds to the Vicariate without any losses for bank charges.
At the same time, please deduct the sum of 800 francs from the total and send it to Mother Emilie Julien, Superior General of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition in Marseilles, rue Capellette. It will serve for the travel costs as far as Cairo for the new Sisters going to Central Africa.

[4293]
I am infinitely grateful, Mr President, for your kindness in sending me 10,000 francs to Cairo for the building of my two Institutes in Cairo. Thanks to your charity, I am just about to announce that the Missionaries and the Sisters can move into the new buildings in the first few days of July; in other words, while I have the honour of writing to you.
[4294]
At the moment I am still extremely busy writing a third Report to the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda. Later I will have the pleasure of working with my secretary to draft a general Report for this admirable Association for the Propagation of the Faith which has given life to the most difficult and arduous Mission in the whole world, for which I hope to give my blood and my life.
[4295]
The devil, who is going about over the whole surface of the earth today to destroy God’s works has tried in vain to overthrow my Work and make it perish with me. The Heart of Jesus, who has always been my strength, did not allow this, and you will find another sign of it, in that the Holy See is quite convinced of the lasting nature and the stability of the Mission in Central Africa.
Please accept, Mr President, the assurance of my sentiments of eternal veneration and gratitude, with which I have the honour of remaining in the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary
Your most devoted servant

Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa


Translated from French.

[4296]
You cannot reproach me for my silence because we are quits. And not even for lack of affection, because I have that, and when I think of Fr Bricolo, I am filled with pleasure. Our incomparable Sciaui knows this, as do all at S. Carlo. Indeed, right from Cairo via Trieste, I had decided to stop at Vicenza before Verona. But a setback prevented me. When I got to Rome I was ill and I went to recuperate in Cologne, Mainz, Sesslitz to see Mgr Kirchner, Munich, Salzburg, Vienna, Froshdorf to see the only king worthy of reigning (Comte de Chambord) and Bressanone. From Verona I intended to make a trip in June; but a telegram called me to Rome.
[4297]
The moral of the story is that a poor devil who has to spend at least 500 to 600 lire a day to maintain the establishments he has founded and the mission, and has to find it all in St Joseph’s beard, therefore writing, speaking and travelling; a poor devil who must direct the most difficult and arduous mission in the world, who must fight with priests, with friars, with nuns of all races and nationalities, with the Turks, with freemasons and above all with saints… who are mad, is forgiven if he does not write, whereas you, my dear friend, sitting at a comfortable desk and with your blessed holidays (while for me there are no holidays), for you there is no excuse, and I, quite frankly, surpass you in… kindness.
[4298]
Having made this humble confession, worthy of one who perhaps will soon be a Bishop, I invite you to write to me, to give me precise news about yourself and from now on to redouble your prayers to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary and to Beppo my Bursar for me and my Work. I am not giving you news of my Vicariate, which was blessed by God. I will only say that while in the past everyone or nearly everyone died, in the five years since the Holy See entrusted the Vicariate to me, thanks to the efficiency of my plan, not even one has died of the 19 European ecclesiastics who entered Central Africa under my banner. I shall say nothing of the establishment I built for the Sisters in Khartoum with a hostel for slaves, schools, etc., colossal, 112 metres long, longer than the Seminary in Vicenza.
[4299]
But I invite you to come and see me in Cairo where the missionaries and Sisters settled on 1st July in the two new Institutes built by me on the land given to me by the Khedive; and I invite you to my African Institute in Verona near the Seminary, and to my country villa near Parona bought this year and which produces an excellent wine (40 barrels last year), and we shall keep each other company. And if you were to come to Rome, I would take you to the Holy Father Pius IX and you would be happy.
[4300]
Many regards to the Bishop, to Professor Sartori and to all my acquaintances in Vicenza; but I want (excuse the politeness) you to send me news of yourself on at least one whole sheet of paper. I must write to Fr Luciano, but I am busy, and what is more my incomparable secretary, Fr Paolo Rossi, is in bed with smallpox.
[4301]
Tomorrow evening I shall request a blessing for you from the Holy Father who is very well, has a cast iron memory and consoles the world with his pontifical virtue and longevity.
In the meantime remember that I am
Tuissimus in Xsto

Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa

[4302]
Worn out by illnesses, disappointments and fatigue, in December 1875 I stopped in Berber on my way to Europe where important matters for the Vicariate called me. Reaching Berber I finalised the pending financial matters with Fr Stanislao, which through his fault had not yet been finished. Not because I was convinced it was just, but only so as not to leave issues pending in the Vicariate, from which I was going to be absent, I concluded each individual divergence in a general peace, and I gave proof of this. I was told of the wish to obtain beams and bricks, and I willingly saw to this at once and ordered the Superior in Khartoum to send them, which he did. Pleased with the agreement reached, I wrote to the Most Reverend Fr Guardi about it, and he acknowledged and approved.
[4303]
On my side therefore, although it was not right, peace was truly and effectively made. This is why, when my Secretary arrived in Rome in February 1876, although he had heard certain rumours on my account as regards relations with the Camillians, and he knew that on the part of Fathers Carcereri and Franceschini there continued to be words and deeds of enmity against me, he refused to present a Report to Propaganda on the differences with the Camillians, since Propaganda recognised the peace between myself and Fr Carcereri as valid. That said, I believe that I can state absolutely that on my side the peace that was agreed was not only sincere but was also genuine and effective.
[4304]
However, had the Camillian Fathers not accused me directly or indirectly in Propaganda before the peace? And are these accusations, never withdrawn by the Camillians after the peace, not recognised as extinct by Propaganda after the peace? In which case, since this act was not dealt with when pending matters were harmoniously resolved, I would still have the right to defend myself and initiate proceedings against them; on the understanding that I would emit no absolute judgements, but only such judgements of which the truth, proven by facts, would compel me to emit.
[4305]
Have the Camillian Fathers, not content with having continued their enmity to me secretly in word and deed even after the peace, which effectively continued on my part, accused me to Propaganda even after the peace? And have they accused me even of things which are none of their business? This would be the proof that they absolutely want to discredit me at all costs: and I would feel all the more within my rights in defending myself and initiating proceedings against them. Now it seems that Fr Franceschini behaved precisely in this way at the very moment when, under no obligation, I was doing him a favour by granting him the sum he himself was requesting for his own needs.
[4306]
This said, I shall now add what is needed for my justification: and first I say that the accusation being levelled at me, which asserts that all my Missionaries are opposed to me, is false. In any case, if there were real opposition between all the Missionaries and me, for this to reflect wrongdoing and guilt on my part, one would at least have to prove that in this matter right and justice are on the side of the Missionaries. But it will never be possible to prove this a) because in the above hypothesis I might have had just reasons for the actions which are supposed to have upset the Missionaries, but secret ones not to be revealed to those under me; b) because the supposition itself is false.
[4307]
My Missionaries are not against me. Indeed, apart from Fr Rolleri, they all support me against those who seek to persecute me. Not to mention in this respect my secretary, my Representative, the Bishop, my Institutes in Verona and their Rector: I speak only of the Missionaries and Institutes in Khartoum, Obeid and Jebel Nuba. Apart from a few differences of opinion between myself and my Missionaries in Obeid on the method of carrying out the Mission, in which they finally adopted mine, as explained in part III of the General Report I presented in April, there have been no other relevant differences between myself and my Missionaries in Khartoum, Obeid and Jebel Nuba.
[4308]
Fr Franceschini may well have tried to discredit me, but with my Missionaries he did not succeed. Indeed, the secular priests, wishing to console me in my troubles and toils, all signed a spontaneous address to me drafted by Fr Luigi Bonomi, assuring me of their loyalty, gratitude and love, and approving my governance and my administration.
[4309]
Fr Franceschini then spread the word that this address had not been spontaneous and that I had instigated it. My secretary heard these rumours and questioned the Missionaries privately on the matter. The answer was that the address had been quite spontaneous and that the judgements in my favour were the fruit of careful reflection. It is so untrue that I instigated the address that when I received it, I took no care of it, and now cannot find it. To be brief on this matter, however, I shall quote the reply from Fr Luigi Bonomi, Superior of Jebel Nuba, who drafted this address, and the reply from Fr Gennaro Martini, which illustrates the nature of the address, both of which were sent to my secretary on 19th December 1874.
[4310]
“I am highly surprised that others may have doubted and insinuated that I might have signed and drafted an address to anyone, against my will and driven by motives not in conformity with my sentiments. I therefore protest against this untrue and slanderous insinuation. Neither Monsignor nor anyone in the world, not even the Pope, could have made me write a document or a testimonial of which I was not convinced. I believe this is also true of all my confrères who signed it, considering the commitment with which they discussed, studied and thought over each word of the address before signing it”. (Fr Luigi Bonomi)
[4311]
In the following, by Fr Gennaro Martini, apart from the spontaneity one finds the substance of the address as regards my governance and my administration.
“Regarding the declaration signed by me to Monsignor, do tell Fr Giuseppe that I signed of my own full and deliberate will, because I could not have done otherwise according to my convictions: for if I had believed that I should behave otherwise I would have done so without fearing anything or anyone. Unfortunately the devil is working very hard in this poor Mission of ours!… I stated that I was very happy with the administration and governance of Monsignor so I signed the declaration because I am convinced that since I have been a member of the Mission, I have never received from Monsignor anything but benefits and encouragements to work for the salvation of souls”. (Fr G.M.)

[4312]
Therefore, that my Missionaries are against me is a pure lie; just as it is a pure lie that the Sisters are against me; since apart from two of them (Sr Germana and Sr Maddalena) all the others both disapprove of the behaviour of these two and are on my side, thankfully and faithfully. The reason for the indisposition of these two Sisters against me were the following a) my having started building the solid house for the Sisters in Khartoum in 1874, while deferring the building for them in Obeid until the Khartoum house was completed; b) my having removed from Obeid Fr Franceschini with whom they had very close relations, and my having placed another Superior there.
[4313]
The injustice of these motives of indisposition can easily be seen if one considers that not all the buildings can be constructed at the same time, and that if I removed Fr Franceschini from Obeid, I did this because there were certain rumours about him that were a disgrace to the Mission. However, for the first motive the Sisters were vexed with me alone, while for the second they were vexed with me and correspondingly with the new Superior. In any case neither to them nor to others did I ever address a word of offence or complaint about them, but only encouraged them always to do good. The indisposition of these Sisters who protested that they wanted to live with the Camillians grew when Fr Franceschini told Sr Germana of the scolding he received from me for the none too praiseworthy secret correspondence he was having with these two Sisters.
[4314]
Among the Sisters, only these two supported Fr Franceschini in 1876 and joined him in burdening me with difficulties and multiplying my displeasures. It was in these circumstances that a certain Sr Anna was caught up with me in the indisposition towards me of Fr Franceschini and these two Sisters, and became a target for false accusations and insults. The motives for the unjust persecution of this Sister were the following: a) since far from supporting Fr Franceschini, she supported me like the others; but especially b) because since at that time I could not make use of the two Sisters who were against me, I called upon her for certain matters.
[4315]
The injustice of these motives for persecuting Sr Anna is evident if one considers that I had no reason at all to mistreat Sr Anna, since she was active and faithful; and that to run certain errands and to deal with certain specifically female affairs on the Mission, she was and is not only loyal but even well suited since she is an Arab with a perfect knowledge of the local language and the customs, etc., etc.
[4316]
However these things ignited jealousy, especially in Sr Germana and increased Fr Franceschini’s indisposition towards Sr Anna; (1) and against me it was said, and vain attempts to convince others were made, that I show a preference for Sr Anna and that I let her influence me in the governance of the Vicariate. (2) Now that the two Sisters are separated, everything is finished and all has now fallen calmly into place, which is why I hope that in future both of them will help me as they helped me until 1874. Moreover, it can easily be seen, however much falsehood and passion there are in this accusation, by considering the above-mentioned motives that started and nurtured the indisposition of the two Sisters and Fr Franceschini with regard to me and Sr Anna.
[4317]
To conclude: if it is untrue that my Missionaries are against me, if it is untrue that the Sisters are against me, if the momentary opposition of two Sisters against me was unjust, if what was said about my relations with the unjustly maligned Sr Anna is untrue; the accusations that will be made against me about Mass, the Divine Office and Confession are true if they are expressed in the following terms.
[4318]
The Pro-Vicar, when he was able, always celebrated Mass daily during the months of August and September 1875 while in Obeid; and in the months of October and November 1875 when he was in Jebel Nuba, he only celebrated Mass on Sundays and feast days and on some week days. In the above-mentioned months the Pro-Vicar did not always recite the Divine Office. The Pro-Vicar who always went to confession once a week, during the months of October and November spent in Jebel Nuba only went to confession once. If the accusations are expressed in these terms, they are true, otherwise they are false.
[4319]
However, although they are true, I do not believe I can be said to be at fault; since, if for the recitation of the Divine Office, I have the faculty to dispense myself and my Missionaries when there is sufficient reason, the circumstances in which I found myself in Obeid provided me with enough reasons to omit saying Mass on certain week days as well as the Divine Office. Indeed, in the midst of frantic activities which the organisation of the Obeid Mission required of me for the internal and external relations, in the midst of the administrative preoccupations which, due to the difficulty of sending funds from Cairo to the Sudan, had become more grievous and difficult than ever, with the prospect of major expenses which nevertheless had to be made; under the burden of correspondence with the secretary and the need to keep relations alive with Europe, my spirit was also grieved by a thousand disappointments caused mostly by Carcereri, by the death of some of my benefactors and by the behaviour of Franceschini and the two Sisters and the weekly insubordinate correspondence from Fr Rolleri, etc.
[4320]
Besides, to bodily fatigue and moral indisposition, soon was added physical indisposition too. A constant headache, lack of appetite and continuous thirst afflicted me all the time in Obeid. These were the effects of the persistent febrile state into which I had fallen. What is more, in the two months in Obeid I had hardly slept at all (all together I went for more than seven months without sleep), so that I was completely exhausted in the mornings, hardly able to stand at the altar. When one is so seriously ill, and with enormous worries, it is impossible to say the Office and Mass. But, never do three hours pass without my praying, wherever I am.
[4321]
These circumstances alone, I believe, are enough to justify the omission of the occasional Mass on certain week days and of the Divine Office during the months of August and September last, during which I went regularly to confession, and several times to Franceschini himself, when there was nobody else. Similar circumstances or even worse ones accompanied me to Jebel Nuba, where two of my priests and a lay brother had been since April to work there and prepare lodgings for us.
[4322]
There, I was able to relieve myself only of the burden of correspondence due to the momentary lack of means of communication: but I still knew that the discontent of Fr Stanislao in Berber and Fr Rolleri in Cairo was continuing, and that this would have repercussions on the other Stations. My displeasure about the behaviour of Fr Franceschini and the two Sisters with regard to me did not cease since, not having been able to leave them in Obeid, I had brought them with me to Jebel Nuba.
[4323]
In Jebel Nuba, the physical exhaustion of having to finish the works, establish relations with the chief Cogiur and the local population and start the Mission was greater than in Obeid, with the added inconvenience of continuous illnesses. Given that since May the lay brother, who my two priests had brought there with them, was sick with the fevers; in September Fr Alfonso Chiarelli was at death’s door, having caught prickly heat as soon as he had arrived, and soon after, the Superior became seriously ill too, and did not recover until we reached Obeid where we returned later; those who were cured were assailed by the fevers which soon infected the lay brother who had come with me, the Sisters, Fr Franceschini, Fr Gennaro Martini and myself, everybody.
[4324]
In the midst of so much sustained activity with so many physical and moral discomforts, I thought I could avail myself of the faculty of dispensation from the recitation of the Divine Office: just as I believe that the circumstances themselves of my worsened physical indisposition are a sufficient justification for my having omitted to say Mass on various week days.
[4325]
Since I was ill, along with all the other priests and the Superior of the station, was even seriously ill, and I did not feel free with the others, I deferred my confession (in the hope of confessing soon), of which I did not actually have an absolute need. I believe these short notes will be enough to justify myself in the face of the accusations made against me as regards my not having said Mass on various week days or read the Divine Office and my not having been to confession for nearly two months in Jebel Nuba.
[4326]
Moreover, it was after we had been through a thousand difficulties to finish things off at the new Nuba Station that, due to the discomforts, we found ourselves all sick, without medicines and provisions and unable to restock because of the temporary lack of means of communication with Obeid due to the enmity which had arisen between the Government of Obeid and the Nuba people, who had refused to pay their annual tribute. What was I to do in similar conditions as the one responsible for the health of the Missionaries and the Sisters? The houses had been prepared, good relations had been established and the Mission had been started. All I had to do was to see to the health of everyone: but this could not be done by staying in Jebel Nuba, due to the aforesaid circumstances; in addition due to the illnesses, the presence of the Missionaries in Jebel Nuba was becoming ineffective, and in their uselessness they were at risk, both because of being ill in the above-mentioned conditions and because of the war the Kordofan government seemed intent on waging in these free and remote lands.
[4327]
In view of all this I asked the advice of all the Missionaries and all, including Fr Franceschini, immediately agreed to leave everything in the hands of the chief of the tribe, our friend, and to return for some time to Obeid. (3) In the meantime, the Governor of Obeid, who was marching his army to Jebel Nuba, sent me a sufficient number of camels, telling me to take advantage of this in case I wanted to get out of there. We all took advantage, although we foresaw problems on the journey due to the illnesses, but for the reasons explained above, I believe this decision, far from being considered imprudent, should be considered most prudent.
[4328]
Everything was left in the hands of the chief of the tribe, and having temporarily left this Mission already open and started, we returned to Obeid, where I soon went to confession to the Superior of the Station. Having left the Vicariate organised and in peace, stable and secure, I came to Europe to settle, among various other things, certain matters related to the good of the Vicariate.
[4329]
Of all the accusations made against me by Fr Franceschini, in conscience I do not feel guilty even of the slightest venial sin. I am only sorry for him, who will lose his soul if before he dies he does not retract before the authorities to whom he untruthfully made so many accusations. For my part, I forgive him with all my heart.

Rome, 20 July 1876

Fr Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa


[4330]
(1) Because Sr Anna also told me secretly of the goings on between Fr Franceschini, Sr Anna [a slip: Sr Germana] and Sr Maddalena, to put them right. Moreover, Sr Anna is the ablest, healthiest and most zealous Sister in the Vicariate. In many circumstances she has shown true heroism in winning souls for God.

(2) I also had to defend the innocence of Sr Anna from the unjust accusations made against her, always acting in agreement with the Provincial Superior. She has thanked me for it.

(3) However, I did not have the intention of taking everybody to El Obeid; but to stop at Singiokae, 14 hours away from Nuba. But there we found nothing, neither milk nor meat, we were without salt. All the inhabitants had fled with their cattle at the approach of the army, because the soldiers steal everything. Then I decided (I still had the fever) to take everyone to Obeid.