23 No; Italy's real enemies must be sought elsewhere; they must be soughtamongst the men who, urged on by the spirit of irreligion and having no heartsto feel for the evils and dangers which menace their country, reject every realand effective solution of present difficulties, and endeavour by guilty designsto protract and increase their bitterness. It is to such men as these, and to noothers, that the rigorous measures aimed at useful Catholic associations shouldbe applied-measures which afflict Us profoundly for a higher reason that regardsnot only the Catholics of Italy, but those of the whole world. These measuresplace in fuller light the painful, precarious, and intolerable position to whichWe have been reduced. If certain events, in which Catholics had no part, havebeen sufficient to bring about the suppression of thousands of guilelesscharitable works, in spite of the guarantees they possessed in the fundamentallaws of the State, every sensible and fair-minded man will understand what isthe value of the assurances given by the public authorities for the liberty andindependence of our Apostolic ministry. To what a point is Our liberty reducedwhen, after having been deprived of the greatest part of the ancient moral andmaterial resources with which Christian ages had enriched the Apostolic See andthe Church in Italy, We are now even deprived of those means of religious and social action which Our solicitude and the admirable zeal of the Bishops, clergy, and people had got together for the defence of religion, and for the good of the Italian people? What is this pretended liberty when another occasion, any incident whatsoever, might serve as a pretext for going still farther along the road of arbitrary violence, and for inflicting fresh and deeper wounds on the Church and on religion?
Source: Spesse Volte (Vatican.va)