28 There still remain the circles of the Catholic young men, that same Catholic Youth which in the publications of the youth of the [Fascist] party are represented and held up to ridicule and scorn (with what sense of pedagogical responsibility, to say only this, anyone may see) as a swarm of "rabbits," only fit to carry candles and to recite rosaries in sacred processions. This perhaps explains why they have been in these recent days so many times, and with such ignobility on the part of their assailants, attacked and maltreated even to the shedding of blood, and left undefended by those who could and should protect them. If it were not for the harmlessness and peaceableness for which they have been sneered at, would their persecutors (sometimes armed) have dared to fall upon them?
Source: Non Abbiamo Bisogno (Vatican.va)