The Age of Love

Father Riccardo Lombardi's "Crusade of Love" (TIME, March 1) marched on. In Naples of the volatile south, as in Milan of the sober north, the impassioned exhortations of the pale little Jesuit reached hundreds of thousands.

Rolling Stone. For the opening address of the Crusade, Milan's Lyric Theater had been jampacked, and thousands more heard loudspeakers in the square outside. On the stage Father Lombardi stepped from behind the red curtains, nervously rubbing his hands--a tired-looking, unimpressive little priest. When he spoke, his listeners forgot what he looked like:

"It is a stone that begins rolling this moment here in Milan; it will go through the Italian cities, villages and regions, then to the outside world and to the end of time. . . . There will be angels in Heaven for all eternity because of this moment. . . . For five centuries men have tried to make the world fit for heroes. The result is that angry individualism and angry collectivism stand growling at each other. ... A generation of dwarfs is looking to the atom bomb and V-bombs that may destroy all humanity. . . .

"[But] there are immense treasures of holiness dispersed here & there--usually in the most unexpected places. . . . Perfection is no longer in the mountains with hermits, in the convents with nuns. It is in the streets, in the banks, in the shops, in the trains and trolleys. Only last week the Roman trolley-car drivers gave a whole of one day's pay to the poor. That means one day of starvation."

Christian Charity. When Father Lombardi left the theater, the crowd forced him to the top of a parked truck. "Down with Communism!" they roared.

"But there is much in Communism that must be adopted through Christian charity," cried Lombardi. He reproved the crowd for their demonstration and clambered down, his pale face shiny with sweat.

Next day, his following was so great that Milan's Cardinal Schuster granted him the use of the cathedral. It was not nearly big enough. A throng of 300,000 came to hear him call upon Italy to "give the world a new age of Christian individualism wherein the wealthy, like the early Christians, gladly share their excess wealth. . . . Woe to the rich man who does not hear the call. Woe to the poor man who angrily nourishes hate and dreams of violence.. . . The age of love is approaching."

Red Roses. In Naples, the same week, Father Lombardi landed at the Capodichino airport--just as a huge truck sped into the city, bearing, under a gilded, pillared canopy, the picture of the Madonna di Pompeii. A salvo of 21 guns sounded in greeting, showers of flower petals filled the air and hundreds of thousands of candles were lit.

For a full 24 hours gold-spectacled merchants, sheep-faced bumpkins from the farmyards, wispy old ladies and hot-eyed, big-bosomed Neapolitan beauties pushed and stampeded through the door of Naples' cathedral, where the Madonna di Pompeii had been raised on an altar surrounded by the reddest roses.

After a day and night of praying, singing, weeping and fainting, 400,000 people filled the red-pillared Piazza del Plebiscite, overflowed into the wide Piazza San Ferdinando, down the broad street in front of the San Carlo Opera House, and expanded again to fill the rectangular Piazza del Municipio. They came to hear Father Lombardi.

Clean Consciences. On the rostrum he shed his black muffler and black coat, fingered the stem of the microphone before him, and spoke: "It is the first time I have seen such faith in this square, near which I was born. . . ." "Paesano!" (compatriot) roared the crowd.

"Let us all unite our love for Our Lady . . . with our determination to destroy egoism in ourselves, also all vainglory and selfishness. . . . Let us love again. ... Do not listen to demagogues who preach class hate. It leads only to tyranny. ... If we cleanse our consciences . -. . those who are today mighty shall fall; by God's grace they too shall see the light and rush into our open arms. Our past was terrible because we failed to love. Our present is fearful because love is buried. Let us turn to the Virgin, to the Queen of Peace, that we may find again love in family and nation. . . ."

As he prayed, the mighty voice of the crowd joined him: "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women. . . ."

(Communists are unwontedly silent on the subject of Father Lombard!. They cannot dismiss him as a capitalist or reactionary, and the current Party line is against direct conflict with the Church.)

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