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5 Pastoral Letter – 1893

HUMAN RESPECT AND CHRISTIAN WITNESS

GIUSEPPE MARELLO
Bishop of Acqui

To the Venerable Clergy and the Beloved People
of the City and the Diocese
GREETINGS AND BLESSINGS IN THE LORD

Venerable Brothers and Beloved Children in Christ,

Man's life on earth, as we read in the Sacred Books, is a
continuous battle. How many assaults of the devil to be
repelled, how many evil inclinations of our heart to be fought
against, how many seductions of a perverse and perverting
world to be overcome! Precisely because the world with its evil
teachings and examples tries to draw us into that evil, to which,
unfortunately we are inclined by a corrupt nature, the Divine
Master in his Gospel urges us to be vigilant and to pray in order
not to succumb to temptation; and the Holy Apostles Peter and
Paul repeat the same thing when one tells us to resist the enemy
of our salvation by remaining strong in the faith, and the other to
walk prudently and cautiously because the days in which we live
are evil (1 Pt. V. 8,9; Eph. V. 16,17).
The reasons that both Apostles urge us to be strong in the
faith and to be prudent in our conduct apply to all times and in
every place, but they are especially applicable in these times in
which we live. Indeed, who does not recognize that in our days
the enemies of Jesus Christ are increasing in number and
boldness, waging an increasingly stubborn and pernicious war

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