The organizers of this workshop have asked me to deal with Fr. Quadrio as a theologian and a teacher.

I tackled this theme trying to prescind from the fact of having known him: I met him for the first time on June 6, 1957 at the Crocetta, and I was in that community with him for the three years from 1960 to 1963 during my theological studies. At the beginning of my 4th year, he who had been my confessor, friend, and counselor passed away. However, I must say I never had him as a teacher.

During this workshop other talks and contributions study different publications of Fr. Quadrio, but I will leave those aside: a) sermons, answers to questions in Meridiano 12, articles in Voci Fraterne and in the Salesian Bulletin; b) his spiritual diary, unpublished talks, correspondence; c) all his unpublished papers (sadly, so many destroyed! I remember emptying out his waste basket, with so many pages and notes...).

So, I will just fundamentally limit myself to published or printed works (see below, 2.1, for details).

Beyond the objective limits connected to my form of mind and my preparation, to be objective, I should recall again that only obliquely can I deal with him as a teacher. So, I will see what comes out of his writings on that point.

If he taught as in his sermons (of which I heard some) or in private talks, then I could say his teaching was lively and vital.

On the other hand the content of my talk, which considers Fr. Quadrio as a theologian and a teacher, limits the field of interest to that of teaching bound to theology. Let others investigate his teaching philosophy while still a seminarian, or while helping seminarians or boys here and there with their lessons.

And, in his turn, the theologian is considered in rapport with teaching. Obviously that last term is understood in the wide sense, even if again restricted to printed or lithographed scholarly papers or course supplements for theology.

Hence the limited field of this talk. Even limited as it is, it is still too vast for one talk. Consequently, I need to say something about the method.

This talk aims to make only a snapshot of the data. To make it more three-dimensional, I will follow with a starting evaluation.

This is all in a double intention to be objective, and to say something about the little to which I have arrived in my investigation. The result is only preliminary, almost a wish to – as they say - “whet the appetite”.

A true and proper research would need to widen the investigation to the library Fr. Quadrio used to compile his class notes. Then one would need to compare those with the theology manuals of that time, to see where he repeats, where he imitates, where he stands, where he innovates, where he is a precursor.

Similarly, one would need to develop the key lines of his theological thought, if they exist. In part, I would say right away they do, anticipating what I will say in the third part.

Anyway, there is no one who cannot see that a research could be projected that would reveal three areas of Fr. Quadrio as theologian and teacher:

- his theological formation and later scholarly production;

- his method or methodology for transmitting its content;

- the spirituality of a theologian and teacher.

I will only make here brief reference to these.

Fr. Quadrio received his canonical mission to teach at the beginning of the academic year 1949-1950.

For that first year, the teaching staff roster printed in Kalendarium lectionum Pontificii Athenaei Salesiani Societatis S. Francisci Salesii lists on page 10: “D. Joseph Quadrio Professor Theologiae Dogmaticae,” and on p. 11, with professors D. D. Bertetto and D. N. Camillieri, he is listed as teacher for the treatises De Verbo Incarnato et de Beata Maria Virgine – De Gratia – De virtutibus theologicis for the 2nd and 3rd year,² equivalent to 6 hours weekly for the whole academic year. The course thus arranged – from what is noted here – was shared by Frs. Bertetto, Camillieri and Quadrio. But Fr. Quadrio also had to defend his doctoral thesis in the first semester.

It is certain that, for this first year, the Superiors had asked him to do only the course De virtutibus theologicis, listed among the disciplinae praecipuae.³ I've put data from the Kalendarium lectionum in a footnote; these will show the particular theological subject areas to which Fr. Quadrio periodically returned, deepening his treatment each time. That can be seen from the successive editions of his course supplements or readers.⁴

Besides his teaching activity in the academic years 1949-1950 to 1962-1963 (effectively, up to 1959-1960), Fr. Quadrio was Secretary of the Department in 1950-1951 and 1951-1952, member of the Department Council in 1952-1953, 1953-1954, and then 1959-1960, and Department Chairman from 1954 to 1959.

At the beginning of his Chairmanship (1954-1955), he introduced three sections of specialization in the Department: Dogmatic Theology, Moral Theology, and Patristic Theology. In his last year, 1958-1959, he started the pastoral curriculum, following the norms of Sedes Sapientiae.⁵

To his academic activities of teaching and governing, we should add his scholarly production and his popular writing, as can be seen from the list of his works furnished in Salesianum 25 (1963), pp. 633-637.

Beginning with the raw data, eloquent as they are taken alone, I love to envision a kind of ladder of points that deserve to be more fully studied and developed.

I will consider the thought of Fr. Quadrio globally. In the third part of the talk I will consider three centers of interest of his scholarly production as it lies.

Here, I will just dwell on a few hypotheses for work which will serve to clarify his thought as a theologian and a teacher.

1. Hypothesis for some “nodal” points of Fr. Quadrio as teacher and theologian, but always as ministerially ordained priest

1. Suffering caused by the detachment between the Church and the world of work and the poor (these exploited by Communism-Marxism);

2. Anxiety for the misunderstanding that worms its way between the formation staff and those in formation;

3. Effort to rethink new and adapted ways to do theology, to study it, to live it;

4. Longing for an adapted presence in the world on the part of the Church;

5. Thirst for the Word of God and for Tradition of the Church toward a sense of feeling with the Church,⁶ progressive and ever more alive.

1. Hypothesis for some “key” points of Fr. Quadrio as apostle of theological teaching

1. Development and widening of the comprehension of the social or ecclesial dimension of every theological treatise in which he had to directly concern himself by obedience (not by inclination, I don't think; that remains to be demonstrated);

2. Sound and creative updating of ways to do theology (not from an itch for reform, or to appear up-to-date,⁷ or to be applauded by students);

3. Evangelizing urge by intense work and intense prayer: sending forth the Holy Spirit before giving a class, sanctified that class and his work of teaching.

1. Hypothesis for some “illuminating” points on Fr. Quadrio as a Salesian teacher and theologian

1. Delicacy with persons (a student of the sacred disciplines is a bearer of a sacred deposit of faith).

2. Sacrificing love for the Church and for the Congregation (he offered his sufferings); just look at his work for the Superiors and his answers to the Departments, his preparation for the Council, etc. (research that still needs to be urgently carried forward, so as to have in hand the pulse of Fr. Quadrio's scholarly production, and thus of his theological thought);

3. Mastery of exuberant emotion (good and kind, but emotional and strong, not mushy but upright);

4. Dedication to the work of teaching and scholarly publication: skimming through the commemorative volume published for the 25th anniversary of the Pontifical Salesian Athenaeum (Pontificium Athenaeum Salesianum MCMXL-MCMLXV, Romae MCMLXVI), one discovers a characteristic of his: work, work, work.

Before going on to the third part of my talk, this question should be put:

Here, the term theologian is understood etymologically: someone who discourses on the nature of God, on what God knows of Himself and what He leaves comprehensible to human persons by Revelation.

If Fr. Quadrio were only or predominantly a teacher-theologian, he would not be enriched with virtues acquired by effort and by the ascesis demanded of him. He would just be like many other theology teachers. Instead, he was a theologian who by obedience was also a teacher.

The theologian takes precedence in Fr. Quadrio, then the teacher. Indeed, the one is inter-penetrated with the other, from which springs the spirituality of the theologian-teacher Fr. Quadrio.

Fr. Quadrio's doctoral research formed him to plumb the roots of the past. That has not separated him from the present. Instead, the research made him a faithful son of his time, able to interpret the signs of the times and recover from them lines of action and openness to the future.

His Mariological research and output made him sensitive to ecclesiological problems. To properly reflect Fr. Quadrio, one must stand apart from the common mode of theological thinking of the decade in which he taught. Doubtless he did not consider his teaching as an effort to justify magisterial doctrine. His method of explaining the treatises and the progressive change in tone and diction of his assigned seminar exercises serve to denote how, while being Catholic and as a son of Don Bosco lived the “feeling with the Church”, respecting, studying, and deepening the magisterium of the Popes, he knew how to soften the apologetic component regarding the truths present in the magisterium, to enable the hermeneutic of the texts themselves. He was not a simple commentator on the data, so much as an interpreter, open to catch prophetic nuances.

Thus if he cultivated the Marian theme, he pushed the boundary between dogmatic definition and debatable opinions, intent on finding understanding – as we'd say today – of the economy of salvation.⁸

Fr. Quadrio felt himself fully free in Marian research and in the work of the seminars he gave (1953-1954) to tackle very debatable questions, like Utrum Beata Maria Virgo mortua sit: testimonia antiquiora and De mediatione sociali Beatae Mariae Virginis apud Romanos Pontifices.⁹ This last one, together with other articles appearing in “Salesianum” and elsewhere,¹⁰ prepared the 5th volume of the Salesian Marian Academy (S. E. I., Turin 1962) with the significant title Mary and the Church. The social mediation of Mary Most Holy in the teaching of the Popes from Gregory XVI to Pius XII.

His studies on the same theme had already appeared for Gregory XVI, Leo XIII, Pius X and Pius XI. Thus the volume covers the arc of time from 1831 to 1958 with the addition of an investigation of Pius IX, Benedict XV and Pius XII. The study of Pius X coincides with the year of his canonization and the Marian Year (1954) (the first Marian year was proclaimed in 1904 by that same Pius X). Fr. Quadrio tackles a Mariological problem which, with Chapter VII of Lumen Gentium would be received as part of the fabric of the living deposit of faith.

After his doctoral thesis, Fr. Quadrio's research on Mary could appear casual and derivative, but effectively it was not. In fact, one can see a certain development in his teaching from 1955-56 (course title: ex doctrina theologica Pii XII) to 1956-57 and 1957-58 (ex Magisterio pontificio) to 1958-59 (ex theologia magisteriali)¹¹. The course title changes have nuances of no small significance.

Thus Quadrio the theologian sunk research roots into a theme in tune with the hour of Mary – according to the expression of Pius XII (see Pius XII, Augustissima coeli, in AAS 42 [1950] 174) – the development of the teacher-theologian's circle from Marian interest widens toward the aspect of mediation which is present in the life of Mary an in her work of association with the Unique Redeemer, Jesus Christ, her divine Son.

When Fr. Quadrio writes in 1962 that “the parallelism Mary-Church helps gain a just and balanced comprehension of the mystery of the Mother of God and of the singular position she occupies in the design of salvation” (see p. V. of the Presentation of the work cited above), he anticipates the Council discussions on the theme “Mary and the Church”. The soul of Fr. Quadrio breathes with this vision. His research considers “mariological truths in the light of the relation between Mary and the Church. Thus the divine maternity, the spiritual maternity, the cooperation of the Virgin in redemption and in the distribution of graces, are not regarded only in themselves, but uniquely as they speak rapport with the structure, foundation, growth and defense of the Church.” (see ibid., pp. VI-VII)

The Marian subsoil of the spirit of Fr. Quadrio is evident from his own considerations. Research that weaves together the affirmations of the theologian, of the pastor (sermons, answers to questions, etc.), of the confidante (diaries, correspondence, etc.) would help us understand how the soul of the Salesian, priest, teacher and theologian pass always more and more deeply from Mary Mother of the Church to the interest of the Church Mother of Peoples. Fr. Quadro asserts that it was not his intention to do a special research on the significance and import of the Marian title Help of Christians. But that title shows up so many times as to make understandable how much importance the unconquerable patronage Mary exercised for the Church and its visible head (see ibid., p. VII).

From his meditation on Mary, Fr. Quadrio opened himself to others, to the interests of man. That is the second circle of the reality to which Fr. Quadrio as teacher-theologian put his attention.

The mandate he received from the acadedddymic superiors to teach the treatises De Deo creante et elevante and De Novissimis¹², together with the ones on the sacraments of Penance and Extreme Unction (as it was called then) and on Matrimony (dogmatic part), determined in Fr. Quadrio a particular sensibility for the problems of man attentive to the theological debates of the day, open to accept whatever good was contained in the problems of contemporary life. To students, Fr. Quadrio seemed the teacher most open to the problems of man. His philosophical preparation, indeed his having taught some of the philosophical treatises, developed in him the attention to man. That emerges from an attentive analysis of some of his writings.¹³ Those should be put in relation with the seminars he moderated: “Moral and dogmatic doctrine of Pius XII” (1956-1957); “Moral doctrine of Pius XII” (1957-1958), “Moral and social doctrine of Pius XII” (1958-1959).

These titles show how Fr. Quadrio's interests move from “Theological doctrine of Pius XII” (1955-1956) to dogmatic and moral, then to moral and social context in the following years.

I did not have occasion to analyze the 1958 Portuguese publication and to compare it with what is contained from p. 3 to p. 62 in the last contribution Today's Problems cited in note 13 above, where Fr. Quadrio deals with Dialectical Materialism and the Origins of the Universe (in these years, the Philosophy Department of the Pontifical Salesian Athenaeum began work on the Encyclopedia of Atheism).

Fr. Quadrio's book reviews are significant. In 1957 he reviewed Marcozzi's Origins of Man (see Salesianum 1957, p. 339).

Attention toward man's problems did not impede Fr. Quadrio from remaining open to the realities of God. His formation, his spirituality, his philosophical and theological preparation, his teaching and writing preferences reveal a true theologian. Consider his book review of the work on grace and original justice according to St. Thomas, by Fr. Van Roo SJ (Salesianum 1957, pp. 355-356), the entries for “Monogenism”, “Polygenism (doctrine)”, “Man”, “Teilhard de Chardin”, “Faith”, “Plurality of Inhabited Worlds”, “Pre-Adamites”, etc. in the UTET Ecclesiastical Dictionary.¹⁴ There is no contradiction in him between between what faith tells us and the liberty of the scientific researcher. Being a person open to the reality of God, he is truly a theologian. As a believer, he puts research in the horizon of revelation. He brings the object of faith to research into the intelligibility of the truths coming from the Word of God, from Tradition, from the Church which professes them.

Fr. Quadrio's effort is to make understandable that his research into the sources is oriented to the comprehension of the history of salvation. It remains to investigate the whole sector of his intellectual formation to collect the particulars and abundantly document the passage from a formation of the philosophical-Thomistic-speculative type to a positive and vitally practical mind.

Fr. Quadrio was not only able to produce tools for a deeper consciousness of the data of revelation and of tradition (= historicity of theology), but adorned with the theological art, succeeded in showing in events the truth of the mystery of the Triune God which acts in time.

His notable capacity to express himself in attractive language should also be remembered, with forms of communication adequate to his audience (= the pedagogical-expository art). This is why I want to put “From opening to the problems of man to man open to the realities of God” as the title of the second part of this section. But I add here that the terms are interchangeable. In fact, just because Fr. Quadrio was a “man open to the realities of God,” he was also a person rich in opening to the problems of man.

Again, one of his characteristics as teacher and theologian emerges: interest in the Church, reference to the ecclesial, to being with the Church. It's not so much a disposition of openness to the “community of the faithful” with him, but a connotation of his way of doing theology and being a theologian.

He is in continual relation with the tradition of the Church, but he reaches out also continually to the man of faith, with whom he participates with pastoral and spiritual zeal for his personal growth and that of others. That is what he succeeds in accepting and deepening with his study.

One can comprehend, in this context, how much I would like to synthesize in the last section of this talk.

Nobody doubts that Fr. Quadrio is a virtuous Christian. Indeed, if that were not eminently so, we wouldn't be here talking about him.

Here the fact that he is a theologian full of obedience and fidelity to the Magisterium should be accentuated. He is a theologian “responsible” for his ministry of teaching.

In this sense the virtues of Quadrio the Christian, insofar as he is a theologian, allowed him to go deeply into the mysteries of faith. He has studied these mysteries of the faith not as ends in themselves or by himself, but rather in historical and contingent coordinates, among seminarians in formation for the ministerial priesthood, for the needs of the Church.

In the maturing process of his mandate as professor of dogmatic theology, Fr. Quadrio was advantaged in teaching the treatise on the theological virtues, for which he has left us some outlines for class notes entitled Class Notes for the Treatise on the Theological Virtues (Turin 1954, 190 pages)¹⁵, which saw a revised and expanded second edition (no date), presumably written 1957-1958.¹⁶

The dogmatic treatise on the theological virtues is the one Fr. Quadrio taught five times: in 1949-1950 to the 2nd, 3rd and 4th year theology students, and three times to the 2nd year only: 1952-1953, 1953-1954, and 1954-1955.

Twice he also moderated seminars on the same theme: in 1955-1956 titled More Recent Questions on the Virtues, and in 1961-1962 On the Theological Virtues in Sacred Scripture.¹⁷

It is then certain that the theology of Fr. Quadrio takes its rhythm from the conjugation of the sacred page (sacred Doctrine as comment and interpretive effort of and in the Word of God) and the understanding of truth as led by faith, to overflow into concrete life his own wisdom as a master expert.

Of the Christian virtues viewed theologically, Fr. Quadrio took advantage for his spirituality and pastoral ministry, as well as for the spirituality and pastoral ministry of the students. It was not for nothing that Fr. Melotti, again in 1966, will prepare for the theology students at the studentate of theology of the Salesian Pontifical University, campus at Monteortone, an Italian translation of Fr. Quadrio's original Latin treatise on the virtues. He expanded the bibliography and added some citations of Vatican II documents, but kept Fr. Quadrio's structure and content. This treatise is still up-to-date.

Comparing this treatise with those in use at the Roman colleges at the time, or with the contemporary treatment of the French Dominican authors of Initiation théologique, one sees that Fr. Quadrio stands out for a certain boldness in of initiative and arrangement. For all that he sticks to the thesis, he nonetheless reflects a vastness of concept, especially in relation to the usefulness of the treatment, in the precision and abundance of positive data, in the rigor and originality of the synthesis, in the transparency and liveliness of expression, in the delicate and serene evaluation of non-orthodox positions, and also – I daresay – in the supernatural air that it breathes.

It is understood that in Fr. Quadrio the “doctrinal”, far from excluding the “pastoral”, includes it, precisely because the pastoral is not an alternative, nor optional, but essential for the virtuous Christian in the case of his own life.

But even here, from the virtues of a Christian to the reality of the virtuous Christian, the terms are interchangeable, first of all in the life and teaching of Fr. Quadrio. “Life – teaching”: an inseparable binomial for the professor of dogmatic theology. This is also in the vitality which he transmitted. The “spiritual” connotation of his teaching admits diminution neither of the truth he must hand on nor of the authority with which he teaches. Fr. Quadrio knew how to integrate ecclesiology effectively, emphasizing its Mariological dimensions, along with the social and mystery dimensions.

For this, happy to study Fr. Quadrio, let us study how to imitate him.

The two editions were not followed by others. The course was given in a three year rotation, so it would start over every three years. Fr. Quadrio' sickness kept him from giving it in 1960-1961, and so he did not do a third edition.

I came to the Crocetta in 1954, the very year Fr. Quadrio gave that course for the first time, or at least, the first time he used that reader.

Naturally, I was in the first year and could not have him as a teacher. But I remember my buddies in theology, although finding Fr. Quadrio particularly interesting and appreciated, did not spare him some criticism.

According to them, the course was still tied to traditional models of a theology too scholastic in form and content.

Thinking about it, I don't see how it could have been otherwise. Fr. Quadrio was still a rookie teacher. His ties, emotional even more than intellectual, with the theological scene at the Gregorian University in Rome, kept him from doing anything much different. He felt a dutiful veneration for his teachers, especially Fr. Lennerz. That would have been too rapid a break from the kind of theology he had studied so diligently and so intelligently from his own student desk there. That is the price every beginner pays for lack of experience.

I'd have to say that students at the Crocetta had access to their professors that would be almost unthinkable today, even where they live in the same house. Even so, with no professor was access so free, practical, unveiled and without reservation as with Fr. Quadrio.

He was at recreation with us. He'd hear our gripes in his room with infinite patience, whether about his teaching or that of other professors. After all, he was the chairman of the theology department, and you could vent to him.

Not that all the criticisms were justified or well measured, but they were always stimulating, if one had the courage to question himself. He did.

He responded firmly, but with great courtesy, to criticisms he thought less justified or ungenerous, especially those aimed at his colleagues. But he always took note if there was even a minimum of reasonableness and truth in them, and strove to accept the stimulus to renewal contained in them.

The criticism given him, and generally to the whole teaching of scholastic theology in those days, was above all the abstract, stereotypical, artificially syllogistic way of treating the material; the scarcity, fragmentary and tendentious use of the Bible and the Fathers of the Church; the absence of any contact with human sciences; the astronomical distance from any of the pedagogical or pastoral problems the students ran into in their practical training.

Fr. Quadrio, moved by these criticisms, improved his teaching so rapidly, so that when my turn came to take the second three year rotation, this course on theological virtues was unanimously regarded as a happy exception to the quality of theological teaching at that time and place.

That is at least what I remember.

I wanted to get confirmation on these impressions by comparing the two editions of the reader. I won't hide the fact that, reading them after so many years, I found much to be disappointed about in both of them.

I don't think just written pages do full justice to the living reality of school. Fr. Quadrio himself recognized that, writing in the preface to the 2^nd (1957) edition: “This modest study aid, copied for the convenience of the students, offers only the main lines of the material and is somewhat dry. It would be useless, then, if not animated and complemented by the living voice of the teacher and the careful meditation of the students.”

Anyway, there is a very significant difference between the two editions.

The 1954 reader was essentially compiled from Fr. Lennerz's 1947 text published at the Gregorian. The outline, the theses, even the wording in some parts, were the same. Same, too, was the use of little pieces and morsels of Scripture and the Fathers, even in the middle of these impossible syllogisms. There was the same cold, artificial style, the same hierarchical list of problems, coming from the most part from past centuries; the same distance from today's world and our culture; the same solutions to disputed questions not a few.

You might see a certain move toward deduction in Fr. Quadrio's placing the reader material on theological virtues in general at the beginning. Fr. Lennerz put that after the parts on the particular virtues of faith, hope and charity. That added even more of a generic and abstract character to the reader.

But there was a exceptional clarity in doctrine and its exposition compared to Fr. Lennerz's text. Fr. Quadrio had a happy ability to synthesize, and get at the essentials. He radically reduced the more scholastic parts of the text, reducing the reader to half the size of the text.

But we deal here with only a promise of improvement. That promise is kept in the 2nd edition.

Some signs of a greater independence from Fr. Quadrio's favorite author, and from the cultural world of his admirable formation, appear in this 2^nd edition. You can see that in the solution to some of those disputed questions.

For example, when he explains the affirmation of Vatican I that a Catholic can never have a justifiable reason to abandon or hold in doubt his own faith, he still follows Lennerz's opinion that “justifiable cause” is not only to be taken objectively (which would be too obvious), but also subjectively, in the sense that any abandonment or questioning of faith must be culpable. But Fr. Quadrio is careful to exclude, very reasonably, from the presumption of grave culpability “those who never adequately and consciously believed, or never had a true Christian education.”

On the contrary, according to Fr. Quadrio, this presumption holds only for the Catholic “sufficiently developed in the doctrine of the faith, who is in fact conscious of it, having once professed it under the magisterium of the Church.”¹⁹

In the new text there are frequent references to problems of faith for the young and people of our time, gathered from research results, articles in catechetical and pastoral reviews, books not specifically theological, recently published in Italy and abroad, that deal with these current problems of faith.

But the really new point and the full break from the outlines inherited from the scholastics is in the “short notes on faith in Scripture”²⁰, which make up about one seventh of the reader.

Here, he abandons the gray prison of the Latin, to which he had been constrained by obedience to the superiors' decisions. Here, he finally found himself in the style at once compact and profoundly evocative of his non-academic writings. No more proof texts from the Bible, taken from a theoretical construct extraneous to Scripture. No, the Bible is at the center of the discourse, presented with due philological and and historical competence.

A complete phenomenology of faith, as “a vital, total, personal act”, comes out of this investigation. Faith is “obscure recognition, affective, connatural.”

This new treatment does not fully remove the scholastic aridity of the old set-up; in a sense, it remains extraneous and parallel to the old. You feel even more strongly the need for a more radical renewal.

Fr. Quadrio himself puts the problem as one of rapport between the biblical and the theological concept of faith, and finds it difficult to reconcile them.

But the results of the added biblical section start to impact the outline of the traditional treatment of faith. As though to demonstrate the freedom of the act of faith, the affective and vital characteristic of faith, the believer's reflection and work on it are emphasized more than the traditional motive of non-observability. Elsewhere, he exalts the communitarian and ecclesial character of faith itself, with a beautiful profession of love for the Church as “a society of believers, a visible organism of revelation, almost a concrete divine revelation.”²¹

But the new material still does not, of itself, impact the whole outline of Fr. Quadrio's reader.

Fr. Quadrio, who was also department chairman, could do no more in the course of those three years. But, in concluding the 2^nd edition, he set for himself as a program to make a “true biblical, psychological, pastoral and pedagogical synthesis of faith, hope and charity, in another volume of the work.”²²

One recognizes easily in this series of adjectives: “biblical, psychological, pastoral and pedagogical”, the full acceptance of the students' criticisms, which he confronted without defensiveness, which were at the basis of his progressive but not painless renewal. It could be objected that he could have found those same stimuli, with a quite different authoritativeness, reading theological works and networking with other experts.

But the example of other teachers, no less than Fr. Quadrio acquainted with these sources, but more closed than he to the needs of renewal, authorizes us to think the reverse: reading books and attending meetings with his own peers would make it too easy to pick and choose selections and find a consensus in favor of one's own preconceptions. You can't domesticate students as easily as that. There's nothing like mixing it up with them to test your own preconceptions, and open up to really new perspectives.

So, that attitude of humble listening, benevolent condescension, non-defensive discussion, was before all else an ascetic value. It was a difficult kind of dying to oneself and one's own pretensions to intellectual and self-sufficient superiority. That attitude showed itself a precious force of intellectual renewal and an indispensable means to confront adequately the duties of an educator and master.

Fr. Quadrio planned and built his priesthood in form and dynamics like a great bridge with three arches, spanning the universe. His priesthood is inspired by that of Christ, indeed, it is modeled by His from up close.

He loved to say that a priest is a pontifex²³, one who makes himself a bridge between men and God. He it is who makes connections, who demolishes mountains of hate, fills valleys with love, makes reconciliation and communion even when that seems impossible.

Incisive and imaginative is the presentation of the nature of the priest described by him to his friends when they met on the third anniversary of their ordination:

Priesthood and incarnation are two faces of a single mystery; the classical deformations that threaten our priesthood correspond to false notions of the Incarnation, well known from theology.

Indeed, there can be a disincarnated priesthood, in which divinity has not succeeded in assuming a true and complete humanity (Docetism). Today we have some priests who are not authentic men, but mere larvae of humanity. They are like Martians dropped out of the sky, strange, de-humanized, incapable of understanding or being understood by people of their own time and surroundings. They forget that Christ, to save men, “descended … was conceived … was made man.” and “wished to become like them in all things but sin.” If we are the bridge between men and God, the end of the bridge has to be solidly supported by the human shore, accessible to all for whom the bridge was constructed.

But maybe for us the opposite risk is worse: that of a worldly priesthood, in which the human has diluted and suffocated the divine (Monophysitism). We have now the tearful spectacle of priests who are maybe good professors and organizers, but no longer “men of God”. They are not true epiphanies of Christ. They are like certain churches turned into secular museums.

There is an infallible thermometer for measuring the consistency of one's own priesthood: prayer. It is the first and essential occupation of a priest, be he Director, Councilor, Prefect, or in charge of the Oratory. All the rest is important, but comes after prayer. Otherwise, we're a bridge where the last arch has collapsed: the one that reaches God.

Finally, there can be the deformation of priestly Nestorianism: a lacerated priesthood, in which the divine and the human coexist without harmony. Priests on the altar, but they act like lay folk in at the teacher's desk, in the courtyard, among men. They are like a bridge with the two ends in good shape, but with a fallen central arch that should have connected them.

A true and authentic priest is the one in whom the man is completely, always, and only a priest, even while remaining perfectly human, not excluding any field or sector. The man and the priest have to expand and mutually penetrate in a harmonic synthesis which imitates the union of God and man in Christ.

Even the most secular occupations must be animated by an acute, un-eclipsed priestly consciousness.

The priestly ministry for Fr. Quadrio is not simply functional or ritual, but real and connatural to the consecrated man. It sinks its roots in the mystery of Christ the God-Man, to the point of generating in itself, by divine grace, a sacramental, psychological and mystical conformation to Christ the Priest, so enabled to not only act in the person of Christ, but to live Christ. It fills up from Him the human dimensions and powers.

In a letter he wrote to me on April 2, 1961, he says, “One should be so taken by Him, as to be a living Sacrament of his Person, Truth, and Grace. And maybe also a visible Sacrament of His Passion and Death. And, above all, a tangible Sacrament of His Goodness.”²⁴

In that “one should”, I see his daily effort to come as close as possible to the full measure of Christ, eternal High Priest.

But what set Fr. Quadrio on that project of life, to chase year after year that unimaginable and unreachable goal, with only his human strengths and capacities? Who favored him and helped him to realize it, to reach it? How was he able to keep from sterilizing his heart, limiting his intelligence, or weakening his will, but to grow instead in humanity and to live the Beatitudes of the Gospel with such intensity, coherence, and constancy?

There could be several answers to this question.

I'll be content to offer only two (already indicated by Fr. Quadrio himself, in the letter quoted above): God and humanity, the two ends of the bridge. Fr. Quadrio was conquered by the Triune God, revealed in Jesus Christ, and by that humanity so loved by God, but so in need of grace and salvation.

In the discovery of the Holy Spirit during his first year of theology at the Gregorian in Rome, and in that resulting name change to “docile to the Holy Spirit”,²⁵ I think I glimpse a significant moment which irreversibly determined his road to holiness in priestly life, even though rough and steep in some periods, which I believe had no pauses except to check on the journey done and on the future direction. From that year 1944, he always sought with tenacity and joy, to become a “man of God for the salvation of men.”

The theological treatises²⁶, which made up the subject and substance of his teaching at the Pontifical Salesian Athenaeum, help us understand how God as Trinity, and man, were driving ideas for him; what a precious pearl they represented for his will, what a subject of love they were for his heart.

In the treatise on God as Creator²⁷ he helped us know and possibly meet God, creator of the universe and our Father.

I remember how he underlined God's “special care, solicitude, attention, admiration, sympathy and satisfaction in creating the first human couple.”

As with Jesus, the theme of God the Father was often also preached and witnessed by Fr. Quadrio. He was conscious and convinced that without God one can do nothing, just because He is the Father, is the source of life. He knew that without God any society, be it technically and culturally advanced, becomes corrupt and violent. It's on a one-way road to death.

God the Father was for Fr. Quadrio the value superior to all others. It includes a strong sense of His presence, and above all, His rapport and affection for each one of us. God is everywhere, in every moment, in every place, in every sector of our life. Fr. Quadrio believed in the omnipresence of God, in his transcendence and sovereignty and, at the same time, in His nearness and tenderness.

He believed God the Father, in God the Father, to God the Father. God was not empty or dead or a mere hypothesis for him, but a God living and true, Who penetrates us with His creative and providential action, invades us with His grace, is present and near to us, Who cares for every life as a fruit of His love.

His sweetness and infinite strength surround us. God the Father was the object of Fr. Quadrio's hope: “To die is to push the front door ajar and say, 'My Father, here I am!' [Death] is, truly, a jump into the dark, but with the security of falling into the arms of the heavenly Father.”²⁸

“Tell everybody God is good!” That is the last thing Fr. Quadrio wrote in his diary.²⁹

Only God is good. Every goodness we can encounter on Earth is but a pallid image of the immense goodness of God.

For this reason, God took the trouble to busy Himself in our lives so His Kingdom could come to fullness, His salvific Will come to completion, His presence be in all and everywhere.

“There can be no joy without God... our restlessness is the seal and signature that our hearts are made for Him. Nothing can please us; nothing can content us, outside of God. Every love against God or without God is a most bitter delusion, a bleeding wound on the heart.”³⁰

In Fr. Quadrio there was an immense passion, not for an idea, or for an activity, nor for things, but for Someone. For Someone met, recognized and called “Jesus Christ, my brother, our Lord.”

The love of Christ: this is the motivation, the wellspring, the secret of Fr. Quadrio's priestly life.

“Jesus Christ had faith in me, in spite of everything, and has called me to be his minister,” said St. Paul in his letter to Timothy.³¹ Fr. Quadrio had a clear consciousness of being called by God, through Jesus Christ, in the Spirit, to be a Salesian priest. The signs of this calling were for him the insistent, daily, vivid anxiety that tormented him for the Gospel and the Kingdom of Jesus.

Having known him from up close, I feel I can confirm that from theology on he relived in person, with intensity and fidelity, the expression of St. Paul: “For me, to live is Christ.”³²

He wrote in his diary for January 17, 1945: “From tomorrow on, I will live with Jesus for the unity of His Church; I will pray with His prayer; I will suffer with His suffering, burn with His desire, immolate myself with His immolation, cry with His tears, agonize with His anguish and agony: that all may be one.”³³

In the treatise on Confession³⁴ he has revealed Jesus Christ to us, the incarnate Son of God, to be Himself mercy and pardon. That course let shine for us how much he wanted to be a disciple of Christ, meek and humble of heart.

Who of his students does not remember his vibrant explanation and warm testimony of Jesus Christ meeting the Samaritan woman, with the paralytic, with Judas, with the sinful woman, with Peter, with the Good Thief crucified with him?³⁵

It is Christ the bridge between God and men, the one revealing the Father, the road that leads to Him, by which supernatural and divine life reaches us.

In school more than anywhere else, taught by him with love, seriousness, constancy even while ill with a fever of 102º, with sympathy for all his hearers, with no hypocrisy, that has convinced me how seriously he took the Gospel. In word and life he reminded us that Jesus lives, in our midst, as a human God, Who does not force but invites, does not impose but waits like a faithful friend who comforts and commiserates, like a most beloved older brother who bears our burdens, our offenses, all our evil.

What Fr. Quadrio confided to us, what he wanted to communicate, is what he himself strove to live. How much time he spent explaining to us the Word of God, to rouse up in us an enthusiastic faith in Jesus Christ! He was not preoccupied with himself, his fame or glory, or his health, but that we would learn to get ever closer, every day, to new life in Christ.

Rightly could he put himself forward to future priests as a guide, because he himself had already traveled a long road with the poor, chaste, obedient Jesus the Priest. He was no longer the novice at Villa Moglia, but a real “presbyter”³⁶ in the sense of the Gospel, in the heroic practice of the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience, and in the apostolate.

I recall us talking about the book Like Them by R. Voillaume,³⁷ on the religious life of the Little Brothers [of Jesus], that he gave me to read. He said at a certain point that he also wanted to write something like that; he would have titled it Like Him. Then he added, “But there's already a book like that. It's called the Gospel.”

I said earlier that Fr. Quadrio “was conquered by the Triune God,” so also by the Holy Spirit, of whom he became a docile disciple, clay no longer furnace hardened, but formable by the Spirit of Christ. “The Holy Spirit gave me a great grace at Pentecost. I believe that Pentecost will remain famous in my little life...”³⁸

In that year 1944, the fundamental idea that animated him was

corresponding to grace, more particularly, attention and fidelity to the Holy Spirit, principle and soul of all spiritual life... all the visits and prayers were to profess renunciation of the dictates of pride, of self-interest, of nature, to let myself be totally guided by His divine inspiration. On the practical side, this bound me to to an absolute fidelity to all the smallest duties, to avoid any infidelity to inspiration, to do all those acts of love and mortification suggested to me. Basically, to avoid any altercation of my nature with the Holy Spirit.³⁹

In these lines of his diary, Fr. Quadrio shows us not only when his life style started: of simplicity, of attention, of constant little gestures of love, of tolerance, of submission. There was no aggression or arrogance, but sweetness and humility which even we could see. Those lines show us the third forming and animating force in his priesthood, the Holy Spirit.

From the Holy Spirit he unveiled to us above all the gifts of faith, hope and charity, in the course on the theological virtues. During those explanations, while he talked about charity as the love of friendship between God and his children, “our hearts were burning in our breasts,” in the manner of the two disciples of Emmaus. And this was because his explanation was not just a fruit of study and research; it was above all an experience.

I think Fr. Quadrio expressed his great faith and charity in death, in the long years of living with it.

When in 1956 he was not well, and was cured of a stomach ulcer, he off-handedly told me it could have been quite different, but God always gives strength to his children to put up with anything, any cross for love.

Reading his diary after his death, I noticed that in the year dedicated to the Holy Spirit⁴⁰ he had already come to believe that in death for love we give glory to God in the highest degree, and we give faith, love and salvation to our brothers. He wrote:

I have a desire and need to love God, to die of love for Him. [I have an] immense desire to suffer, to be humiliated. I do no more than to offer myself to the crucified love of Jesus, that he might take me over and make me die of love and pain... I desire to suffer without anybody knowing it, and this is a miracle of God. I abandon myself totally to Him.⁴¹

On May 27, 1960, when he had stopped teaching because his illness grew worse, he wrote to me:

God has been very good to me. Help me thank Him. Obtain for me the grace to die in love, for the love of Christ, for the glory of the Father, for souls, for the Church.⁴²

The theme of this talk surely requires a reflection on Fr. Quadrio as a shepherd.

The term could seem little suited to Fr. Quadrio; he was never pastor of a parish, Director of a community, or bishop. But as a boy he herded sheep in the pastures of his beautiful home village of Valtellina.

Maybe “friend” sounds better for Fr. Quadrio. In the Gospel, especially in John, that is synonymous with “shepherd”. He uses that word to call, greet or invite a person, to ask something of him, to console or pardon him... to make the person feel like an equal, esteemed, with things to share.⁴³

I asked Andrew Mellano, a former oratory boy at the Crocetta who weekly went to confession to Fr. Quadrio, what memories he might have of him. He answered:

He was a priest of great humanity, truly out of the ordinary. He showed himself a friend as soon as he met you, not just a superior or guide as he was. His great openness of mind and heart favored a frank and peaceful dialog; he put you at ease right away. You could open up to him with the greatest confidence, without the least hesitation or difficulty... With him, you could be free and sincere, because his friendship was true, not formal or clerical.

This testimony takes us to the second strong motivation by which Fr. Quadrio wanted to become a priest: to be a friend of the people, the boys, youth, the poor, the sick, of priests and sinners... a friend to all.

Even though living in closed-in quarters, he lived in the world, for all people in the world, favored by meeting daily with Salesians from the five continents.

Fr. Quadrio loved the people he met; he liked to be with others, mix with them, lose himself like leaven or salt in a mass of dough, be in the midst of God's people and not on a throne.

“Taken from among men... the priest is sent for men.”⁴⁴ The priest is separated from his brothers, but to be at their service. He is the man of God to become the man for all the human community. These two aspects were simultaneous in Fr. Quadrio. He did not feel himself to be a priest for himself, but for the redemption of the world.

The saying on his ordination card makes that dimension of his priesthood evident:

Pray, brothers and sisters:

O Eternal High Priest,

who has constituted your humble servant

a Vicar of Your Love,

give him a priestly heart

like Yours: forgetful of self,

abandoned to the Holy Spirit,

big enough for self-giving and compassion,

passionate for souls by Your Love.

More than a souvenir of his first Mass, this seems to me to be a memorial; in fact, it does not invite to return to the past, but expresses a becoming, a continual re-making of self by the divine activating power. As with the Eucharist, so the priesthood of Christ becomes represented in the priesthood of Fr. Quadrio, which makes it present.

In these few lines is his faithful certitude of having received from Christ a precise mission: to love as God loves, with His intensity, breadth and depth. That is why he invites all his brothers and sisters to obtain for him an infinite capacity to love, to suffer with them, to give of himself in simplicity and joy.

Fr. Quadrio continued to ask, every day, for a heart like that of Christ, invoking the help of the Mother of God with that prayer of Léonce de Grandmaison we all know.⁴⁵

Now we ask ourselves: how did Fr. Quadrio live out this intense pastoral friendship?

Man is word. He is capacity to communicate. He is experience of communion. A letter is always a recording of a fragment of interior life. Letters are so many mosaic pieces to reconstruct a face, starting from expressions of moments of interior life, true fragments of intimacy. It is not for nothing that collections of letters, not so much those already predestined for publication, but those recovered from an unplanned collection of testimonies, have been considered mirrors of the heart from antiquity. They are in reality road maps of the spirit. From the collection of his letters, then, results not a “Fr. Quadrio minor” with respect to the version known from his profound lectures, conferences, academic works, but instead an “intimate Fr. Quadrio”, that is, more true, because the truth presents diversified levels of inner life.⁵⁵

His letters are sober in content, and not frequent in time. Quite a few times he excuses himself for not writing. There are two reasons. First of all, the structure of his temperament made him aim for the essential, thanks to his clarity of mind and the summarizing capacity of his heart. Plus, his activities of study and research, of teaching and organization, of ministry and prayer, did not leave him a lot of time. Often – notoriously – he worked through the night due to time pressure during the day.

His collected letters include letters from Joey the fervent novice, from Quadrio the seminarian dedicated to his formation, from Fr. Quadrio the priest, professor, department chairman, sick person and fully aware candidate for death. They are about historical and existential contexts so different, yet so coagulated around a growing, unified reality, which joins fidelity and dynamism.

Thus he auto-constructs as a man and believer. The crystallographic law is realized, which declares that whatever the outward surface, crystals of the same substance always have the same internal axes.

On the anthropological plane, the axis is bipolar as William of Saint-Thierry proposes: the love of truth and the truth of love. The first is intellectual ability; the second is is that of will and heart.

In reality, the deep movers of every one of his letters are always two: heart and intellect. There's not one that is cold or empty. Warmth and light are the two characteristics of this collection. None lacks surges. Not one ephemeral. Although starting from episodes, diary events, from everyday happenings, they are never banal or lacking a message even for others besides those to whom they are sent. They bear a profound sense of involvement. Little things can add up to a lot;⁵⁶ it can happen that, as when reading Scripture, reading these “love letters of God to every man”, you feel questioned. You feel truly touched inside. These are not, then, just transient messages.

There is a breath of truth and love. Perhaps because it's the truth that is breathing here. And truth is not a theory. In an historical epoch of truth imprisoned by systems and ideologies, of truths “isolated and crazed”, of truths “possessed and manipulated”, there is the longing for truth in the flesh. The place of truth is not on paper, but in human flesh.

And today, the testimony documents are particularly researched, perhaps for the nostalgia of clear skies, as a reaction to the multiple pollution of messages. A collection of letters is a serendipitous recording of this truth, which is incarnated in what Lévinas⁵⁷ calls “the little kindness”. That is, kindness shines out, that which is woven into the folds of the everyday.

You can't fake magnanimity in the everyday. There are no little things. There is only a small way to do things. It is over this “footbridge”, to use a term dear to our Fr. Quadrio, that grand messages pass in credible form.

Since kindness breathes over the everyday, it becomes a conductor of truth. So declared Giuseppe Prezzolini, a non-believer, to Paul VI, who asked advice from his friend on “entering dialogue with those far off”, or as he also said, “to render the Church believable to contemporaries.” “Only one way, Holiness,” replied Prezzolini. “Men of the Church should be above all good and strive for one goal only: make men good. Nothing attracts like kindness because of nothing else are we non-believers more deprived. The world is full of intelligent people. What we need is good people. Forming them is the job of the Church: to re-attract men to the Gospel; all else is secondary.”

Now, Fr. Quadrio in his letters is presented as a man expert in kindness, and so, efficacious in transmitting intelligent messages. He is a man available, ready for service, responsive, continually anxious to form men modeled on the humanity of Christ. “Be brave,” he wrote to a friend. “One cannot be too good, when He has been so good to us. Men, by definition, are the beings who must be understood and pitied at our expense.” (Letter 116, Oct. 14, 1958)

The collected letters reveal in themselves the kindness of this man, which, while being so sober and attentive, wrote several times to a friend about sadness over the illness, agony and death of his mother, with tender accents. This kindness overflowed from his temperament, was nourished by the Gospel, and was communicated in a friendly style. This was for him a need of the heart and a life assignment, a way of being, and at the same time, an art. The counsels he gave are significant, which he gave in answer to a youth on the way to converse with persons even of different sides. It is the true art of conquering hearts: “Make friends with the one you are talking to. Try to understand him. Agree with him when you can. Do not wound his susceptibilities. Don't rush. Take the tiller of the conversation. Be ready to respond to his difficulties. Show him the positive values of Christianity. Be profoundly convinced. Don't forget the essential thing, which is to pray every day for the one you're talking to.” (Answer in Meridiano 12, January 1962)

The kindness of the priest was lived by him, in the preferential option, and in absolute gratuity, before being declared in his facial expression. Writing to us who were in the last year of theology, he expressed himself thus:

Be the priests of the unhappy, the poor, the lonely. Be kind, understanding, lovable, accepting, at the disposition of all, easily approachable. Measure out neither your time nor your energies. Give without counting the cost, easily, with simplicity. Try to put yourselves in the shoes of all you deal with: you need to understand before you can help. Do not set your person above any other's, or at the center of the question. Be noble and above all that regards your personal prestige. Have no other ambition than to serve, no other aim than to be useful. (Letter 168, 11-12 December, 1960)

We all realized that this letter was first chiseled in his own flesh.

So many letters – right from his early childhood – give witness to the delicate state of his health, which he tended to minimize when he could not hide it. His goodness shone forth most luminously in his writings, while he was emerging from physical and moral tribulations.

In this frame of reference, he could have turned out as a dry and austere preceptor. Instead, he appeared full of grace and humor. His serene character, his ability to absorb the joyful spirit of Don Bosco, shown outwardly in a vivacious – and at times mischievous – spirit. And this is the Fr. Quadrio we knew in the familiarity of the course. To one recipient who asked who was department chairman at a lyceum, he answered: “I don't know who the Professor might be, but one such as you want, I think, hasn't been born yet.” (Letter 121, July 15 1959) To the same correspondent, who probably asked him how to deal with certain confreres, he appealed to the Salesian spirit to criticize certain activities held fashionable. He wryly responds: “A good Salesian goes to bed early; a good Salesian loves Salesian activities and not the novelties of the day like bonfires and community Masses; a good Salesian observes the circular letters of the Superiors, which say that theology students should take a vacation...” (Letter 124, Aug. 31 1959). To another who struggled and fretted over the problems of others, in the middle of a serious letter he wrote, “Sleep, forget it, smile, don't make a big deal about it. Getting mad just makes you ugly, and profits nothing” (Letter 133, Nov. 2 1960). To a Sister, who had lovingly cared for him at the hospital, he indicates things prohibited: “First: crying. Second: thinking about Martini [the hospital]. Third: tasting melancholy. Fourth: not eating enough. Fifth: staying up late” (Letter 146, June 28 1960).

We even find a masterpiece of adaptation to the writing style of a little boy, in reference to that same Sister. It's a letter jokingly written to the Child Jesus, with the typical big letters and many mistakes of a cheeky kid:

Deer Baby Jesus I writing this letter to ask a big faver. At the Martini theres a Sista reel good Sista Mary Ignashes. She's the one always runing around and cooks ever day. You know her? She's good, you knwo. Deer Baby Jesus I am so poor an I dont know what to give Sista Mary Igantius. Can you give her something in my place? Put it under the pillow, so Mother Sperior don't see, else she'll grab it. Watch out don't let Sista Mary Lawra see you she's big friend Mother Sperior those two share everthing so if she sees you it's the same thing. Now bring Sister Mary Ignayshs these gifs (1) A little bag of payshuns for when the Sperior wacks her (2) a pair of little wings so she can fly when she's tired of runing (3) A pack of hapynes for the days when she is in a bad mood” (Letter 204, Christmas 1961).

Here we note humor expressed in a moment of great suffering for the recipient. It is a way full of affection and confidence, to render some difficult situations effectively less dramatic. And it is still another sign, more than of intelligence and refinement, of Easter faith and good news. He knew how to do that from even from the hospital, even with people far away to whom he wrote letters overflowing with grace and esteem. So many are estranged from the Lord, perhaps because we have presented to them a Christianity that is cold, unpleasant and unhelpful.

After grace, the most effective initiative to recover so many estranged brothers is our testimony of joy and goodness. What's needed is to announce the Gospel of grace with true grace. We need to present a Christianity of serenity, which makes one exclaim to those brothers: “Look how happy he is who believes and trusts in God!”, one that calls forth serious belief in God-Abba and loyal love for them. We need a Christianity of generous goodness, which would say to others, with deeds, “Do me the honor of letting me serve you.”

It is this experience of love which creates the conditions for reaching out by the interlocutor, and for the development of his hidden resources. “What does it mean to love, if not to count on possibilities still latent of the other person, even the possibility of God in him?”, declares Jürgen Moltmann (Man, Queriniana, Brescia 1973, p. 193).

The collected letters reveal that the grace of announcing something is obviously joined to the sincere humility of the writer, which renders it true, accessible, desired. Writing to the Superior General, Fr. Ricaldone, who had asked about the news that Pope Pius XII was interested in the exposition Fr. Quadrio had given at the Gregorian University, he expresses himself: “The Pope's paternal solicitude has left me truly moved and humbled... Perhaps, never so justly as this time, St. Paul has rightly said that the Lord chooses clumsy instruments” (Letter 41, Dec. 29, 1946).

And to another superior, Fr. Ziggiotti, who certainly did not spare praise over the honor that the young priest had given to the Congregation, and who had invited him to take on important responsibilities, Fr. Quadrio wrote: “Permit me ... to express to you, and through you to the Superiors, my renewed wish to be completely at their disposition, for whatever they believe to be the best. I cannot refrain, however, from adding with equal simplicity and sincerity the prayer that my inexperience and modest capacities will be taken into account, such as are more modest than are generally believed” (Letter 57, June 26 1949).

This humility shows all through the collected letters not as a servile and unctuous talent, but instead sincere and filially tender. To Fr. Berruti, Prefect General of the Congregation, he opens his heart thus: “I tell you something I've never told anyone in my life: I love you very much, and I am ready to do anything for you today or tomorrow” (Letter 31, 7 Nov. 1945).

The tenderness that he kept treasured deep within him, also showed in dealing with his parents, a constant point of effort in his family letters. He wrote from Rome during the wartime bombings, in the period when Italy was split along the Gothic Line: “I'll come as soon as I can, but I don't know the hour when I will be in the arms of Mom, Dad and my brothers. I love you always more and more, and feel myself closer to you every day. Now I must close, but how many things I still have to tell you! Will the day come soon when we can recount them around our sweet fireplace? A kiss to all with all my heart. Joey” (Letter 22, May 28 1944).

The numerous letters written to his novice-master, Fr. Magni, are an expression of filial rapport, which he maintained until death. It is interesting to note, as he says, that advancing in age and experience, even confronting the highest goals, he kept intact inside him that affective bond with the one who had guided him in his first vocational steps with joy and serenity.

If we want to indicate the type of all-encompassing atmosphere that pervades every element of the collected letters, we would have to say it resolves to faith, cultivated in terms of concreteness. All his letters are contained within the light cone of the radicality of faith. Here there is a significant step in the letter in which he invites the recipient to make a grand, profound, definitive act of faith before Jesus: “To believe with an act of faith which invests all the soul's energies, that You have put me and wanted me here where I am, that the concrete situation I'm in, is a grand act of Your love for me, that my life this year, my activities, my successes and failures, are in Your hands, under the wings of Your Providence moment by moment: 'in manibus tuis tempora mea'; 'in manibus tuis sortes meae'; to hope, with an act of confidence which lifts the whole spirit, that You will never leave me, You will be my light, strength and consolation; that whatever happens, You will have it turn out for the better. To love with a most intense act of charity, which would transform this whole year, all activity, the anxiety, into love: I am here at God's service, to be a priest, to become a saint. To accept and love my own situation as a gift of divine love for me” (Letter 93, Sept. 29 1956).

It is this energetic rapport of total consignment to the hands of God that pushed him to complete the supreme sacrifice for his noble heart launched towards the priesthood. On the vigil of his ordination, the dream of his whole being, he wrote to his Director: “On the occasion of the Day of Priesthood and Vocations, considering my lack of preparation for the already imminent priestly ordination, I hold it a due act of honesty to offer to Jesus the Priest, through the hands of Mary Most Holy, my poor life for the vocations that God raises and nurtures among the youth who frequent our house, in view of avoiding the ordination of someone not worthy, and to implore this formidable honor for others more worthy than me” (Letter 36, May 1 1946).

This fuel, transformed into zeal for the salvation of men, pushed him to write during the time of the ultimate test: “I seek to preach the Gospel to those I meet: in my room, in the hospital, on the train... I have discovered – finally – that this is a form of evangelization always possible to anyone, anywhere. It seems that all, under the crust of normal interests, have a thirst for Him and are waiting for someone who can make them see it. 'Volumus Iesum videre'⁵⁸” (Letter 188, 2 April 1961).

This, that Teilhard would have called vis a tergo⁵⁹, gave him a thrust up and away, and that was translated into an attitude of openness in an era of poorly hidden suspicion to an attitude of hope in the upwelling spring of power, alpha and omega of the human event. “I think that, slowly and wisely, yet courageously, we need to move and get near the Fonts and Principles, humbly asking that God render us 'capaces sanctae novitatis'⁶⁰. The enormous difficulties and dangers should not bog us down, but prudently bold. Where there's a true and deep occasion, the idea will make its own way” (Letter 102, May 25 1957).

Faith, once become passion for the service of men and projected ahead, is transformed into love of zeal and ardor of hope beyond any expectation. Writing to me in the last period of his life, he said: “You will often seem to sow in the night, seeing nothing sprout. Have faith: others will harvest. 'Debet enim in spe qui arat arare'”⁶¹ (Letter 231, Nov. 2 1962).

This is the eye that sees the seed in the ground and foresees the ear full grown. Writing some months before the end, he affirms: “It is possible that this be a good turn, and that the good God will not send me back again to prepare better. In reality, I live with eyes turned up there, waiting for the door to open so I can sneak in” (Letter 246, March 5 1963).

We can say that Fr. Quadrio, especially in the collected letters, shows himself an expert in the “time of the meanwhile”. And this expertise of the spirit is nothing else but the ability to cultivate hope beyond appearances of decline and travail of ascent.

Again, there emerges from the collected letters the figure of a man who knew how to synthesize. The wise man is he who has, before all else, the capacity of unification. The sophos, according to the Alexandrian Jewish philosopher Philo, is a meth-orios, that is, a man placed between two boundaries, on the ridge line between two slopes, to unite – Philo indeed says, sum-ballein⁶² – diverse aspects of reality, and habitually avoiding the operation of dia-ballein⁶³ or separation of the aspects. Only this way, as the Orphics underline, can the sophos become poly-sporos, that is, a man of many seeds and shoots. The truly wise man, thanks to his capacity of theoretical and practical synthesis, is prolific and fruitful.

The formula of synthesis, so dear to Fr. Quadrio in daily conversation, is “heart in heaven and feet on the ground.” Heart in heaven, which adores: prayer, exercise of trust and tenderness in the Father, familiarity with the living Christ, permanent communion with the Holy Spirit: a piety profoundly Trinitarian, like that of our Fr. Quadrio. Feet on the ground, which move in the service of love: attention to all, especially to the most needy – a preventive system of intervention, perseverance in effort, and warmth of style. Just like Mary at Ain-Karim: heart in heaven, which adores: the bursting out of the Magnificat. Feet on the ground, which serve: the visit to Elizabeth, completely at her disposition.

On the anthropological plane, he joined the love of truth with the truth of love. This way, he indicated to all who corresponded with him, and through them to those who knew him, the two journeys so urgent today: that from the head to the heart and the other from the interior to the concrete. The first avoids intellectualism and rationalizing exercises, which only know how to quantify and standardize. The second overcomes superficiality and pragmatism.

All the messages in his letters have the interior as point of departure, that is, his deep inner life, rich in experience of the divine and the human. So, they move in the internal concrete to reach the historical concrete.

Strong in his self-giving into the hands of the Power of Love, he could pray with Hammarskjöld, his ideal friend and contemporary: “Before You, in humility. With You, in faithfulness. Immersed in You, in serenity.” Being present, characterized like that, belongs to what the Letter to Diognetus calls the soul of the world⁶⁴. The soul does not make a fuss, but expresses itself in intellectual operations, willing and loving. Noise does no good and good makes no noise. It is silent. It is like the light, which floods the universe and makes it significant with its tones and colors, indispensable expressions of life.

With this type of presence, rich in life and life-giving, Fr. Quadrio has run the way of unexpected Easter, as for every man. That is not a straight freeway, but a steep path. But it gets there. And it's all in the climbing. Fr. Quadrio – homo viator⁶⁵ – has effectively taught through his letters, because he himself has become a letter. Paul, writing the second letter to the Christians of Corinth, affirms: “You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts” (2 Cor 3:2-4). We can truly say, paraphrasing the expression and putting it in the mouth of Don Bosco, that Fr. Quadrio was a letter of Christ, which he wrote on his knees before the living God, invoking His Holy Spirit and presenting it to His brothers, that they be encouraged to go forward according to His project.

There is a letter (# 143) that could be called a message-synthesis of his whole life. In it, Fr. Quadrio tells his sister about the first operations, after the news that brought trepidation and dismay to his relatives and friends (June 7 1960). Here one discovers an admirable symbiosis of spicy humanity and theological faith that cannot be simply juxtaposed, but integrated with each other. Let us analyze its elements.

The salutation and the beginning certainly breathe humanity: “My dear sister – he writes – you are anxious about me. Really, there's no reason for that.” Right away, he strives to insert the theme of faith integrated into life: “Everything God prepares and disposes for us is a gesture of infinite love. What bad can happen to us, if God the Father loves us, and keeps us as the pupil of His eye? Could you possibly wish me ill? Could the Lord do that, who loves me so much more than you do? Faith, then, joy and gratitude to the good God, always! Let us thank Him for everything, for everything is grace!”

Then he moves on to the daily suffering of the human condition, with a dose of delicacy, esteem and affection: “I'm still at Astanteria Martini (74 Via Cigna). But I'll get back to the Crocetta as soon as possible. I'm doing fine here. I'm getting the best and most delicate treatment in every respect. I have never been treated so well: and I don't think it could ever be better. All credit to Sister Mary Ignazia, who is truly the Angel of Astanteria Martini. She has prepared a most beautiful gift for Marina [Fr. Quadrio's niece] on her feast day, that she will send as soon as possible. On condition: that our little princess be always good and pray well.”

At this point a note of realism follows, which reveals his consciousness of the gravity of his illness. Even so, he tries to soften it in the act of communication, insisting instead on the expertise of the hospital staff and the lack of pain: “The doctors did a lot of tests on me. The result is better than they had foreseen. There is disease, but not so serious. It is absolutely painless, and won't impede – the doctors say – resuming my work. It is lymphogranuloma, which they are already curing with good success. Just think: I can stand and say Mass! The doctors tell me that, after the cure, I can even travel. And now I hope to come and visit you. So don't bother coming here.”

Again, an inclusion of the message of responsible and vigilant faith into the wavelength of very human expression: “In reality we all, healthy or sick, should be ready to appear before our good Redeemer. And now I should be more than ever prepared.”

In the same key there follows now a profession of confidence, full of tenderness, in the presence of the Father, and of promptitude to say to Him: “Here I am.” “I assure you, with the grace of the Lord, that I am serene, content, calm and happy, as I have never been before in my life. I feel the hand of the Father on my shoulder, and I am perfectly at peace. When he tells me, “Come,” I'll answer, “Here I am.”

This is the touch that characterizes Fr. Giuseppe's whole life. It is the exclamation of Samuel: “Here I am.”⁶⁶

I remember when he, still a deacon, gave to the community a liturgical reflection on the great “Here I ams” of the Old and New Testament. After that talk, Fr. Quadrio called me over and encouraged me and declared that “Here I am” was the axis of reference of our life as consecrated believers. In reality, he presented himself as a lucid, self-sacrificing and joyful incarnation of that attitude.

“Here I am” is his calling card. Because of this he has become a “letter of God to humanity”. This is how he becomes convincing through his letters now to us men. “Here I am” measures his growth in grace before God and men (see Luke 2:52).

The attitude of radical availability is measured with the poverty and weakness of the “flesh”. Even so, he feels the necessity to ask for prayers, as a motive of strength: “I'm counting on your prayers a lot, dear sister of mine. I need them. So many people pray for me, and that comforts me.”

The message-synthesis concludes on the wavelength of his humanity in the expression of lively solicitude in dealing with his parents, subject now to the risk of preoccupation and anxiety: “If you believe it opportune, say something to Mom and Dad, because rumors are going around. Explain to them what's going on, so they don't suffer. Tell them I'm very happy, cared for in the best way, and that there's nothing to worry about. They don't let me lack for anything here.” In a P. S.: “I just now got Mom's letter; she's a bit worried. Please, see if you can calm her down. Thanks!”

And so Fr. Quadrio is a living letter. The letter is an expression of the word. Fr. Quadrio is an expression of the Eternal Word. Yes, every man is an absolutely unique Word of God incarnate – verbum Verbi⁶⁷ – that has never been duplicated nor will ever be repeated, destined then, with the Resurrection, to be a word ever speaking.

In our “time of the meanwhile,” these words, in the measure in which they preserve the original divine breath, act like Jacob's ladder. Jacob left Beersheba for Haran. The sun had set. He used a stone as a pillow and fell asleep. “He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.” (Gen 28:12)

Look, Fr. Quadrio was and will remain a ladder between heaven and earth for all of us who knew him, through his messages and letters. This ladder lets angels of God to go up and down, and allows God to come down to men. Fr. Quadrio remains a ladder, so that these earth-heaven goings and comings can function.

Fr. Quadrio was nourished by the Word – often in his letters occurs the recommendation to feed daily upon it – and so he become ever more a similar word. By creation we are verbum Verbi; with baptismal consecration we are in Verbo viventes.⁶⁸ Being conformed to Christ, we become workers secundum Verbum.⁶⁹ Now, at this point the nourishment of the Word strikes deep, which makes us become a Fifth Gospel, a Christic history which has the stamp of a single man, called to be a living letter, branded by the Spirit.

The letters of this “Servant of God” and servant of men involve us, so that, like a ray from the most perfect letter of the Father – which is Christ – can reach us. He is “the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being” (Heb 1:3), a reflection of the Gospel of salvation. They are a herald of joy and liberty, all the more convincing as they are more coherent to the experience of the diseased flesh of Fr. Giuseppe.

This was possible, thanks to his being made a word from God, that has become flesh in an experience.

Flesh is his profound interiority.

Flesh is his constant prayer.

Flesh is his ecclesial passion.

Flesh is his professional activity.

Flesh is his faithful friendship.

Flesh is his sacrificial offering.

His troubled flesh, while he was writing the letters, has given us the flavor of the Beatitudes. “O Cross, bitter wood, bloody price of the Beatitudes,” as Raissa Maritain would often exclaim. And the Beatitudes are refractions of the fundamental Beatitude, which is Easter.

Reading the letters of Fr. Quadrio, one experiences in his heart the flavor of Easter, of that event which makes St. Athanasius exclaim: “The Risen Christ makes our life a continuous feast.”

In his letters, Fr. Quadrio is truly thus, a window through which we can already glimpse a new world. A window, through which the air of spring comes in, rich with the oxygen of hope.⁷⁰

By his humanity and transparency, by his constant and joyful gift of self, Fr. Quadrio was considered a saint even before his death. The sensible harmony of intelligence and grace gave to his teaching a character at once profound and simple, which only the great incarnations of God succeed in possessing. One of his students, only occasionally at the Crocetta because he was not a Salesian, was the Conventual Franciscan Filippo Pittaluga. He testified that “you could smell his holiness from miles away.”⁷²

By common testimony, he was always among the seminarians. Thus he continually and vitally transmitted, by word, gesture, contact, and smile, what he had been teaching in the lectures. He had learned the interior gentleness of the Master, letting himself be molded by the Spirit; for this, he was re-christened “Teachable”⁷³. He understood that, to teach the truth (or, better, the Truth), one had to make himself a disciple above all else. “Fr. Quadrio was a sacrament of Jesus... he incarnated in himself the words of the Gospel: “Learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find peace for your souls.”⁷⁴ He radiated peace all around, because he was meek and humble. I think he was already living the life of the Resurrection, the victory over death, because he was humble, profoundly humble. That is the indispensable sign of holiness.”⁷⁵

This teaching of the Lord has been made flesh and blood in him. His very presence, in every case, was enough to reveal it: “Yes, I have always been impressed by Fr. Quadrio's great humility, much more than his profound and proven doctrine. And this is the most beautiful lesson, and the most useful for me, that I have learned from him, one I want to keep forever.”⁷⁶ So, it's not learning that pops out of the books, but the wisdom of the Cross, which renders one able to empty oneself, and thus seems to be foolishness in the eyes of the world.

It was his sickness and death that showed, above all, the never broken coherence between teaching and life in Fr. Quadrio. Fr. Peter Broccardo writes, “I have heard that his reputation for sanctity was spread all through the staff of the Astanteria Martini (Turin), where he bore unspeakable sufferings with heroic strength, admired and esteemed by all... [Among those] taking part in the funeral, the rumor 'he was a saint' was not just the usual conventional expression. It was a conviction among Salesians and others that were close to him. It was above all a conviction among the students who were closest to him.”⁷⁷

Fr. Quadrio himself describes, in a letter to Fr. Antonio Martinelli, his own program for evangelization during his forced period of inactivity from teaching. “In these months, due to the almost complete impossibility of doing anything else, I have (finally!) discovered how necessary it is the preach the Gospel one on one, in personal encounters, soul to soul, by means of approach, comprehension, solidarity, friendship. In hospitals, on trains, on the street, everywhere people wait for someone to show them Jesus.”⁷⁸

Professor Giancarlo Milanesi commented: “Now we also know what faith and theological hope he lived in his illness right up to the end. I believe that his priesthood was nourished from the wisdom that the Lord gives to whomever he wants to love, more than profound theological conceptions – which he no doubt had.”⁷⁹

His forced suspension from teaching theology guided him with greater dedication to the school of daily life, no less profound and current. He became a long-distance correspondent of Meridiano 12, for readers who turned to the magazine for advice on certain doubts. Some of them expressly asked that Fr. Quadrio answer.⁸⁰ The pages coming from his lucid intelligence and his heart sensitive even to the point of tenderness, “were calibrated, simple, profound, of a clarity that implied a long meditation. He was a specialist in the most complex problems of theology. But wherever he brought his thinking to bear, there was light.”⁸¹

A first synthesis of the value of the teaching given by Fr. Quadrio was traced out by Fr. Giuseppe Melilli on the very day of the funeral:

I speak in the name of all who had the good fortune to have you as teacher, and of the seminarians here present. Some of them loved and admired you on your bed of pain, even though they had not known you. I come to say the last good-bye, to give the last 'Thank you'...

Many owe to you a big part of their priesthood. On your way of interpreting the priesthood of Christ, many [of us] have tried to model ours. Following you, we tried to imitate the goodness and humanity⁸² of Our Lord; so many of us have learned to love the Mass. How many reflections of your priesthood are now scattered all over the world! …

We have seen in you an attractive embodiment of the priesthood of Christ on the throne and at the lectern. But, allow me to remember, how many treasures of your priesthood you scattered around so spontaneously, in hallways and in our courtyard... You said recently: "How different will my death be from that of the saints." No, Fr. Quadrio! We don't know how aware of your suffering you were in the last days, but we know how ardently for three years you recited your "suscipiat." Your life, your suffering assure us of the death of a saint.⁸³

The mortuary letter, penned by Don Eugenio Valentini and still vibrant with emotion for the great loss, already puts together, even that soon, some fundamental traits of the personality of Fr. Quadrio professor (Dean), master of life and martyrdom. In particular, the synthesis he made between teaching of doctrine and interiorly following the Master, stands out. "Young, but mature in judgment, he had immediate ascendancy in front of the students, who admired his clarity, his depth and the goodness communicated by his character. Balanced and open to all that is true in the new currents of theological studies, he was admired in precisely this rare balance between tradition and up-to-date outlook on the problems of the time ... You could say, without hesitation, that he was considered the best professor in the Theology Department. Yet nothing in him was vanity, self-sufficiency, but only kindness, condescension, understanding, humility ...

In the time of his sickness, the Lord put him in position to carry out a new and fruitful apostolate in the hospital. Whenever he could, he forgot himself and his pain and ran to the aid of those who needed him. How many absolutions, many conversations and how many conversions! ... I thought more than once, that if the Lord had sent this illness only to enable him to carry out this apostolate of good, it would be sufficient reason for all the suffering he endured."⁸⁴

He was, then, the "professor" of Theology in the etymological sense of the term, that is, one who "professed", who joyfully and totally lived as a commitment his teaching at the cost of life, with a dedication that he breathed out with no second thoughts. His own death contributed to first spreading the knowledge of Fr. Quadrio, in Valtellina. After his death, some provincial and diocesan newspaper articles came out.⁸⁵

In Corriere della Valtellina, on November 30, 1963, there was a funeral notice, briefly outlining a profile of the deceased. "After priestly ordination, he was immediately called to Turin, where he began his shining apostolate as Master of young generations of seminarians. His most effective preaching lasted three years and his lectern was the hospital bed that saw the heroism of his virtues."⁸⁶

The profile (unsigned) "In memoriam," published in Salesianum, could not ignore the same consistency in personified by Father Quadrio between teaching and life, between the verbum dispensed and its embodiment. “And all this, while he taught by casual word and lectures, he joined to it a natural life example. Everybody agrees on this; his example was right before our eyes and in our hearts. Whether it was by a gentle remark or a tactful silence, that example was engraved into us. I don't know what was more admirable: his remarkable intelligence with secure and moderate judgment, with pure and clear depth, with harmonious eloquence in declaration; or was it the gentle way he he guided us to the high and perfect virtues of the heart? He was truly outstanding in humility, not less in gentlest sweetness of fraternal charity.⁸⁷

It is remarkable how many letters spontaneously came to Don Eugenio Valentini around this time, to express from all over the world the warmest condolences for the loss of the beloved "master".

The priests ordained in 1960, the last who were lucky enough to have Fr. Quadrio during the entire period of their formation (as a professor and as Chairman),⁸⁸ devoted the February 11 1964 issue of their Bolletino di collegamento to him, and to Fr. Gallizia who had passed away just before. Both professors were described as “unforgettable blacksmiths” of their priesthood.⁸⁹

They are not few, those students who point out in the Master that deep assimilation deep from which sprang the solid doctrine had been explaining. Fr. Raimondo Frattallone already wrote then: "For me, Fr. Quadrio was and is the Priesthood, that is, an idea personified. He made priesthood a gesture, a smile, a fraternal meeting: a Priesthood of Light: Fr. Quadrio the teacher (“contemplata aliis tradere”); Priesthood of Love: Fr. Quadrio had a special way of telling you, “Good morning!” In his modesty he never said no. Priest-Victim: and this seemed to me when he celebrated Mass."⁹⁰

Fr. Gonzalo Garcia added:

I feel my priesthood turned upside down ... from his priesthood .., in every sense, but especially spiritual... Now that I've started my priestly ministry, I better understand the authentically evangelical scope of how he lived his priesthood ... reaching out to all, and with the heart of God... I always did feel the coherence of his priesthood – certainly, made with much Love – in living happily crucified. “The Priest - he once told me – has to live in a state of victimhood.” Didn't he live like that? ⁹¹

He used to say: “On Mount Calvary, you don't do the tourist thing.”⁹² “You won't find the Lord except in Gethsemane... not only the Lord of Holiness, but also the Lord of Apostolate and the Lord of Theology.”⁹³

The testimony of Fr. Luigi Melesi dwells at some length to analyze this aspect of Fr. Quadrio's personality. “Fr. Quadrio was an 'Epiphany of the Lord, Epiphany of the goodness and wisdom and humility and sacrifice' of Christ. Really, he wasn't a professor but a Master, not a superior but a pastor. He was incarnated. He was and felt fully human, a man among men. A man simple, true, free, optimistic, evangelical...

You didn't feel like a 'heretic' arguing with him. He lived his familiar expression: “We don't have enemies to defeat, but brothers to win over.” They came to him blind, and left believers.

At school, he was teacher and witness. He made you love the truth. He presented it living, personal, new... school suffers through the truth, but it had to pass all through his heart. He shoveled the living Christ into our souls. He taught us the the truth which enlightens and converts, without suffocating it in a sea of erudition or high-flying somersaults of logic or purely technical points. At the end of class, you felt not only that you understood, but that you believed more. I made my meditation in Fr. Quadrio's classes, more than in chapel in the morning. I just felt the Lord and stuck to Him. I was convinced that the Lord's truths are not just pronounced, but witnessed. And he evangelized us, because he had the living Gospel in him... In class and in life he was a witness, without making propaganda, without laying blame, without getting agitated. His was an affirming witness, and it showed the “reality” beyond reason. He was a “sign”...

He wanted us to be priests, not professors. Priests. Totally concentrated in Christ. He instilled into us that “sense of Christ” present in his way of doing things. “You will only be yourselves by living Christ. Then, you will be not be a vestment on emptiness or a mask on nothing.”

He loved the Gospel as he loved Christ, and he lived it all. He wasn't just an index of the Gospel, but the whole thing. He used to say that theology has to be study, comprehension, conpenetration, contemplation, assimilation of the Lord's Gospel. For Fr. Quadrio, the Gospel was Christ, the Gospel was human beings; the Gospel was all things. He was a testimony of all that.⁹⁴

Fr. Quadrio was able to use the school and common life as a proclamation of the Gospel. “All his life, all his teaching, those unforgettable conversations with him, are here to testify to his “vocation” of catechesis, the “kérygma”⁹⁵, the proclamation of God's saving word. There were three reasons for which he felt an identification of his vocation of theologian and that of a catechist. 1. The study of theology, for seminarians, ought to be essentially a preparation for the “ministry of the word.” 2. An authentic theology has to be also an authentic catechesis... living testimony of of Christ died and risen... Fr. Quadrio... often repeated an affirmation of St. Thomas, “The action of a believer doesn't stop with an announcement, but with reality.”⁹⁶ For him, theology had to be a meeting with Someone, touching Christ, then to witness to Him in life and preaching. 3. Finally, there was an historical realization that confirmed to Fr. Quadrio how tight were the family ties between theology and catechesis. “In all times, catechesis has been the faithful mirror of theology.” He was firmly persuaded that the first principal renewal of catechesis had to be “courageous and wise renewal of theological formation.” Fr. Quadrio was starting to trace out the main lines of this “courageous renewal”: return to the Bible.⁹⁷

Proclaiming, but above all incarnation, kérygrna of the Word and of suffering.

Already in the introductory letter the priest's testimonies of 1960, collected in their Bollettino di collegamento of February 11, 1964, Fr. Eugenio Valentini (then, Director at the Crocetta) announced the imminent publication of the diary notebooks. These survived Fr. Quadrio's “iconoclastic fury”⁹⁸ of the last months of his life. “Unfortunately, he destroyed much of it, and only fragments are left. But they are precious just because of this, and adequately trace out his road to sanctity... I am sure they will be of great benefit; they will become a book dear to all his former students.”⁹⁹

The booklet came out in that same year 1964, with the title Documents of Spiritual Life, and was dedicated as a memento, or better as a memorial, “to the former students of Fr. Quadrio, so they might learn to appreciate their Master more, and to encourage them integrally in their apostolic life.”¹⁰⁰

Publication of the intimate diary contributed notably, in spite of its primitive intent, to make Fr. Quadrio known outside the limited circle of those who had him as teacher. All who came to know him as a result of it, only now beyond the school, the main “bridge”¹⁰¹ that opened up all the other possibilities, understood where his inexhaustible energy in giving the witness of such goodness and serenity came from: the years of sufferings, when he, heroically struggling with his sweet strength, became equally a “bridge” to the pain of others.¹⁰²

Thus other people came in contact with the profound and most human spirituality of Fr. Quadrio and felt themselves taken. He could, this way, continue to teach, to be a master, even after death.

From Sardinia, Mrs. Maria Mereu wrote on October 29, 1967 to Fr. Valentini (then Rector Magnificus):¹⁰³ “Thank you for the book... I haven't stopped reading it. I am convinced that he was a saint and we hope to have him shortly on the altars.”¹⁰⁴

In 1968, on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of Fr. Giuseppe's death, a second edition of the diary came out, notably expanded. Fr. Eugenio Valentini took on the project to answer appeals from many who could not get their hands on the first edition. From the good reception this one had, the editor could declare that the book had done much good, and had “a unique mission in the formation of the young ranks of the Salesian Society.”¹⁰⁵

Other external testmonies were not sought, not even for this second edition, but it did report diary entries, letters, homilies, and unpublished talks. The adopted motive was simply, “No other words could have the efficacy of his: that soft, calm, thought-out word, permeated with sacrifice and suffering, inspired and enlivened by the breath of the Holy Spirit.”¹⁰⁶ A word, then, that proceeded from life, a teaching formed by witness and blood.

The second edition got an authoritative presentation by Fr. Luigi Ricceri, who became Rector Major of the Salesians in the meantime. The gifts of “master of wisdom” were picked by the Major Superior for acute and concise consideration: “I think I can say that he seems to me, five years after his death, among those souls who have most enriched our Congregation in this generation. He was an open soul, admiring human wisdom wherever found, even surpassing it; he was sensitive to distress of our time, but always came through it in faith. The light he shed from his heart (he was essentially a contemplative, a “man of prayer” like Don Bosco), permitted him to enlighten every situation; his faith, so rooted in the Eucharist and the Word of God, constituted for him force to stick his arrow into the depths of our current situation.”¹⁰⁷

Fr. Quadrio could give, because he had seen.

That same Rector Major gave a speech to the confreres of the “reborn Crocetta”¹⁰⁸ (October 15, 1968), in which was authoritatively highlighted the figure of Fr. Quadrio as a "teacher of life" and "unified model" of intellectual values and gifts of grace. It stands as the beginning of the first explicit demand for his Cause. There had already been oral requests from various places. We have some sporadic evidence of these in the Archive folders.

Fr. Luigi Ricceri expressed himself in his address to open the academic year:

For a Salesian who gets around in the Congregation, it is interesting to hear people talk (and how they talk), in San Francisco and Cairo, in Tokyo and Buenos Aires, in London, in Bombay... for example, about a Fr. Vismara, a Fr. Gennaro, a Fr. Quadrio.

Fr. Quadrio! Allow me, for a moment, to bring you to look at this, our great Brother, Fr. Quadrio, almost like a human synthesis of all these formation workers, of these “masters – who have come and gone... Fr. Quadrio, a very young professor, but a master of life...

So much to remember, so much to meditate... Well, anyway, remembering this example, all of you together (because he was master of life both for students and colleagues) have inserted yourselves into the great stock of the Crocetta.¹⁰⁹

Reading the words of the Rector Major, Fr. Dominic Bertetto, who was a colleague and confessor of Fr. Quadrio, and who was one of the confreres present at his death, asked himself if the time was ripe to start the canonical Process.¹¹⁰ The cue was given at the highest level of the Congregation.

Why can't this figure, so precious, modern, and close to us, become valued as an ideal of a genuinely Catholic and Salesian spirit, above all for the confreres in formation, and for the staff of our studentates?¹¹¹ If the Lord permitted this sacrifice, was it not perhaps only so the grain of wheat fallen to the earth would have to bear much fruit,¹¹² above all now when we so much need to see guides, or real saints, living in our time and for our time? Maybe the Lord... wanted... him to live with our examples in our young generations.¹¹³

The motivations put forward by Fr. Bertetto presented a double direction: to the past, resting on the holiness of Fr. Quadrio and on his example of total education, that is, made up of knowledge and life; and to the future, to young generations, who could find in him a guide sypathetic, modern, securely on the road to priesthood.

Contemporaneously, Fr. Giuseppe Abbà, deeply touched by the spirituality emanating from the diary, had “the clear idea of a possible introduction of the Cause, inserted in the general impression of esteem and and of holiness that he enjoyed.”¹¹⁴ So, he prepared a first draft for a direct letter to Fr. Ricceri. This was stylistically revised by Fr. Mario Simoncelli, who added his own signature. Fr. Nicolò Loss and Fr. Domenico Bertetto spontaneously got together to endorse it.

The four signers referred again to the speech of the Rector Major and its vibrant re-evocation of Fr. Quadrio.

Your word struck us also because it found full accord in our souls and our memories: an admiration which, already alive during his life of “Master” at the Crocetta, is still growing and being enriched with new horizons, after which intimate aspects of his personality as a priest and religious have become known...

Five years since his death, while in the most varied parts of the Salesian world, there are those who keep alive the memory of Fr. Quadrio, and on whom he exercises a rare ascendency. It is made up of admiration and also sympathy (a true “man of synthesis” between the human and the divine, as you defined it, a true “master of life, from whom there is much to gather and meditate”). Could this be the right moment to solidify and hand on more completely this figure so modern, Conciliar, conversational; a man of study, a Master, a model priest and Salesian, the “man of synthesis”? His testimony could be up-to-date and effective far beyond the circle of his former students.¹¹⁵

The “synthesis” between the human and the divine accented here es that which Fr. Quadrio called the “incarnation” of the priest.¹¹⁶ “Master” could simply mean one who lives what he teaches. The letter also shows the balance of the model proposed in Fr. Quadrio, a model fully Salesian, but so open and successful as to be extensible to the universal Church.

Fr. Ricceri answered Fr. Bertetto, being the most venerable of the signatories. While declaring his own full conviction of the holiness of Fr. Quadrio, he affirmed the necessity of deferring the process for a time, the while industriously preparing the necessary documentation.

I want to thank you for what you have written to me about our holy confrere, Fr. Quadrio. I understand, like I said in the same preface to the second edition of "Thoughts", that the figure of Fr. Quadrio deserves to be well put in evidence for the richness of the Congregation. But I don't think this is the time to start something official. Instead, it will be opportune to gather documentation and testimonies while memories are alive and fresh.¹¹⁷

It was certainly providential that the same Rector Major, who contributed so much with his own authority to present Fr. Quadrio as a model teacher and formation person, pushed at that time for the documentation in order to proceed with the Cause, and that he knew so well this exceptional figure.

Fr. Eugenio Valentini, tasked with summarizing the life and spiritual profile of Fr. Giuseppe in the Biographical Dictionary of Salesians, Turin 1969, writes on p. 229: “The little that survived destruction was gathered... to the edification of everyone who esteemed and loved him as a privileged soul, who pointed to a higher goal, more by example than by word.”

In the next decade, Fr. Eugenio Valentini took it upon himself to research the asked-for testimonies. He went through the Congregation's member catalog and sent out letters to all the Salesian world, asking for recollections and impressions on the part of all Fr. Quadrio's school buddies, his former students at the Crocetta, his colleagues, his acquaintances.

We will cite here only some brief extracts from the replies, choosing from among those more explicitly recognizing in him a model to be proposed for imitation.

Writing to Fr. Giuseppe Marchisio, Bishop Camillo Faresin, a fellow student with Fr. Quadrio at the Gregoriana, affirmed without reticence: “I've kept a greeting card from him... as a reminder, a relic of admiration: how many times have I read it over, to jolt me ahead in my personal work! Now, more than ever, he is before my spirit with his writings: I invoke him as a Saint, and I hope that a nice biography will come out as soon as possible... that will be a guide, light and stimulus for so many priests.”¹¹⁸

Fr. Arturo Alossa, alumnus of the Crocetta, did not hesitate to proclaim in his emotional testimony: “I hold it a true grace of the Lord that I could know Fr. Quadrio, enjoy his friendship, and feel edified by his holiness.”¹¹⁹

In the brief arc of his life, Fr. Giuseppe had already become “master” even for those who had been his peers.

Bishop Camillo Faresin intervened repeatedly in the following years, always manifesting his own conviction: “I believe it would be the time to write a nice biography... and if it has to do with introducing the Cause of Beatification, Fr. Quadrio has all the character of true holiness.”¹²⁰

“In 1962, during the Council, he wrote me another letter from Rome, which unfortunately I've lost, but that was a marvellous page of priestly holiness. I have a true devotion to him, because I knew him so well.”¹²¹

Bishop Bonifacio Piccinini echoes his confrere: “For me, Fr. Quadrio was without doubt the model of priesthood that most influenced me during my formation years. Not to diminish the magnificent figures who formed us in those unforgettable springtime years which I had the grace to spend at the Crocetta... Fr. Quadrio still has much to teach all of us.”¹²²

Often those same students, while recognizing his extraordinary gifts as professor, insist more on what they took from Fr. Giuseppe outside the school of theology, in that teaching that can't be given by word or but fragmentary form, but only with solid and coherent life witness. Bishop Hilàrio Moser wrote: “I never found in Fr. Quadrio anything less than edifying, not even the smallest... Indeed, I always observed the perfection with which he did everything. I particularly want to reveal here his peace and tranquillity: for me, those are signs he lived in God. I've never seen him disturbed at any time: never flustered, never agitated, never nervous. Before everyone, and to everyone, he was always calm: persons, events, sickness, nothing could take away his peace. This for me is a real sign of holiness.¹²³

With the collection of diverse testimonies received, Fr. Valentini succeeded in putting together a biography, already twice requested by Bishop Camilo Faresin. The volume was entitled Fr. Giuseppe Quadrio, Model of Priestly Spirit (Rome 1980).¹²⁴ The very title is itself significant in the framework of our theme. Following the first part (life), there is a second (moral figure), in which certain aspects are illuminated and proposed for attention and imitation by religious and teachers: priestly personality, priestly friendship, the master, the catechist, the writer, the professor.

The book's Presentation reprints the a letter from Bishop Faresin, particularly apt to describe the slant of the document. “This is a life but not just a life, a re-living, in words and in writings, of this model of priestly sanctity. Here are crumbs of memories, of scattered letters, sermons, often incomplete, but that retain his style, his preoccupations, his zeal, his anxiety, his ideal, the lines of his personality, the testimony of his holiness... even if we are convinced that we cannot succeed in reproducing him fully, such as he was.”¹²⁵

Together with Fr. Valentini's new work, a request providentially raised from outside contributed in a decisive fashion that same year. It sped up an authoritative intervention to renew the petition to open the Cause of Beatification. This time, it came not from teaching colleagues or from within the Salesian Congregation, but from an outsider, moreover, a non-Italian. The Benedictine Fr. Manuel Garrido Bonario, who had already done so much for the Cause of Beatification for Sr. Eusebia Palomino FMA, and who came to a knowledge of Fr. Quadrio's spirituality by reading his writings, so spontaneously wrote to Sister Domenica Grassiano, who had sent him the biographies of some Salesians with a reputation for holiness: “You cannot imagine how much I enjoyed the reading of these so marvellous writings. I tell everyone I meet about them. Now I think I told you that I was very impressed by the reference to Fr. Quadrio. I fervently hope that his Cause is introduced soon. We cannot leave such a lamp under the bushel basket.¹²⁶ I am truly devoted to him. His profession is very similar to mine; I identify with his criteria and his whole spirituality.”¹²⁷

What pushed Fr. Garrido to this request is only mentioned here: the profession of a theology teacher, the coherence of life with teaching, and thus his suitability as a model proposed to other teachers and priestly formation people. It is taken up several times again by the same Benedictine Father in later letters.

On March 7, 1981, on the occasion of a plenary sesseion of the Salesian Marian Academy, Fr. Garrido's request was made known to the association, in which Fr. Quadrio had also taken part during his own life. The proceedings of that session report the succinct notice of a communication that had to produce a deep impression, even reverberating outside. There we read: “Sister Domenica Grassiano gave notice about a Spanish Benedictine, Fr. Garrido, who edited the published letters of the Servant of God Sister Palomino. After reading the writings and biography of Fr. Quadrio, he was left in much admiration and proposed opening the Cause of Beatification. The Rector Major then called Fr. Fiora in on it.¹²⁸

Also in 1981, and perhaps not completely independent from the atmosphere produced by the initiative of the Salesian Marian Academy, a widely diffused article by Fr. Arnaldo Perini came out: “The Priestly Spirituality of Fr. Giuseppe Quadrio.”¹²⁹ The author pointed out the secret of Fr. Giuseppe's sanctity as his absolute docility to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. “Our epoch – especially in the immediate post-Conciliar period – seems to be happily marked and favored by a flowering of priestly spirituality... One of these souls – and probably in a singular manner – was Fr. Giuseppe Quadrio, teacher of dogmatic theology at the Salesian Pontifical Athenaeum in Turin... the secret of such sublime success in learning the divine wisdom, and of such extraordinary orientation on the mystical journey could be easily spotted and partly also revealed: indeed, he himself with extreme delicacy, has offered us the key of interpretation, and illuminated the exact proportion, lifting... the veil of the mystery. He let himself be guided by the Holy Spirit: “docile to the Holy Spirit”¹³⁰ was his intuitive formula, then his occupation, taken up into the novelty of a program of sanctification, caught in a lightning flash of grace. That was for him a Petecostal event.”¹³¹

“Many are the letters that Fr. Quadrio wrote, as friend and teacher, to priests... This was his typical mission: it occupied him for the space of a about a decade. He would have continued to be a teacher, to give lectures as a dogmatic theology professor, but a grave illness, lethal and pernicious, discovered right from the beginning interrupted that activity. He remained practically cut off from any work or duty, confined to the bed or the silence of his hospital room. God's plans were different. The theology of the cross burst into his existence: he was called to stay long in Gethsemane and then climb Calvary. He was adding the liturgy of life and suffering to the liturgy of the altar.¹³²

Sent to Fr. Giuseppe Abbà some time later, the proceedings of of the Marian Academy re-lit the spark. At the beginning of February 1983, Fr. Abbà wrote to Fr. Raffaele Farina,¹³³ Rector Magnificus of the Salesian Pontifical University at the time. Here is how he summarizes the intervention he made then in a memorandum left in the papers of the Archive: “Based on what I have read, I have written to Sister Domenica Grassiano herself a letter, in which I asked her to take the initiative of a more visible proposal, well justifiable for reasons I indicated there. I thought the proposal would have been better accepted had it come from outside – from a Sister of Mary Help – and so I gave her full permission to handle it with Fr. Farina – Rector Magnificus – and Fr. Valentini, the biographer.”¹³⁴

Fr. Abbà was convinced of the urgent need to propose a model of priestly sanctity, as much to those who had finished their period of formation and thus found themselves already in full pastoral activity, as also to those still on the road to a life consecrated to the “profession” of the realities of God.

Fr. Farina's answer to Fr. Abbà was not long in coming. In the month of March that same year 1983, three official petitions reached the Rector Major, Fr. Egidio Viganò. They agreed in asking his intervention to get Fr. Quadrio's Cause started.

The underlying motives for the requests are exactly those summarized in the title of this contribution.

The first letter bears Fr. Farina's signature.

On March 2 last I presented to the Academic Senate of our University a proposal to direct a formal request to you to start the Cause of Beatification of Fr. Giuseppe Quadrio, former Chairman of our Theology Department. The Academic Senate was unanimously and enthusiastically in favor.

I therefore pass on to you this request with great joy, but also with some trepidation that I myself do not know how to explain... The figure of Father Quadrio is for me and for all the teachers of the UPS a symbol and a goal, a benchmark. It is the thought of having a model and a protector for our University that has chiefly led me to this request. The University is at a turning point for its future development and its service to the Salesian Congregation and the Church, and in need of holiness. Fr. Quadrio, proposed to all those who have this task of teaching and research, would enlighten and guide our thinking and our work.¹³⁵

The letter from Fr. Angelo Amato¹³⁶, Chairman of the Theology Department, followed very soon after.

The Counselors unanimously declared in favor [of the proposal to introduce the Cause, presented at their March 11 session], and the great majority of them did not hide their enthusiasm, including the undersigned... The period in which our University is now living, trying to effect that “re-foundation” you yourself launched, requires from all who work on it an authentic supplement of holiness. The figure of Fr. Quadrio is... singularly fitted to this vital necessity, setting before us a model who lived in an exemplary fashion, in times not so far removed from our own, and in circumstances substantially identical to ours, our own type of life. He is a kind of benchmark, which Divine Providence seems to have prepared just for us today.”¹³⁷

Having lived during a season of transition, from wartime to the post-war rebirth, in the volcanic upheaval of pre-Council theology, and thus constrained to open himself to a difficult path from past certainties to a trackless future, Fr. Quadrio could be singled out as the paradigm of a courageous pioneer. He was able to go beyond himself, with fidelity to the tradition, toward new times, loaded as his were with tensions and hopes.

The third petition is drawn up by Mother Rosetta Marchese, Superior General of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. It is in her personal capacity, but lets a chorus of assent [from other Sisters] come through it. The letter's contribution is in notably extending the exemplary nature of the model proposed in Fr. Quadrio. “It has been a great joy for us [the request by the Academic Senate of UPS], because it shows the vitality of the Congregation that even today gives Saints to the Church, and is at the same time a lively hope that the new Cause of Beatification might become an effective stimulus for the FMA, particularly for those more directly involved in the teaching field. Fr. Quadrio, in his short life, could not have many contacts with our Community, but his figure is today known, studied and admired by many Sisters through the biography and the Documents of Spiritual Life.¹³⁸

In the month of May, 1983, Fr. Fiora, called in by the Rector Major as Postulator General of the Salesian Family, wrote to Fr. Giuseppe Abbà and tasked him, in association with the previously contacted Fr. Egidio Ferasin, with finding the necessary documentation. That put urgency onto some preliminary tasks:

Collecting all published works.

Collecting surviving unpublished works.

Compiling a list of significant testimonies.

Collecting miscellaneous writings.

Checking the house chronicles where he'd been.

Asking for reports on heroic virtues (especially older texts).¹³⁹

The following years, then, were dedicated to a preliminary collection and organization of all this material, and with it, preparing the Archive, even if there was no proper place for it yet.¹⁴⁰

It required a long process to get request forms out, and to transcribe the results in legally correct form. The upcoming [22nd] General Chapter was an opportunity to distribute a questionnaire to alumni of the Crocetta.¹⁴¹

Among the questions that were developed, were naturally highlighted the ones requiring a reflection on the values Fr. Quadrio transmitted in teaching and in daily pastoral encounters.

Towards the end of 1983, Fr. Manuel Garrido published an flowing profile of Fr. Quadrio in a spirituality magazine, contributing to the diffusion in Spain of the charisma of the Salesian teacher. “Reading Fr. Quadrio's writings, and the testimony given by by those who have studied him assiduously, one is pleasantly surprised to see how he could fully harmonize high theological science with a deep and continuous mystical life.”¹⁴²

The favorable reception given to the proposal to start the Cause in various places was clearly shown by the volume of letters and articles, starting then.

A new profile of Fr. Quadrio, witness of suffering, was edited by Fr. Arnaldo Pedrini for L'Osservatore Romano.

For the superiors... who esteemed him for his ingenuity, he had to be the educator of minds, the university professor for the teaching of dogmatic theology. He was, in fact, accepted for this task while still very young.

But he passed from the teacher's lectern to forced inactivity rather quickly. He was confined to a little room in the Astaneria [Martini] Hospital in Turin. Almost immediately, his externally academic discourse, his clear and convincing word, was stilled. But at the same time there stood his more laborious and effective testimony of faithfulness to Christ in every trial. It seemed that in his existence [up to then] there was still lacking a typical aspect, that connotation of full and true conformation to the Divine Model: to the science of Christ, glimpsed [before] in lucidity of thought, theoretically, going from then on joined in admirable conformation with the science of the “theology of the Cross”. And this was in the hard “everyday” he endured for several years...

Fr. Quadrio, at only 41 years of age, thus closed his short time as a priest; his ideal was reached, precisely in what he had asked of others: “Let people see Jesus in you, like a light inside a crystal...”

The brilliance of his lamp still shines on our road today. Today more than ever, when the proposal to introduce his Cause for Beatification has been put forward: how we rejoiced in our hearts! It is a fervent wish, a longing of so many hearts, especially of those who have contemplated him in the aura of his suffering, which made him so like Christ.”¹⁴³

The writing of articles in magazines and newspapers of ever wider circulation served to spread, especially among priests, knowledge of a significant figure of our time, who knew how to embody and live the demands of the old faith in the new cultural mix. The reception of the article by Fr. Pedrini in L'Osservatore Romano contributed in assigning to the figure of Fr. Quadrio its proper place in the universal Church.

A singular fact showing in these preparations for introducing the Cause is – as Fr. Giuseppe Abbà expressed it – the 'conversions' of those who worked on it. In 1983, Fr. Egidio Faresin was assigned to investigate. I worked with him. But at the beginning, when we went to talk with Bishop Luciano Giovanni (in charge of Causes for Beatification for the Diocese of Turin), I recall clearly that he – even though having known him for four years at the Crocetta as a professor – showed no enthusiasm at all for this Cause. A year later it became necessary to find somebody else, who turned out to be the Vicar of the Central Province, Fr. Sergio Pierbattisti, who never knew Fr. Quadrio. He worked with him on the project a good deal up to May 1986, when he was called to the Vatican. Both Fr. Ferasin and Fr. Pierbattisti, on leaving the job, felt in love with the Cause, and left it with a certain disappointment.

A more significant case is that of Fr. Fiora: in January 1985 – here at San Giovannino,¹⁴⁴ indeed in the presence of Fr. Ferasin and Fr. Pierbattisti – asked if it were worth the bother to introduce this Cause! I said something in reply; he accepted, but he surely didn't change his mind because of it. In the last days of 1985, again here where he had also called Fr. Pierbattisti, he declared himself “cooked” for this Cause, and told us that he'd talked the day after with Bishop Luciano about starting the Cause: which he did. Seems to me that this conversion – the most significant and important – was the fruit of a converging, positive opinion of his colleagues the Postulators, to whom he'd given the biography written by Fr. Valentini. From it, too, the Spanish Benedictine Father at the beginning of this story, had in all probability formed his idea of Fr. Quadrio's sanctity.¹⁴⁵

The initial perplexities described here, resulted in great importance for the Process itself. These reveal, in fact, how the Cause made headway of itself, without forced aid. It was direct contact with the thought and spirit of Fr. Giuseppe Quadrio that overcame every obstacle, allowing one to accept in his teaching a legacy incarnated but not perishable, that rewarded the effort to make of it a permanent possession.¹⁴⁶

The new Rector Magnificus of the Salesian Pontifical University, Fr. Roberto Gianatelli, responded to an appeal by Fr. Giuseppe Abbà. He took on the job of finding the Crocetta alumni scattered all over the world, and sending them a questionnaire to gather testimonies that had escaped previous attempts. The official opening of the Cause, seen to be immanent at the time, would certainly have shaken some who before had been undecided.

The collaborators at Turin thus had the reduced job of gathering depositions in Valtellina (with the help of Salesians of Sondrio), and from among those who knew Fr. Quadrio in the Turin and Ivrea areas (confreres, doctors, infirmarians, Oratory members, parishioners, groups Fr. Quadrio had guided). They included material from Rome not related to the academic sector.¹⁴⁸ For that, the UPS would have dealt directly with the Bishops, prelates and professors of the Gregorian Pontifical University.

Several times Fr. Abbà tried to get a devotional brochure printed, but that initiative never got off the ground.

The Salesian University paid for the publication of the Articles of Testimonial Proof Proposed by the Vice-Postulator of the Cause, Fr. Eugenio Valentini, for the Informative Process on Heroic Virtues and Miracles in General of the Servant of God Fr. Giuseppe Quadrio, Professed Priest in the Salesian Society (1921-1963).¹⁴⁹

There was a request to various persons for more newspaper articles, but not much came of it, perhaps because the decisive step was still being awaited.¹⁵⁰ Fr. Fiora wrote in July 1985: “Knowledge and veneration of Fr. Quadrio is spreading, especially among the young confreres when they read the biography... invoking his help in necessities, sending notices of graces received to the Postulator General. The Cause deserves to go forward if there is an authentic and widespread devotion.”¹⁵¹

On July 29, 1985, Fr. Gaetano Scrivo, Vicar General of the Congregation, in the name of the Rector Major, informed Bishop Teresio Ferraroni of Corno of the decision of the [Salesian General] Council to promote the Cause: “I will have the diary and biography of our Servant of God sent to Your Excellency, who was, as one testimony reads, a true Epiphany of the Lord.”¹⁵²

The booklet of the Articles had its resonance, too. A letter from Fr. M. Garrido OSB was not long in coming. “Providence has put the Articles of Testimonial Proof Proposed by the Vice-Postulator of the Cause, Fr. Eugenio Valentini, for the Informative Process on Heroic Virtues and Miracles in General of the Servant of God Fr. Giuseppe Quadrio into my hands. How I enjoyed reading it! I have written an article about it for another magazine of wider circulation, with the title “An exceptional Salesian of Don Bosco”. For me, he is one of the most prestigious Salesians in the whole great family of Don Bosco. His Beatification and Canonization will do much good for the Church, and will give great glory to God... It will be an marvelous example of such an important aspect for the Church, the teaching of Theology. I believe it to be a unique case in modern times.”¹⁵³

The Discalced Carmelite Fr. Valentino Macca of the Sacred Congregation for the Causes of the Saints asked Fr. Valentini for a copy of the Articles, that in his judgment would have been “a noteworthy model of renewal”. He went on to add, “I am happy for the opening the Cause of Quadrio, whom I had known in my youth. I appreciated him as a man who transmitted the serenity of a convinced and secure faith, as an open and enlightened Marian theologian, anchored in the Scriptures, balanced.”¹⁵⁴

After the article announced by Fr. Garrido, in 1985 a pregnant profile of Fr. Quadrio came out, traced by Fr. Sabino Palumbieri.

A true word made flesh by God. What he said, he put into practice. Thus, he communicated with credible language a radioactive experience. His greatness is all in this synthesis. He was a unified man. He reached what the Council called unity of life. Synthesis of profession and vocation. Synthesis of vocation and inclination. And his teaching at the University was not an improvisation, nor an occasional situation. It was the expression of a call. And when God calls, He arranges the interior. Fr. Quadrio was strongly inclined to being a teacher. And that he did, in terms of life...

Fr. Quadrio: a harmony of nature and grace. A synthesis of love and work. We can say that he signified among us the emblematic illumination of the humanism of the ancient wisdom: “firm in work, glad in love.”¹⁵⁵ Fr. Quadrio: unity of life between discretion and initiative. Tradition welded to the future. This human and charismatic richness made of him a true well for the town in the Johannine image,¹⁵⁶ from which we have drawn deep lessons of the science of God and of human experience. From a free, pure, evangelically optimistic man, passionate for the truth, not the abstract truth worked up in alchemist's alembics, but the truth of God, incarnate in Jesus the perfect man, who became the truth of mankind...

The point of synthesis, the fulcrum of it all, is... in his effort to make himself a living sign of Christ, the friend and teacher... With the introduction of his Process of Beatification the boundaries will expand, and the “perfume of Christ” of this terse sacrament will extend throughout the Church renewed by that Council, which Fr. Quadrio predicted and foresaw.¹⁵⁷

At the beginning of 1986, the road already seemed to be turning into its destination. The Salesian University, as a religious and scientific community, felt ever more convinced of the legacy of mastery and holiness it had received from Fr. Quadrio. We can catch this air of of growing sensibility from a letter of Fr. Abbà to Fr. Adriaan Van Luyn, Superior of the UPS Vice Province. “Fr. Fiora told us, Fr. Pierbattista and me, to get this Process for the Cause of Fr. Quadrio listed ..., on which you as religious Superior of the UPS Vice Province collaborated so intelligently and cordially for its success. One gets the impression of a slowly but clearly growing fire. The same new attitude of Fr. Fiora – owing to the enthusiastic acceptance by Postulators of other Congregations who have read the two writings of Fr. Quadrio – seems to me to be a sign of what's been going on.”¹⁵⁸

Fr. Sergio Pierbattisti, called meanwhile to Rome to work in the Curia, had to leave the post of Vice-Postulator. He had gradually come to love that job.¹⁵⁹ Fr. Giuseppe Abbà started to ask that the post be taken over by some UPS professor. All the collected material would then be sent to the University,¹⁶⁰ where it would finally unite in a stable home.

The 25th anniversary of Fr. Quadrio's death was approaching, an elegant gift that Providence made it coincide with the centenary of the death of St. John Bosco. The UPS Vice Province moved toward two goals: 1. A solemn commemoration in Valtellina, Fr. Quadrio's birthplace; 2. A study
Convention to be held in Rome or in Turin.¹⁶¹

Fr. Angelo Amato, Theology Department chairman, informed the Visitor of the full availability of the teaching faculty to “give their own contribution to this noble common cause,” and proposed as the title of the Convention “Fr. Quadrio as Master of Doctrine and Holiness.”¹⁶² Rome was chosen as the most opportune venue.

There still remained unresolved the problem of scientific organization of Fr. Quadrio's manuscripts. Fr. Cosimo Semeraro, specialist in handling archival materials, was asked to do it. He accepted, and having once established his jurisdiction, organized a seminar that took care of inventorying and re-ordering the scattered papers into numbered folders, subdivided by topics already set for pushing the Cause.¹⁶³ Thus, the indispensable premise was in place to open a path for the hoped-for study of Fr. Quadrio's thought.

The Salesian Family of Sondrio put together, as a Christmas present for 1986, a booklet entitled Fr. Giuseppe Quadrio, a Man and a Priest for Our Time.

At twenty years since his death, the Cause for Canonization has been introduced, and the Church has been asked to recognize him as one of the Saints. Our time needs to continue to hope, to believe in the goodness of people.”¹⁶⁴

“It is easy to become a saint, if you don't want to be human!” This accusation by Marx does not apply to Fr. Quadrio, who lived his humanity intensely: a true man of God. He was a good man, just, accepting, open to the various voices of the world, attentive and sensitive, ready to give of himself for others. His was not a sanctity of gaudy gestures, such as we would like to see in order to believe, but of the ordinary, of the day by day, of simple contact with youth and with God. With his life, Fr. Quadrio has demonstrated that no saint exists without also being human!... Perhaps Fr. Quadrio is more a model for priests: he passed his life in the ambient of priestly formation, and from the biographical point of view, it is easily summarized. In his writings, whoever is a priest or on the road to priesthood, a religious brother or a nun, can find comfort, stimulus and encouragement; the young instead can read in him a man who lives not by bits and pieces, but the globality of a life project, to which he has remained faithful right from earliest youth.¹⁶⁵

The possibility of proposing Fr. Quadrio as a model, not only for priests or seminarians, but for all without distinction, will be explicitly affirmed here. This especially for young people, to whom the booklet is directed: how the style and elements of it shine forth.

On April 9, 1987, there was an extraordinary meeting of the Theology Department faculty, calling into collaboration also the Postulator's people and the Vice Province. It was to coordinate the decisions already taken. Participating were Fr. Luigi Fiora, Fr. Adriaan Van Luyn,¹⁶⁶ Fr. Roberto Giannatelli,¹⁶⁷ Fr. Angelo Amato, Fr. Juan Picca, Fr. Tarcisio Bertone,¹⁶⁸ Fr. Eugenio Valentinti, Fr. Cosimo Semararo. The need was expressed to find somebody with the concrete possibility to push the Cause, and to prepare right away the documentation necessary to open the Diocesan Process.¹⁶⁹

Finally, on November 10, 1987, came the widely hoped-for official document. The Postulator General submitted a petition to Cardinal Anastasio Ballestrero, Archbishop of Turin, that the Diocesan Process “Canonization of the Servant of God, Giuseppe Quadrio, professed priest of the Socieity of St. Francis de Sales (1921-1963)”, be opened.

Your Eminence, Most Reverend:

The Postulator General of the Society of St. Francis de Sales, Aloysius Fiora, duly constituted by mandate of the Procurator's Office, and in its own name, reverently beseeches Your Eminence that the Process concerning the life and virtues of the Servant of God Giuseppe Quadrio, a professed priest of the Society of St. Francis de Sales, be kindly ordered into execution.¹⁷⁰

The Salesian News Agency,¹⁷¹ at the beginning of the following year, gave a communication to the entire Salesian Family.

The assembly of documents – written and oral testimony – to introduce the Cause of Beatification of the Salesian priest Fr. Giuseppe Quadrio (1921-1963) is already at a good state. The documentation for opening the Diocesan Process is imminent. At this time, it is important to spread knowledge of Fr. Quadrio among the faithful, so that prayer for his intercession may be intensified. This will also complete and enrich the series of testimonies in favor of the Cause, from whoever is ready to express recollections and facts regarding him.

The apostolate of Fr. Quadrio, played out principally in study and priestly formation... sets him up as an inspirational model above all for those preparing for the priesthood and for those responsible for the centers of priestly and religious formation. But his spirituality is a model and stimulus also for every category of the faithful.¹⁷²

More meetings of the committee for the Cause checked on progress, and the members worked to establish a concrete program for the upcoming event in Valtellina and for the Study Convention, whose date was already being postponed due to missed deadlines.

Besides the members named above were invited: Fr. Josef Struś and Fr. Remo Bracchi,¹⁷³ named Vice-Postulator.¹⁷⁴

Others joined, mostly enthusiasts from the Central and Lombardy-Emiliana Provinces, who were more directly interested in the celebration of the 25th anniversary of Fr. Quadrio's death. Fr. Pietro Ponzo, Vice Provincial of the Central Province, in the name of Fr. Angelo Viganó, wrote: “We are united with the UPS Vice Province in thanking the Lord for having given to the Congregation and to the Church a learned and holy priest, who could be indicated to all as a model of priestly life and a stimulus to holiness.”¹⁷⁵

The Vice Province and the University (Theology Department) divided the work of bringing the two projects to completion: The Vice Province prepared the days of commemoration of the 25th anniversary in Fr. Quadrio's native place; the Theology Department started concrete planning for the study Convention on his thought.”¹⁷⁶

The solemn celebrations in Valtellina had an extraordinary resonance. They were carefully planned from Rome, with the notable participation of the Crocetta in Turin, the Lombardy-Emilia and Central Provinces, of Fr. Quadrio's home town and nearby places (especially Grosotto, where Fr. Pierino Rubustelli, cousin of Fr. Quadrio is pastor), of Bishop Teresio Ferraroni of Corno, and of local clergy.¹⁷⁷ They led to a decisive surge of knowledge and veneration of the Servant of God.

Fr. Abbà affirmed: “The march was long and tiring, and a little uncertain, I'd say, up to the big event of 22-23 October last. A cordial involvement of the UPS, both religious and academic, was felt. Up to then I believed in the Cause; after, I thought it a done deal with interest... And, Fr. Quadrio will help us from Heaven!”¹⁷⁸

In the Acts of the 25th Anniversary one can repeatedly catch the underlying motive for communications like this.¹⁷⁹

Already in the Preface of Fr. Adriaan Van Luyn we read: “His figure was often highlighted, as much for his outstanding qualities as a teacher, as for his gifts as a teacher of priestly spirituality in particular... Among the motivations adopted in support of the request – beyond the fame of holiness and heroic degree of virtues, demonstrated particularly in the acceptance and in the exemplary endurance of the long and incurable illness which took him at only 42 years of age – the academic authorities point out that of being able to present in the figure of Fr. Quadrio an inspirational model for all who have the responsibility for the scientific, cultural and religious formation of future priests, as well as the candidates to the priesthood themselves.¹⁸⁰

In the homily given at the Marian church of Grosotto by Fr. Roberto Giannatelli, a former student of Fr. Quadrio and Rector Magnificus of the Salesian Pontifical University, the homilist testified: “Fr. Quadrio has been for us a Friend, a Master, and Model of a priest adapted to the 'new times' that, at the end of the '50's, already were being announced to the Church and the world. Fr. Quadrio had it all together for us, in a delicate moment of cultural transition already under way then... a bearer of the old, and herald of the new; rooted in tradition of the Church and open to the breath of the Spirit, expressed through the Biblical and liturgical movements, in a renewed concept of catecheis and a new way to do theology.”¹⁸¹

In his congrratulatory message, Bishop Teresio Ferraroni of Como singled out Fr. Quadrio as a modern model for his own clergy. “The famous five points, written by Fr. Quadrio for a new priest, are still current in themselves and as a sure guarantee for faith which is shocked and undermined by lax discipline. I hope that the clergy of Valtellina will not let this occasion for an examination of life pass by.”¹⁸²

Fr. Luigi Melesi has shown how Fr. Quadrio was a true master, because he knew how to imitate the one Master who bore that name in the true sense of the word: “He lived what he taught; he lived for the praise of the Lord Creator and Redeemer; he lived the mercy of the Lord; he lived the faithfulness of God, hoping in the promises of the Lord; above all he lived the love of God. He wanted to make... his whole life an imitation of Jesus, orienting it definitively and radically in a prospective at once contemplative and apostolic, in the Christocentric and ecclesial dimension.”¹⁸³

As others have already grasped, Fr. Sabino Palumbieri has presented us with Fr. Quadrio as Gospel realized in life. “There are, above all, people of meek heart and robust spirit, who write a fifth Gospel in their very flesh, and guarantee the possibility of living the code of humanism to the full, which is that of the Beatitudes. There the content goes against the usual logic of greed, abuse, violence, duplicity, amorality, no thirst for justice. These people-made-signs are a determining contribution in making the story into History.”¹⁸⁴

“He visualized priesthood as a prolonging of the Incarnation. 'There are,' he used to say, 'two faces of one mystery.' As the Incarnation is the union of two natures without confusion, the divine and the human, so living out the priesthood is a union of mystery and history, of faith and life, of altar and work for liberation.”¹⁸⁵

Fr. Quadrio became that mystery he dealt with. “His word... was a window into his deep self, that is, his being... His life was a continuous becoming better, enabling an existential project. It was a dynamism of faithfulness and faithfulness in dynamism. And it became itself, but a sign of perfection both on the plane of natural talent and on that of the Christic seed of grace.”¹⁸⁶

“With all his being, Fr. Quadrio taught us to strive to be men truly believers and truly human, that is, Christians who become Christians every day, refusing to transmit a bargain bin Christianity. At the end of the day, it's about showing ourselves as believers with credibility.”¹⁸⁷

The teaching of Fr. Quadrio at the Crocetta during the run-up to the Conciliar renewal corresponds to a precise plan of Providence. That is what Fr. Gaetano Scrivo vigorously emphasized in his conclusion at Sondrio. “We feel the need to thank God, because he [Fr. Quadrio] has been a great gift, a stupendous gift. Thank God for all we have received through him. How many and how much!... God does not act carelessly. God does not calculate in probabilities. God knows what plans he has for man, inviting him to a synergistic human and divine action. So, where did he leave this gift? Where has this gift become a richness for the whole Congregation? At the Salesian University. That is a sign. Here there's no calculation; there's a project. God saw looking forward, at a distance. He saw that in particularly difficult moments, the hope of the future and the future of hope are prepared there, during the whole arc of formation, in which a man becomes ever more conscious of God's planning and of his responsibility. And look, he gave it to you, dear Superiors, teachers, students and alumni of the Salesian University at Rome. We need to discover in this commemoration, beyond the duty of giving thanks, the intuition and intentionality of God in giving [Fr.] Quadrio to the highest cultural Institute of the Congregation, as though to say: if you want to be secure about the future, here is a model, here is the realization of a project, here is a man who knew how to say yes.”¹⁸⁸

With other words and images Cardinal Rosalio Castillo Lara repeated the same concept in his homily at Vervio, drawing out a significant parallel between Don Bosco and Fr. Quadrio:

One cannot forget his qualifications... principally that of being a master, a master priest, who had the gift of teaching the most difficult and unattractive things with clarity, make students assimilate and love them. He taught at the lectern, and one could almost say, above all at recreation. Without many words, with a gesture, a smile, with all his Salesian personality...

For you professors, the personality of Fr. Quadrio totally represents a program. Doing a teacher's job is not just a search for the truth, but above all a credible transmission of the wisdom of the heart, made flesh in your lives... Leading the sheep to pasture, he was conquered by Don Bosco.¹⁸⁹ What a coincidence! The shepherd boy of Becchi right here, while Joey did what Johnny had done. He chose another pasture, for that great family of shepherds of youth that is the Salesian Congregation.¹⁹⁰

The Postulators and the Vice Province on the one hand, and the faculty of the Theology Department of UPS on the other, proceeded on two parallel tracks after the great experience of the Commemoration. The faculty sought more to clarify the first: Fr. Quadrio as a teacher of theology. The Postulators and the Vice Province are committed to broadening awareness of Fr. Giuseppe as a teacher of life, that is, pointing more to the second track. Given the harmonious unity achieved in Fr. Quadrio between teaching and witness, it is clear that the two aspects cannot be completely separated and are destined to illuminate each other. The Postulators edited a series of anecdotes from Fr. Quadrio's life, that were published contemporaneously in the diocesan newspaper Il Settimanale and the local Corriere della Valtellina,¹⁹¹ directed to putting the human and priestly figure of the Servant of God into relief for adolescents. They pointed to him as a model for youth “of one word only”, to adults as a paradigm of a man of crystalline transparency for grace, to religious as the ideal of a priest “professional of God's tenderness”.¹⁹²

Mrs. Caterina Pedrini participated in the solemn Commemoration in Valtellina, and was profoundly impressed by that holiness so serene of the Servant of God. She was first to have the idea to found the “Friends of Fr. Quadrio”. She was joined spontaneously and convincingly by people from many places. Among the first and most enthusiastic should be singled out Mr. Guido Visini, provincial Minister for Culture and neighbor of Fr. Guiseppe. He began to work up the by-laws, that required of each one in his or her own sphere of activity, a concrete commitment to imitate the most characteristic traits of the Servant of God. These are the sweetness of his educational method dealing with young people, the transparency and affability in daily contacts, his deep participation and capacity for self-giving, the incarnation of the humanity and goodness of the Lord. As a cultural aim, the Friends of Fr. Quadrio sought to spread knowledge of him, organizing events for this purpose, and raising funds for an eventual publication of his works.¹⁹³

The “Quadri and Quadrio Families Association,” coming to know about the movement, said they were ready to support the initiative.¹⁹⁴

The activity of the Vice Postulator was, in the meantime, principally directed to cover some gaps in the Archive. With detailed research, he tracked down over 100 new letters, never before published. Photocopies of ones already noted but with uncertain documentation were recovered. He got other depositions by persons who, although favorable to the Cause, were undecided or not yet ready to put their names to their testimonies. Some of these turned out to be very significant.

Systematic computerization work began, then, especially following three tracks. All the discovered letters were transcribed onto diskettes, in view of possible publication.¹⁹⁵ Similarly, work on computerizing the homilies began, after a patient effort to sort them by themes, and chronologically (where possible) within those themes. Also, all the biographical references in the various archival materials were traced (diaries, letters, testimonies, reports, minutes, official civil and religious documents). Work started on assembling pieces for a solid outlne of a biography.

Finally, preliminary work is underway for the republication of Fr. Quadrio's “Answers” in the magazine Meridiano 12. For all these works, an introduction for each is planned, that will present the content and its importance.¹⁹⁶

The “Pier Giorgio Frassati” Cultural Center put out a pamphlet in February 1989 entitled The City and the Works. On the Trail of the Saints of Turin.¹⁹⁷ Fr. Quadrio is #47.

In March 1989, the Benedictine Fr. Manuel Garrido Bonaño wrote a new article for a religious journal, aiming to make the figure and the spirituality of Fr. Quadrio known also in Spain.

Today, more than ever, the greatest figures of theological thought are useful for us. The Salesian of Don Bosco, Fr. José Quadrio, is one of these... Ordained priest on March 16, 1947, he was destined to explain theology in the Salesian Pontifical Athenaeum. His classes were most brilliant for their depth and intense supernatural elevation. In 1954, he was named Chairman of the Theology Department of the Athenaeum... One remains in admiration at how Fr. Quadrio could harmonize so perfectly his love and study of Theology, and his apostolate among the youth, and his high mystical contemplation. A very serious illness wasted his body little by little. In the clinic, he carried out a most valuable apostolate among the patients, doctors, and staff.¹⁹⁸

In the 1989 Acts of the Council of the Central Province, Fr. Angelo Viganò presents the theme of the 23rd General Chapter: “Educating Young People to the Faith: A Task and Challenge For Today's Salesian Community.” He recalls the figure of Fr. Quadrio to all confreres, “a Salesian of the same Province and a faith educator of exceptional value”, invoking him that he might help each on to realize this project.

A first quick profile of the “Study Seminar on Fr. Giuseppe Quadrio”, held in Rome October 21-22, concomitant with the 26th anniversary of the death of the Servant of God, can be found in the Bulletin of the Friends of the Salesian Pontifical University 4/2 (2nd semester, 1989), pp. 6-7.

On November 11-12, a small group of representatives of the Vice Province, of the University, and of the Postulator's office went to Sondrio and to Vervio to present the volume of the Acts of the 25th [anniversary celebration], to keep alive the connections with the land of Fr. Quadrio, to deepen the spirituality of the local people, and to encourage imitation and devotion among them. Local press and TV were invited on short notice, but gave a lot of coverage to the event.¹⁹⁹

Elvio Mainardi, painter of Bormio, prepared a pictorial study of the grand dimensions of Fr. Giuseppe's face for the occasion, and gave it to the Salesian University through the Friends of Fr. Quadrio. This now stands in the entrance atrium of the University chapel.

On November 17 1990, the Archbishop of Turin, Cardinal Giovanni Saldarini, got the declaration “No Obstacle”²⁰⁰ from the [Vatican] Congregation for the Causes of the Saints; the Cause of Beatification could proceed.

The actual opening [of the diocesan process] was not long in coming. Fr. Quadrio was the first of five candidates (Bro. Luigi Andrea Bordino of the Cottolengo Institute, the Carmelite Mother Maria degli Angeli, the lay widow Marchioness Giulia Falletti di Barolo, Fr. Eugenio Refeo CSJ). It took place on Monday, Jan. 21 1991, at 5PM in the Turin church of St. Lawrence. The report affirms in the section of Fr. Quadrio: “He can be proposed as an example of seminary and priestly life because of: 1) his faithfulness to his vocation; 2) the way of perfection undertaken in poverty, humility, and obedience; 3) the love for study in which, with professional integrity, he became outstanding; 4) or the love with which he has spent his knowledge in his lectures to souls called to the priesthood, and by means of the printed word, to youth whom he loved intensely in the spirit of St. John Bosco.”²⁰¹

On October 2 1991, the Rogatorial Process was opened in Rome at the Vicariate, requesting transfer of numerous testimonies from Turin to the Salesian Pontifical University. In the spring of 1992 the examination of witnesses was over, and in autumn of the same year, the Roman phase of the Process was finished. The Acts (700 pages) were transmitted to the diocesan tribunal of Turin.

An important new initiative was undertaken by the Theology faculty of the Turin campus of the Salesian Pontifical University, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of its own “rebirth”, coinciding with the 30th anniversary of Fr. Quadrio's death. On the Solemn Feast of St. Joseph (March 19 1993), after the concelebrated Mass with Card. Giovanni Saldarini, a commemoration “The Servant of God Fr. Giuseppe Quadrio, Master of Theology and Life,” was held in the Great Hall.

The Rome campus of the University had already extended an invitation to its permanent staff to freely participate in the solemn celebrations which would be held in Valtellina on October 23 and 24 1993, coinciding with the 30th anniversary of Fr. Quadrio's death.²⁰²

We have climbed, through these testimonies, up to a crystal clear mountain spring. We have seen the stream become bigger and bigger. We look for it to become the river that gladdens the City of God.

Fr. Giuseppe Quadrio, after completing his philosophy studies at the Gregorian University (1938-1941), began his theological studies in 1943 at the same university and at the height of the war. Those lasted six years, up to his doctorate.

We offer a brief chronological table of his training and his encounter with the theme of Mary's Assumption.

October 1943: Father Quadrio began his theological studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University;
December 12, 1946: He argues the affirmative in a solemn debate at the Gregorian on the definability of the dogma of the Assumption;

March 16 1947: he was ordained a priest in Rome;

October 12 1947: continuing the brilliant outcome of the debate, he starts his doctoral thesis in Rome. It will be on an historical-dogmatic question related to the topic of the Assumption, under the guidance of Fr. Charles Boyer.²⁰³

October 4 1949: After two years of intense work, he presents his doctoral thesis;

October 15 1949: Arrives at the Salesian Pontifical Athenaeum in Turin, as teacher of dogmatic theology;

December 7 1949, Vigil of the Immaculate Conception: brilliantly defends his thesis summa cum laude;²⁰⁴

October 19, 1950, 12 days before definition of the dogma: he gives the lecture to open the school year at the Salesian Pontifical Athenaeum on the theme: “The Definition of the Dogma of the Assumption of Mary Most Holy in the Light of Tradition”;²⁰⁵

November 1 1950: at the invitation of the Superiors, he goes to Rome for the solemn ceremony defining the dogma;

1951: He publishes the doctoral thesis in the series Analecta Gregoriana,²⁰⁶ and another article on the Assumption in the journal La Scuola Cattolica di Venegono (Milano).²⁰⁷

This simple chronological comparison shows that the dominant theme of his studies in Rome was that of the theological foundation of the dogma of the Assumption of Mary. Let us also add that this topic, tackled with intelligence and diligence, gave him a well-deserved reputation, even to make him an authority in this field. All this began with that debate in 1946, when Fr. Quadrio was only 25.

The motion of the debate was that the Assumption could be defined as dogma. This is about a truth of faith that Fr. Quadrio likens to a nova which, although shining in the heavens since the Creation, is discovered only now;²⁰⁹ or a seed which, although buried in the deposit of revelation, only in the course of centuries reaches full maturity.²¹⁰

As was the common method of pre-Conciliar theology, the thesis to be demonstrated is given right away: “The bodily Assumption of Mary as a formally revealed truth, at least implicitly”, with the qualifying characteristics of Scholastic theology: “We submit that the bodily Assumption is a formally revealed truth, at least implicitly.”²¹¹

The proof proceeds along these three stages:

1. The bodily Assumption has been taught and learned in the Church as infallibly certain in the Church for centuries;

2. And therefore it is can be certainly said that it is divinely revealed;

3. But not, it seems, explicitly revealed, but in implicit form, contained in a fully understandable way in the revealed truth about Mary.²¹²

In support of the first affirmation, Fr. Quadrio mentions the existence of the liturgical feast of the Assumption of Mary in Syria already from the 5th century. He then affirms that this celebration spread all through the East, and then to France in the 6th century, then to Rome in the 7th century²¹³... and so, by the end of the 7th century or early in the 8th there was already a mature theology of the Assumption. This is testified by St. Germano, Patriarch of Constantinople, by St. John Damascene,²¹⁴ among others. He notes also that in the Byzantine, Mozarabic, Gallican and Roman liturgies the feast of the “Dormition” of Mary gradually gave way to that of her Glorification and Assumption.²¹⁵

Fr. Quadrio specifies that this progressive consciousness of the Assumption was found also among theologians. While in the 13th century the Assumption came to be considered a “pious consensus in the Church”, and in the 15th century as a “certain truth”, after Vatican I it was instead held to be “theologically certain truth, or also revealed and definable.”²¹⁶

At this point, he makes the conclusion of W. Hentrich and R. G. De Moos, who, along the lines of their collected Petitions,²¹⁷ affirm that, taking into account the morally unanimous consensus of bishops all over the world, “The doctrine that holds the Blessed Virgin Mary to be assumed body and soul into heaven is revealed by God, and therefore can be defined as a dogma of divine faith.”²¹⁸ To this consensus of the teaching Church can be added that of the learning Church, as do the “plebiscites” in favor of the Assumption, the solemn celebrations of the Feast, the devotion to the Rosary, and artistic works depicting the Assumption.²¹⁹

This complex of testimonies and this consensus of the teaching and learning Church is – according to Fr. Quadrio – “an indubitable sign not only true and certain, but also divinely revealed, of Mary's privileges.”²²⁰ In fact, this mystery is not known by the senses, because it is a reality intrinsically above them; nor is it a consequence of seeing an empty tomb or a private revelation or an apocryphal story or from an historical authority. The logical conclusion then, is:

“The infallible Christian instinct, then, separates the Assumption from pious historical fact, and places it among the mysteries of Christian faith, invoking no testimony other than the Word of God.”²²¹

The last part is an attempt to theologically qualify this fact of faith, not so much on motives of pure convenience, but by reason of strict necessity. Reference is made, then, to the victory of Mary over the devil (Gen 3:15), to the Annunciation (Lk 1:28), and to the relationship between the death and Resurrection of Christ and the triumph of Mary.²²² Further, in the patristic and and liturgical tradition there is a nexus between her perpetual virginity and her likewise perfect incorruption at death.²²³ Finally, Fr. Quadrio affirms the fitting nature of the assimilation of Mary into the same destiny as Her Divine Son.²²⁴

The conclusion is made the that Marian dogmas, taken singly or as an organic whole, postulate the Assumption and are in harmony with it, so that one could affirm that the Assumption is “formally implicitly revealed in them,”²²⁵ and so could be defined as a dogma of faith. A very brief conclusion consists of the reasons for which the definition of the dogma is fitting.²²⁶

The text of the debate throws light onto some formal qualities typical of Fr. Quadrio: his extreme linearity, clarity and logical coherence. Great attention also is given to historical research and to liturgical sources from East and West. We should not forget, then, that we are dealing with a document of only nine pages by a 25-year old author, tackling a historical and dogmatic theme considered so thorny and controversial at the time. In the light of later refinements in theological method, some limitations could be pointed out. For example, the methodology is still essentially deductive: the Assumption is derived and founded starting from other Marian dogmas. Recourse to Scripture is only made in the third step, and that by the fragmentary and partial method of “proof texts”.²²⁷ Obviously, there is no trace of today's modern hermeneutical method conducted with the same refinement of Scriptural interpretation. More, there is no mention, at least in this debate, of the Holy Spirit, as a Spirit of continual illumination of the history of our comprehension of the mystery of Christ, of the Church, of humanity, of Mary. That is, no mention is made of what we would now call the “pneumatic understanding" of the mystery of Mary in the history and life of the Church. Finally, the problem of the development of Marian dogma is not so much a question of a priori theological truth -- formally revealed, explicitly or implicitly, etc. -- as much as a question of models of conscious faith, and their adequate and soundly based expression by the Church in history.

The first half of the 20th century was a passionately Marian epoch: from the apparitions at Fatima in 1917 to the proclamation of the dogma of the Assumption in 1950, there was a crescendo of fervor, of Marian initiatives and devotion which resulted in chapter VIII of the 1964 Vatican II dogmatic constitution on the Church.²²⁹ Congar talks about “galloping Mariology”, meaning development of Marian theological discourse bordering on the pathological.²³⁰

In reality, conditioned as we are by the masterful Marian synthesis of the Council, it is perhaps difficult today to properly assess the pre-Conciliar mariological scene, which is not a wholly dark and culturally naive trench, but is instead a gradual rise toward the Conciliar fulfillment through the innovative push of the biblical, liturgical, patristic, ecumenical, and kerygmatic movements. Suffice it to mention the works of O. Semmelroth,²³¹ H. Rahner²³² and H. de Lubac,²³³ which, in the early '50s, represent some of the more significant bases of the Conciliar mariological renewal.

Anyway, we could say that the proclamation of the dogma of the Assumption in 1950 represented the height of pre-Conciliar mariology with the triumph of the so-called Assumptionist movement. Even here, perhaps we should investigate and better coordinate the causes of the sudden rise and emergence of the Assumptionist current during and immediately after the disastrous World War II. Are we facing a movement exquisitely theological in the sense that it would be an inevitable maturation of the consciousness of the faith of the universal church made towards the Assumption of Mary? Or is it instead a historical contingency substantially united to a psychological need, in the sense that one would wish away permanently the horrors of war to turn the gaze towards a model of humanity made glorious and calm as the Blessed Virgin? Or is it, rather, of a providential coincidence of consensus from the top and from the bottom to a Marian dimension, which finds in the '40s a positive attention to motivate its theological foundation? It is probably all these and other factors. Here we will try to reconstruct the concrete elements that constituted the de facto "Sitz im Leben" in which the proclamation of the dogma of the Assumption developed. This was, in fact, the cultural context of Fr. Quadrio's theological formation.

The research done by Fr. Quadrio constitutes a fundamental point of reference for the theological justification of the dogma of the Assumption. In fact, it gives us a sufficiently complete and organic picture of the evolution of the “seeds of the Assumption”²⁸⁷ contained in the liturgical traditions of the East and West, and in theological reflection, primarily in Latin. This is why Mariologists, beginning with Fr. Quadrio's teachers and thesis advisers, cite him. In fact, through the dogmatic method of Pseudo-Augustine, he brings clearly to light the theological reasons for the truth and origin of the dogma of the Assumption.

In his thesis, differently from the 1946 debate, Fr. Quadrio kept before him the pneumatological component in the historical development of the dogma, and of the ever deeper and explicit comprehension of revelation. So, he overcame the objection contained in the axiom, “from silence to dogma”. He upholds, instead, the thesis of investigation and historical-theoretical explicitation of the truths of faith by the light of the Holy Spirit in the Church. So, he compares the doctrine of the Assumption to a fertile seed:

And thus the fertile seeds, deposited in the treasure of Revelation, lay dormant for several centuries in the faith and doctrine of the Fathers, sprouting here and there in liturgical and theological formulas of the 7th to 9th centuries, but squeezed and choked by excessive concerns of a purely historical method, had their vigorous flowering in the West due to Pseudo-Augustine's method. This followed by a century a similar process in the East, thanks to the great Byzantine orators.²⁸⁸

He used the metaphor of the "seed" which, although in the deposit of revelation, only over centuries reaches full maturity. He adds a likening of the truth of the Assumption of Mary to a "new star" while shining in the sky since the beginning of creation, we are only now discovering.²⁸⁹ With remarkable historical rigor he examines the Eastern and Western lex orandi, placing it in harmony and at the base of the lex credendi, the lex intelligendi and the lex definiendi.²⁹⁰ In addition, he shows how the devotional experience of the faithful and their consensus from below corresponds with the magisterium from above in motivation and confirmation.

A look at Munficentissimus Deus of Pius XII (1950) cannot fail to show a harmony between Fr. Quadrio's investigation and the historical-theological panorama in the papal document. The bull, in fact, starts from the consensus of the faithful,²⁹¹ as witnessed by the Petitiones and by the responses to Deiparae Virginis Mariiae of 1946, referring to expressions of Marian piety (churches, cities, religious institutions, the Rosary, art), the liturgy (Feast of the Assumption in East and West) and to the consensus of the Fathers and theologians (quoting St. John Damascene, St. Thomas, St. Bonaventure, St. Robert Bellarmine); founding finally, this awareness of faith on the dogmatic realities of the divine motherhood of Mary, her grace and holiness, and her virginity.

Certainly the monumental historical-dogmatic researches by Jugie and Balic, in addition to the theological reflection of the great Assumption supporters of the '40s, were indispensable support for the definition of the dogma. Nevertheless, although published some months after the solemn proclamation, Fr. Quadrio's thesis – already known in substance by his teachers – cannot be neglected as excellent historical and dogmatic support for the truth just defined.²⁹²

Anyway, in him are found the methodological guidelines of the Roman school of the 1800s, that is, attention to research and above all in the essential reference to the Fathers and to the liturgical and theological tradition. More than an exaggerated theoretical deductivism, there is a more respectful attitude toward the historical data in all its manifestations and articulations. And this, at the beginning of the '50s, constitutes an innovative tendency of great modernity, which will have wider recognition and development at Vatican II and in the following period.

It is evident that Fr. Quadrio's hermeneutical palette is still pre-Conciliar. Thus, his interpretation, exposition and evaluation of Pseudo-Augustine has certain limitations common to that time. For example, in his research he still sticks with – and so with no divergence from the author he writes about – a certain “passive” preconception, a “matter of privilege” of the figure of Mary, while, for example, the Council would have considered the Assumption principally as an essential consequence of the burden of Mary's faith, hope and charity (see Lumen Gentium 59).

There is lacking, also, a wider ecclesial consideration of Mary Assumed as an image and principle of the Church of the age to come and as an eschatological sign of hope for humanity (see Lumen Gentium 68).

Fr. Quadrio did not notice the danger of the strict parallelism between Jesus and Mary developed by Pseudo-Augustine.²⁹³

This notwithstanding, Fr. Quadrio's thesis repudiates in large part the affirmations of pathologically galloping Mariology of the pre-Conciliar years. Partly removed was the prejudice that the Mariology of the time was entirely based on deduction, far from the inspiration of Patristic sources. The accurate investigation made by the young Salesian scholar is not in fact accidental. It is the fruit of a mind sensitive to the historical dimension, and thus ready to accept the epochal change of direction of the Council, which he already had seen in a nutshell.

I will briefly consider his lecture notes for the treatise on the Sacrament of Penance, and those for the treatise on the theological virtues. I will also make some reference, suggested by the affinity of the expository method used by Fr. Quadrio, for a non-academic handout entitled The Greatness of Chrisian Marriage, which collects some “family conversations on the dignity of marriage”. On the other hand, it is difficult to trace out elements directly pertinent to our investigation in Problems of Today: Marginal Notes on the Treatise on God the Creator.³¹³

It is known that Father Quadrio's lecture notes meet specific teaching criteria, especially clarity, brevity³¹⁴ and adherence to the teaching of a master, and critical investigation of a disciple.³¹⁵ The rigor with which Fr Quadrio pursues these criteria gives his lecture notes an original character, which distinguishes them from similar work.

With regard to recourse to the Fathers, he essentially follows the traditional method, considering patristic writings as theology, and pulling out of them long and thick tables of arguments in support of dogmatic assertions. This methodological approach in the lecture notes depends, in turn, on the character of theological studies of the particular year in which Father Quadrio was learning or teaching. Patristic research, as I mentioned earlier, did not enjoy its own autonomy and was not a discipline in its own right: in fact, dogmatics ended up absorbing patristics.³¹⁶ From this point of view the lecture notes of Fr. Quadrio appear clearly dated.

On the other hand, the author's diligence and commitment to combine brevity and completeness give the discussion of the Fathers some element of originality and wider autonomic space than other handouts and manuals of that time. In other words, it seems we can also apply to the "Patristic data" what Fr. Quadrio himself wrote in the introduction to his Greatness of Christian Marriage about the Scriptural and liturgical data: “What we say here," he acknowledged, "is contained (at least substantially and fundamentally) in Fr. Charles Boyer's little Synopsis praelectionum Sacramento Matrimonii [Course reader: synopsis of the Sacrament of Marriage]. But we will proceed with more adherence to the scriptural and liturgical data.”³¹⁷

Indeed, it is possible to find an objective commitment to “more adherence to the patristic data,” especially comparing Lecture notes for the Treatise on Penance with the Fr. Boyer's Treatise on the Sacrament of Penance, or with another manual enjoying success at the Gregorian Universality during Fr. Quadrio's years there, namely, Fr. Galtier's De Paenitentia [On Penance].³¹⁸

However it would be rather simplistic to consider the "greater adherence to patristic data" as merely a successful result of teaching criteria properly identified and rigorously applied.

Rather, we need to recognize in Fr. Quadrio an attitude of strong interest in the Fathers, as bearers of the living Christian tradition and guarantors of an authentic renewal of theological sciences: to them therefore it is necessary to have frequent recourse, otherwise research becomes sterile.³¹⁹ It is certainly no coincidence that both the Lecture notes on Penance and the Lecture Notes on the Virtues would open with the quotation of that still famous passage in Humani Generis (one of the Encyclicals most familiar to Fr. Quadrio, on which depend, we might say, his marginal notes to the Treatise on God Creator),³²⁰ where Pius XII indicated in "Return to the sources" the way to “restore youth to the sacred disciplines”³²¹ The cultural sensitivity of which Fr. Quadrio was endowed, according to the agreed testimony of colleagues and students, the concrete experience of classroom dialogue and diligent exercise of pastoral ministry, allowed him to validate in an original manner relevant indications of the Magisterium³²² and fruitful decades of teaching, and with that to intuit the dawn of a new era for theological studies.³²³

Ultimately, on the one hand, an explicitly stated commitment to “more adherence to scriptural and liturgical data”, and - undeclared but effective - to a more careful use of the Fathers, free Fr. Quadrio's lecture notes from the risk of an overly conceptual processing of the mysteries of faith. On the other hand, they allow us to find some unmistakable notes of renewal in the dogmatic treatises characteristic of post-war Italy.³²⁴

Very little is gleaned by our investigation of forty-nine book reviews by Fr. Quadrio appearing in Salesianum between 1951 and 1963. They cover publications often linked to issues of Mariology, theological anthropology and eschatology. It can be said, in a very general way, that they confirm his familiarity with the Fathers, even in relation to such complex and sometimes contradictory matters as patristic eschatology.³²⁵

Regarding his unpublished material for sermons, meditations, conferences and retreats),³²⁶ the analysis shows that in the rich tapestry of quotations there are also the Fathers of the Church, but we cannot say they merit a special place. As befits the characteristics of the sermon genre, in Father Quadrio there is a systematic reference to the authors of the Old and especially the New Testament, while the other citations - including Fathers - appear somewhat rhapsodic. Unless I'm mistaken, in addition to the generic allusion to the "Fathers of the Church" - repeatedly attested - and a few references to ancient liturgical sources and martyrologies, we can trace a specific mention of Ignatius, one of Tertullian, one of Ambrose, one of Leo the Great, one of the Benedictine Rule, and nine citations of Augustine. To these data can be add an excerpt his spiritual conference on the Church and culture: “Already in the first propagation [of the Faith] in the second century,” it says there, “there arose in Smyrna, in Rome, Alexandria and Edessa famous centers of learning and Christian wisdom. Between the second and third century flourished the famous didascalei (or higher schools) of Alexandria, Caesarea, Antioch, from which drew their knowledge, to mention only the greatest: Clement of Alexandria, Origen, St. Dionysius the Great, Eusebius of Caesarea, Athanasius, Didymus the Blind, St. Basil the Great, St. John Chrysostom ... These Fathers and ecclesiastical writers, along with St. Hilary, St. Jerome, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine and countless other doctors and teachers of the Church were all considered as leaders of science and culture. Who around the third century spoke Latin like the incisive and caustic Tertullian? Who in the fourth century surpassed St. Basil, or Augustine in the fifth century?”

Overall, the data seem to confirm the constant interest of Fr. Quadrio for the writings of the Fathers, his familiarity with the Augustinian corpus,³²⁷ and especially in his sermons to transmit the deposit of Tradition.

I believe that this concern is supported, rather than contradicted, by a conference on modern preaching, given to clerics some day or other.³²⁸ Fr. Quadrio warned them that one of the most unpleasant defects of the preacher is being not understood, and in the list of elements needed for effective popularization he put the heading “Fathers of the Church.” This is simply a little note, followed by three dots of continuation. Very likely Fr. Quadrio wanted to suggest to the clerics that sermons to the people - rather than repeating the stereotyped formula "Fathers of the Church" or dazzling the audience with brilliant quotes - should popularize the teaching of the Fathers, when it has been assimilated in depth. In fact, it should be recognized that the Father Quadrio was first himself implementing that rule, because - beyond the very limited number of explicit patristic citations - the content of his preaching appears solidly fed by the doctrine of the Fathers.

Both in pastoral ministry and in teaching theology he adhered closely to the strong warning - mentioned above – in Humani Generis, neither did he tire of urging its observance in formation conferences for priests and clerics: “Theologians must always return to the sources of divine revelation,” warned the magisterial text of Pius XII, referring explicitly to the Scriptures and the Fathers. “The sacred sciences with the study of the sources of Revelation always rejuvenate, while on the contrary, as we know from experience, speculation which neglects the search for the Holy Deposit of Faith becomes sterile.”³²⁹

Everyone is aware that the issue of appeal to the Fathers draws from the very substance of “doing theology”, if it is true that the hermeneutic of tradition lies at the crossroads of theological research.³³⁸ Therefore, the analysis carried out so far on patristic references in the writings in question is of no secondary importance.

But to get from them some indications on the methodological orientation of Father Quadrio between traditional models of theology and innovative stimuli, we need to return to the consideration of theological and patristic studies in Italy around 1950, and in particular, to the rapport between dogmatics and patristics, as it played out in the formation curriculum of the Gregorian University.³³⁹

I've already talked about this "ancillarity" of patristics in regard to theology. The objective finding is corroborated by the fact that during the basic curriculum the Theology Department at the Gregorian University did not provide for the teaching of the Fathers as a separate discipline, but as an integral part of dogma, to which were reserved a total of ten hours per week. In this way a wide exhibition of patristic doctrine was ensured, but always in strict dependence on dogmatic treatises in question. Very rarely ecclesiastical writers might appear to the student as real people, set in their own historical and cultural context, characterized by spiritual stories and unrepeatable insights of thought. The obvious risk was that of a “historical flattening” of theological reflection and undue absolutization of the underlying model of the dogmatic theology treatises: in this model – as on a “Procrustean bed” - the reading of the Fathers was fitted for theology.

There are cases – it must be recognized - of dogma of teachers who were also talented patrologists. One could mention Fr. Quadrio's mentor, Fr. Charles Boyer, author of many valuable publications on St. Augustine. Fr. Quadrio's particular attention to the Augustinian corpus certainly stems from Boyer's teaching. But the character of Boyer's patristic research clearly confirms our judgment. Overall he seems overly concerned to reconcile instances of Augustinian thought with that of Thomas, sometimes at the expense of proper historical setting of the investigation.³⁴⁰

The situation in textbooks, too, is indicative. Altaner's text, which reached its third Italian edition in 1944, remained in fact a volume for consultation. More used were Manucci's Instituzioni di Patrologia [Institutions of Patrology], updated several times since by Fr. Casamassa, and coming out in sixth edition between 1948 and 1950. But the real “manual” was only Fr. Rouët de Journel's Enchiridion Patristicum [Patrology Handbook] (fourteenth edition in 1946), which better met the needs of treatise compilers and students.

We should still make clear that at least the framework of patristic studies was recovered in a systematic way in the teaching of Church History. In this discipline Fr. Quadrio found a skilful master in the Fr. Ludwig von Hertling, who in 1949 published the famous Geschichte der katholischen Kirche [History of the Catholic Church], translated into Italian much later, in 1967. It then went through several reprintings.³⁴¹ While teaching Fr. Quadrio, however , Fr. Hertling did not use books or handouts; students wrote up their notes from the teacher's spoken word.

Overall, it should be recognized that the educational setup at the Gregorian faithfully reflected the deeply privileged place accorded by the Magisterium, during and after the modernist crisis, to scholastic philosophy and Thomistic and post-Thomistic conceptualizations of theology. The “return to the Fathers” and the recovery of the historical dimension in theological work - emerging in France around Fr. de Lubac and Fr. Danielou in the '40s and '50s - remained largely foreign to Roman academia.

From this context, the stated commitment of Father Quadrio for a “better fit to the scriptural and liturgical data,” precisely with respect to the treatises of his revered master Charles Boyer, could not but take on the value of a prophetic signal. It was the intuition - how conscious, is hard to say - that scholastic conceptualizations were somehow being re-cast through the “return to the sources” and a more careful consideration of the lessons of history.

This is clearly not to inflate at all costs the scope of a simple statement by Fr. Quadrio, in order to show off a pioneer of theological renewal according to a canvas imposed by postmortem medals of honor. We have seen already that his fundamental monograph, since the time of publication, was vulnerable to criticism for a clear disproportion between the historical-philological investigations and systematic dogma.³⁴²

More generally, the recovered data on Fr. Quadrio's recourse to the Fathers of the Church and their way to “do theology” appear undeniable. We have captured them several times in the course of this analysis, and we can justify considering the context in which he did his teacher training – from which he did not want to free himself, but continued to depend on the Gregorian environment of the '40s.

But we cannot underestimate the convinced application by Fr. Quadrio - borrowed in an original way from Humani Generis – of a rejuvenation of the theological sciences through the use of Scripture and Tradition, and the actual commitment to a “better fit” to the patristic data found in several of his writings. At least from this point of view he seems to fit more or less consciously into the fervent atmosphere of pre-conciliar theological renewal.

And perhaps the historian will have to lay aside less nuanced assessments, taking into account that Fr. Quadrio's more mature scientific production, in relation to his age and the change in direction of post-conciliar theology, was cut short ineluctably by his illness and death.

In the pages we've examined, the human and theological Fr. Quadrio is reflected, even in the language of a remote dialogue with readers. He was a theologian, entirely priestly in soul. He had a vivid consciousness of the manifold function confided to a theologian in the Church, and the pages he wrote for Meridiano 12 highlight the pastoral projection of his theological research.

Wanting to highlight the most striking qualities of the personality of Father Quadrio, a theologian responsive to pastoral needs in these his popular writings, it seems to us that they are: scientific seriousness, attention to the reader's personality, and openness to the dynamism of the Church, to culture and to events in society.

Parish Archive of Vervio (1901-1940) p. 52: Family of Giovanni Quadrio (paternal grandfather of Fr. Giuseppe Quadrio); p. 188: Family of Agostino Quadrio (father of Fr. Giuseppe Quadrio).

Marriage certificate of Agostino Quadrio and Giacomina Robustelli, 12 Jan., 1910: St. Eusebius Parish, Grosotto (Sondrio), 2 April, 1985.

1. Birth Certificate, 28 November 1921, town of Vendo (Sondrio), Civil State Office, 25 April 1936.

2. Certificate of health and absence of contagious diseases, from Dr. Francesco Foppoli, town of Vendo (Sondrio), September 1933.

3. Another certificate of sound health and robust constitution: Ivrea, 10 June, 1936.

4. Affidavit of Royal Army Infirmarian, fitness for service as health aide. Signed: Medical Officer, Chieri, Villa Moglia, 1 July 1940.

5. Form for indefinite leave from recruitment and induction; exempted from military service, having religious vows. Signed: Col. Giuseppe Cagianelli, city of Turin, 15 January 1942.

6. Another certificate of exemption from military service, being a religious with vows. Signed: Lt. Col. V.M., 41st Military District, Turin, 19 June 1944.

7. Identity card # 35148472, 24 April 1956, issued at Turin.

8. Photocopy of identity card, 1956.

9. Passport, dated 10 July 1950, with photograph.

Salesians:

Abbà, Giuseppe

Alossa, Arturo

Bava, Mario

Beltramo, Luigi

Bergamelli, Ferdinando

Bertetto, Domenico

Brocardo, Pietro

Cadelli, Giuseppe

Castano, Luigi³⁸⁷

Catalanotto, Cristoforo

Ceresa, Pietro

Crespi, Luigi

Curmi, Roberto

Del Mazza, Valentino

Faresin, Camillo, Bishop of Guiratinga (Brazil)

Farina, Raffaele

Franzetti, Gianpaolo

Frattallone, Raimondo

Gamba, Giuseppe Giovanni

García-Verdugo, Alberto

Giannatelli, Roberto

Gonzales Morales, Tomas, Vescovo di Puntarenas (Cile)

Groppo, Giuseppe

Grussu, Mario

Loss, Nicola

Mc Pake, Martin

Mognoni, Santo

Moser, Hilario, now Bishop of Olinda and Recife (Brazil)

Natali, Paolo

Nihoul, Femand

Oberosler, Roberto

Palumbieri, Sabino

Picca, Juan

Puthanangady, Pani

Praduroux, Emilio

Rivera Aroca, Celestino

Sabbe, Albert

Salerno, Rosario

Seita, Giuseppe

Sitia, Carlo

Vallino, Rinaldo

Valentini, Eugenio

Vanzetto, Adone

FMA:

Aretti, Pia

Bigatti, Teresa

Chiesa, Luigia

Dalcerri, Lina

Dalmasso, Carmelina

Dalmoro, Antonia

Franceschi, Maria

Gribaudo, Domenica

Massa, Giovanna

Roso, Anna

Tamagnone, Anna

Tondo, Maria

Valente, Angela

Non-Salesian priests and religious:

Capello, Carlo

Colombero, Giuseppe

Mattai, Giuseppe

Modenesi, Valerio, nephew of Fr. Quadrio

Ruffino, Giuseppe

Trevisan, Sr. Serafina

Lay persons:

Bardi, Franca

Bardi, Renato

Barra, Antonia, infirmarian for Fr. Quadrio

De Leo, Carmelo

Gianoglio Toja, Pierina

Illarietti, Albina in Quadrio, sister-in-law of Fr. Quadrio

Mezzana, Anna

Pepino, Luigi, physician for Fr. Quadrio

Pigorini, Mario

Quadrio, Augusto, Fr. Quadrio's brother

Quadrio, Elsa in Della Bosca

Quadrio, Gemma

Quadrio, Maria (la Pimpa)

Quadrio, Maria, sister-in-law and cousin of Fr. Quadrio

Quadrio, Marianna (widow: Modenesi), Fr. Quadrio's sister

Ricco, Giuseppe, physician for Fr. Quadrio

Zanin, Agnese, infirmarian for Fr. Quadrio

Salesians:

Bava, Mario

Cagnazzo, Sergio

Camilleri, Nazareno

Castillo Lara, Cardinal Rosalio

Cuva, Armando

Cantini, Juan

Franzini, Clemente

Iacoangeli, Roberto

Maggio, Stefano

Oliviero, Antimo

Pedrini, Amaldo

Pettenuzzo, Carlo

Quarello, Eraldo

Ricceri Luigi, Rector Major Emeritus of SDB

Rudoni, Antonio

Scampini, Giuseppe

Scrivo, Gaetano

Stefani, Dusan

Vecchi, Juan

Verdecchia, Amedeo

Non-Salesian priests and religious:

Asensio, Felix, SJ

Cristiani, M. Pia, Super. Gen. of the Albertine Sisters

Dezza, Cardinal Paolo

Garrido Bonano, Manuel, OSB

Lebrun, Card. José Alì, Archbishop of Caracas

Marranzini, Alfredo, SJ

Piolanti, Mons. Antonio

Robustelli, Piero, Fr. Quadrio's cousin

Vecchio, Vincenzo

Lay persons:

Canclini, Giuseppe

Emidi, Serafino

Foppoli Crotti, Gina

Odello, Lorenzo

Quadrio, Anna

Visini, Luigi

Inserted and published in the mimeographed Connection Bulletin of priests ordained in 1960, on the fourth anniversary of their ordination (11 February 1964). It shows the list of authors of the testimonies, with the dual reference to the mimeographed page and the book page in E. Valentini Don Giuseppe Quadrio modello di spirito sacerdotale [Fr. Giuseppe Quadrio, Model of Priestly Spirit], (Spirito e Vita 6), LAS, Rome 1980:

Folder 4: unpublished works

Diaries and intimate writings (from 12 September 1936 to11 June 1962), with a total of 10 documentary items:

1. Spiritual diary written during his novitiate (12 September 12 1936 – 30 June 1937).

2. Sheets reserved for his spiritual director in the novitiate (1936 -1937).

3. Notebook of novitiate conferences (26 September 1936 – 3 March 1937).

4. Summary of a conference by Fr. Renato Ziggiotti (April 20, 1937).

5. Personal retreat resolutions (3 August 3 1942).

6. Spiritual Diary (28 October 1943 – 16 July 1958).

7. Sheet with plan of life (22 March 1946).

8. Notes during a retreat (Ivrea, 4 to 10 August 1949).

9. Diary of spiritual agenda (2 January to 11 June 1962).

10. Sheet of resolutions [no date].

Writings on academic and religious-spiritual themes, of various types and not exactly in cronological order.:

1. Two talks at Vervio, 20 July 1947 (First Mass in home town).

2. Talks in preparation for or in connection with priestly ordinations.

3. On the occasion of the canonization of Pius X.

4. Talks on Pius XII.

5. In the first evening of the triduum to start the school year.

6. On the last day of the year 1952.

7. Conversation about death.

8. Writings on Judgment.

9. Writings on Christian marriage.

10. Comments on various parts of the Mass.

11. An examination of conscience formulated with questions.

12. Folder with a warning for a confrere.

13. Draft of the manuscript for the debate on the definability of the dogma of the Assumption.

14. Typed draft of the previous document.

15. The Thomistic doctrine of the self-perception of the soul compared to modern thought.

16. Program for II Congress of the “Friends of Catechesis” held in Assisi, 12-16 September 1960.

17. Miscellaneous writings.

18. Typed manuscript of 324 pages (dated: Rome, 1949), and entitled: “The treatise 'De Assumptione Beatae Mariae Virginis' of Pseudo-Augustine and its influence in Latin theology of the Assumption."

This unit of the archive has undergone the following phases of organization:

1. At first (1985), it was decided to put together the countless sheets, scattered in various boxes in which the “Quadrio material” had been haphazardly dumped. The recognition of these sheets, as homily notes or not, as lecture notes or otherwise, took the most care and time. Many of these sheets had been used, but without any special mention, for Fr. E. Valentini's publications on Father Quadrio. He also had part of the original manuscripts typed up (unfortunately on rice paper, now barely readable and usable), a good 459 pages. Part of the original manuscripts, which, once typed up, were unfortunately destroyed or lost somehow. I had confirmation of this from Fr. Valentini himself, for what he could still remember after more than 20 years.

The best result at first, then, was the following double series:

- Series I of homilies, 459 pages. Put together in no particular sorting order, by Fr. E. Valentini and typed up.

- Series II of homilies, 212 pages. Handwritten, which I ordered thematically as follows:

1. Homilies for Advent and Christmas.

2. Homilies for Lent and Easter.

3. Homilies for Ordinary Time.

4. Homilies on Our Lady.

5. Homilies on the Saints.

6. Homilies on St. Joseph.

7. Various homilies commenting on the Gospels.

8. Homilies in notebooks.

9. Homily at a wedding (his brother Augusto).

10. Homily at the conclusion of the spiritual retreat.

11. Homily at the Mass of the National Eucharistic Congress (Turin, September 6, 1953).

12. Homilies on the topic "Holy Mass ".

13. Two similar homilies with variations.

14. Two other similar homilies with variations.

2. The second phase (1992-1993) of organizing this material coincides with the time of its preparation with a view to publication. For this purpose, the curator of the same, Remo Bracchi, modified the previous order, and arranged it according to an index based not on where the papers came from, but, basically, the cycle of the liturgical year. That decision is more functional for its publication as a pastoral aid, but taking care at the same time to preserve the internal units of the corpus and keep each to a chronological order.³⁸⁸

Folder 5: published works

1.Books

1.1. Il trattato «De Assumptione Beatae Mariae Virginis» dello Pseudo-Agostino e il suo influsso nella teologia assunzionista latina [The treatise 'De Assumptione Beatae Mariae Virginis' of Pseudo-Augustine and its influence in Latin theology of the Assumption], PUG, Rome 1951, XV-428 pp.

1.2. O comunismo apresentado pelos seus mentores [Communism as Presented by its Mentors, tr. Giuseppe Abbà], Edit. Salesiana, Lisboa 1959, 98 pp.

1.3. Maria e la Chiesa. La mediazione sociale di Maria SS. nell'insegnamento dei papi; da Gregorio XVI a Pio XII [Mary and the Church: The Social Mediation of Mary Most Holy in Papal Teaching, from Gregory XVI to Pius XII] (Accademia Mariana Salesiana 5), SEI, Turin 1962, VIII-291 pp.

2.Articles and dictionary entries

2.1. “La definizione dogmatica dell'Assunzione di Maria SS. alla luce della Tradizione” [The Dogmatic Defnition of the Assumption of Mary Most Holy in the Light of Tradition], in Salesianum 12 (1950) 463-486.

2.2. “Le ragioni teologiche addotte dalla Costituzione «Munificentissimus Deus» alla luce della Tradizione fino al Concilio Vaticano [I]” [The Theological Reasoning Adopted by the Constitution Munificentissimus Deus], in La Scuola Cattolica [The Catholic School] 79 (1951) 18-51.

2.3. [unsigned], “Maria Ausiliatrice lo vuole” [Mary Help of Christians Wants It], in Il Bollettino Salesiano [Salesian Bulletin = BS] 76/9 (1952) 161-163.

2.4. “La fede. La perdita della fede nei cattolici” [Loss of Faith by Catholics], in Dizionario Ecclesiastico [Ecclesiastical Dictionary, = DE], I, UTET, Turin 1953, pp. 1076-1078.

2.5. “La mediazione sociale di Maria nel magistero di Pio XII” [The Social Mediation of Mary in the Magisterium of Pius XII], in L'Ausiliatrice della Chiesa e del papa [Mary Help of the Church and of the Pope] (Accademia Mariana Salesiana 2), SEI, Turin 1953, pp. 91-125.

2.6. “La mediazione sociale di Maria SS. nel magistero di Pio X” [The Social Mediation of Mary in the Magisterium of Pius X], in Problemi scelti di teologia contemporanea [Select Problems in Contemporary Theology] (Analecta Gregoriana), PUG, Rome 1954, pp. 361-381.³⁸⁹

2.7. “L'Immacolata e la Chiesa nell'insegnamento di Pio IX” [Mary Immaculate and the Church in the Teaching of Pius IX, in L'Immacolata Ausiliatrice [The Immaculate Help of Christians] (Accademia Mariana Salesiana 3), SEI, Turin 1955, pp. 41-64.³⁹⁰

2.8. “La mediazione sociale di Maria SS. nel magistero di Pio XI” [The Social Mediation of Mary Most Holy in the Magisterium of Pius XI], in Salesianum 17 (1955) 472-493.

2.9. “Monogenismo e poligenismo. Dottrina cattolica” [Monogenism and Polygenism: Catholic Doctrine], in DE, II, UTET, Turin 1955, p. 1041.

2.10. [unsigned], “Pio IX e Maria Ausiliatrice” [Pius IX and Mary Help of Christians], in BS 79/9 (1955) 161-163.

2.11. [unsigned], “Pio XII e Maria Ausiliatrice” [Pius XII and Mary Help of Christians], in BS 80/9 (1956) 161-163.

2.12. [unsigned], “Modellatrice del carattere” [Character Model], in BS 81/9 (1957) 161-162.

2.13. “La comunione dei santi” [The Communion of Saints], in Salesianum 20 (1958) 129-135.

2.14. “L'insegnamento mariano del papa Gregorio XVI (1831-1846)” [The Marian Teaching of Pope Gregory XVI], in AA. VV., Relazioni commemorative del Centenario Lourdiano [Commemorative Contributions for the Lourdes Centenary = CLC] (Accademia Mariana Salesiana 6), SEI, Turin 1958, pp. 55-74 [also published in Salesianum 20 (1958) 542-561].

2.15. “Maria Mediatrice e la Chiesa nell'insegnamento del papa Benedetto XV” [Mary Mediatrix and the Church in the Teaching of Pope Benedict XV], in CLC pp. 75-108 [also published in Salesianum 20 (1958) 562-595].

2.16. “Pluralità dei mondi abitati” [Plurality of Inhabited Worlds], in DE, III, UTET, Turin 1958, pp. 247-248.

2.17. “Preadamitici” [People Before Adam], in DE, III, UTET, Turin 1958, p. 307.

2.18. “Teilhard de Chardin”, in DE, III, UTET, Turin 1958, pp. 1056-1057.

2.19. “Origine, antichità dell'uomo” [Origin and Antiquity of Man, in the entry “Uomo” (Man)], in DE, III, UTET, Turin 1958, pp. 1239-1242.

2.20. [unsiged], “La Vittoriosa” [Victorious Lady], in BS 82/9 (1958) 161-162.

2.21. [unsigned], “Perché l'Italia si consacra a Maria” [Why is Italy Consecrated to Mary], in BS 83/17 (1959) 345-347.

2.22. “Le relazioni tra Maria e la Chiesa nell'insegnamento di Leone XIII” [The Relations Between Mary and the Church in the Teaching of Leo XIII], in Maria et Ecclesia. Acta Congressus Mariologici Mariani, vol. III, Lourdes 1958 (Academia Mariana Internationalis), AMI, Rome 1959, pp. 611-641.

2.23. “Teologia dogmatica e catechesi” [Dogmatic Theology and Catechesis], in Bibbia liturgia e dogma nella preparazione dottrinale del sacerdote catechista [Bible, Liturgy and Dogma in the Doctrinal Preparation of the Catechist Priest] (Studi di catechesi [Catechist Studies] 2), LDC, Turin 1959, pp. 39-53.

2.24. [unsigned], “La Patrona e Maestra del Concilio Ecumenico” [Patron and Teacher of the Ecumenical Council], in BS 84/9 (1960) 177-178.

2.25. [unsigned], “Don Bosco e le vocazioni” [Don Bosco and Vocations], in BS 84/9 (1960) 180-182.

2.26. “S. Tommaso e le origini del lavoro nella Bibbia” [St. Thomas and the Origins of Work in the Bible], in Thomistica morum principia. Communicationes Congressus Thomistici Internationalis [Proceedings of the International Congress on Thomistic Morality], Rome 13-17 September 1960 (Bibl. Pontif. Academiae Romanae Officium Libri Catholici, Rome 1960, pp. 481-496.

2.27. [unsigned], “La Chiesa guida morale della società” [The Church, Moral Guide for Society], in BS 85/11 (1961) 181-183.

2.28. [unsigned], “Prurito di riforma” [Itching for Reform], in Atti del Capitolo Superiore [Acts of the Superior Chapter = ACS] 8/223 (1962) 1275-1277.

2.29. [unsigned], “Le colonne della Chiesa” [The Columns of the Church], in BS 86/5 (1962) 145-147.

2.30.[unsigned], “Chiesa una, santa, cattolica, apostolica” [One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church], in ACS 8/227 (1962) 1372-1376.

2.31.[unsigned], “Maria SS. e la Chiesa” [Mary Most Holy and the Church], in BS 87/9 (1963) 145-147.

Posthumous articles published in Maria Ausiliatrice / Sussidi [Mary Help of Christians / Aids]

2.32. “Vergine del silenzio” [Virgin of Silence], ibid. 5 (1981) 22-23.

2.33. “La prima parola di Maria” [The First Word from Mary], ibid 7 (1981) 22-24.

2.34. “La seconda parola di Maria,[The Second Word from Mary] ibid 9 (1981) 22-24.

2.35. “La terza parola di Maria,[The Third Word from Mary] ibid 2 (1982) 22-24.

2.36. “La quarta parola di Maria,[The Fourth Word from Mary] ibid 4 (1982) 22-24.

2.37. “La quinta e sesta parola di Maria” ,[The Fifth and Sixth Words from Mary] ibid 8 (1982) 22-24.

3.Reviews published in:

3.1	13 (1951) 605	Bertetto, Maria Corredentrice [Mary, Co-Redemptrix]
3.2.	15 (1953) 693s.	Hesbert-Bertrand (ed.), L'Assomption [The Assumption]
3.3.	15 (1953) 694	Bardy etc., L'inferno [Hell]
3.4.	16 (1954) 167s.	Bertetto, Maria Immacolata [Mary Immaculate]
3.5.	17 (1955) 168	Peterson, Le livre [The Book]
3.6.	19 (1957) 144s.	Bertetto (ed.), Il magistero mariano [Marian Teaching]
3.7.	19 (1957) 145s.	Marin (cur.), Doctrina pontificia [Pontifical Doctrine]
3.8.	19 (1957) 339	Marcozzi, Le origini [The Origins]
3.9.	19 (1957) 339s	Grison, Problèmes [Problems]
3.10.	19 (1957) 340-342	Aa.Vv., El evolucionismo [Evolutionism]
3.11.	19 (1957) 355s.	Van Roo, Grace
3.12.	19 (1957) 512s.	Thibon, Crisi moderna [Modern Crisis]
3.13.	19 (1957) 520	Thivolier, L'uomo [Man]
3.14.	19 (1957) 520s.	Vecchi, Il rovesciamento [The Overthrow]
3.15.	19 (1957) 523s.	Acqua, Quo vadis [Where Are You Going?]
3.16.	19 (1957) 524s.	Corte, Satan
3.17.	19 (1957) 525s.	Bartmann, Manuale [Manual]
3.18.	19 (1957) 526s.	Verriele, Il soprannaturale [The Supernatural]
3.19.	19 (1957) 669s.	Brunhes, La ragionevolezza [Reasonableness]
3.20.	19 (1957) 670	Morano, Religio [Religion]
3.21.	19 (1957) 670s.	Joly, Qu'est-ce que croire? [What to Believe?]
3.22.	19 (1957) 672s.	Bertetto, Sacerdozio [Priesthood]
3.23.	19 (1957) 675	Bertetto, Maria e i protestanti [Mary and the Protestants]
3.24.	19 (1957) 677	Bertetto (cur.), Il magistero [The Magisterium]
3.25.	19 (1957) 689	Hohm, Il ponte [The Bridge]
3.26.	19 (1957) 693s.	Berti, Methodologiae [Methodology]
3.27.	20 (1958) 278	Gianotti, Verso l'altare [Towards the Altar]
3.28.	20 (1958) 450s.	Van der Meer, Diario [Diary]
3.29.	20 (1958) 451	Barra, Presenza [Presence]
3.30.	20 (1958) 475	Piolanti, Natura [Nature]
3.31.	21 (1959) 182s.	Rideau, Paganesimo [Paganism]
3.32.	21 (1959) 183s.	Schaller, Secours [Help]
3.33.	21 (1959) 184s.	Wilson, Perdono [Pardon]
3.34.	21 (1959) 693s	Schmaus, Essenza [Essence]
3.35.	21 (1959) 695-697	Flick-Alszeghy, Il Creatore [The Creator]
3.36.	21 (1959) 697-699	Wright, The Order
3.37.	21 (1959) 699	Riaza, El comienzo [The Beginning]
3.38.	21 (1959) 700s.	Daniel, Doctrina [Doctrine]
3.39.	21 (1959) 702-704	D'Avanzo, L'Unzione [Anointing]
3.40.	21 (1959) 704s.	D'Arcy, Comunismo [Communism]
3.41.	21 (1959) 735	Marcozzi, Il problema [The Problem]
3.42.	21 (1959) 741s.	Kouznietsoff, L'étoile [The Star]
3.43.	22 (1960) 152s.	Piolantí (cur.), I sacramenti [The Sacraments]
3.44.	22 (1960) 475s.	Piolanti, Dio nel mondo [God in the World]
3.45.	22 (1960) 496	Calò etc., L'odio [Hate]
3.46.	25 (1963) 189	Bertetto, Gesù Redentore [Jesus, Redeemer]
3.47.	25 (1963) 189	Flick-Alszeghy, Il Creatore [The Creator]
3.48.	25 (1963) 189s.	Peder, L'atto di fede [The Act of Faith]
3.49.	25 (1963) 665s.	Jenny, La santa messa [The Holy Mass]