To Fr De Stefanis, Vercelli

E X,4652

To a priest who is in difficulty with his bishop, he sends a letter (confidentially) that he received from the same bishop, and invites the priest to an act of submission that would be helpful to all concerned

Turin, 17 November 1872

Dear Fr Destefanis,

In order to better understand the good intentions of the Archbishop, I am sending you in confidence the letter he wrote to me regarding what I had previously shared with him.

If I were in your place, I would humble myself, forget everything, and put myself completely in his hands.

In this way, you would return to being the priest you were before, the bishop would rejoice, heaven would rejoice, and the wicked would be deprived of a pretext for censuring the clergy.

If you think I can be of any service to you, please do not hesitate to call upon me for anything I can do, as long as I have the honour of professing that I am

Yours most affectionately in J. C.

Fr J. Bosco