From the personal diaries of Cardinal Giulio Felicetti
Tuesday 23rd of February 1870
I am speechless at the state of Milan after the French occupation, artillery damage and soldiers' bivouacs are now the city's main attraction. If only that dunce Formica had acted with the least bit of competence, then we would have had the city and taken proper care of it. Of course, I was the preferred candidate to lead the endeavor, but the Pope must have been hard-pressed to choose between a typhoid-ridden competent man and a healthy incompetent one. In any case, I am happy to return to my archbishopric in the guise of a governor and recover my strength in a familiar environment.
Say what you will about the Savoyards, but they knew what they were doing with Lombardy. The regional administration will require minimal change and, since most of the Piedmontese officials have left already, it will probably amount to nothing more than filling a few vacancies in the upper levels. The industry is also quite impressive overall although the French got far too comfortable with their occupation and confiscated a lot of material from the factories in the area. This has led to the unemployment of approximately half the craftsmen in Lombardy and significant social unrest. Since Callixtus has given me great autonomy in my actions, I have decided to begin my government with the donation of large incentives to the Milanese capitalists so that they may get the economy up and running before the workers are poisoned against us.
It is strange to see that the prominent families have remained entirely unchanged if only the Austrian cockades are swapped for the Papal ones. That is a great flaw of my home, it has grown soft under foreign rule for the last three hundred years and its upper class has degenerated into spineless servants for whoever is the ruler du jour. The people at least had the courage to rebel against the Austrians back in '48 but their planning was lacking as it often is with such things. Now, it comes to me to whip this city into shape and ensure that only the useful nobles remain while the others are made aware of their pointlessness.
This reminds me that I really must pay a visit to my parents since I have postponed it for quite long enough at this point. I remember how confused and disappointed they looked when I told them I wanted to become a priest. "But you could do anything you want" they said, as if I had not thought of that every time I surpassed my peers and finally caught a glimpse of the divine. For what better way is there to use one's gifts than to serve omnipotent God and give thanks for everything He bestows upon us? In giving thanks, I was not surprised to find that I rose through the ranks until my current station, proof once again that the Lord provides for his faithful.
I should consider these thoughts for my first mass in Papal Milan, I must make the people understand that we are not here to oppress them like those that came before but rather to make them better and give them a privileged place among the Catholic nations.
Thursday 7th of July 1870
Today was quite eventful with a fulfilling briefing on the status of the manufactory and some unsettling news from the Pope.
The Milanese industry has managed to recover from the effects of the occupation and the supply lines have been redirected towards Rome. At this moment there is a total of approximately sixty-thousand laborers in factories across Lombardy which add up to over twice the number that can be found in the rest of the Papal States. Despite all of the work done, I still find peasants pouring into the city with cries for further jobs. To deal with this, I have chosen to make a considerable investment into the expansion of a pre-existing small arms factory in Monza which will cover the workers' needs for a while. In the meantime, I have conducted frequent sermons at mass on the futility of just bundling up one's wealth and not putting it out in the service of the State and Christ. After all, "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God" so men must endeavor to spend their money in productive endeavors and not rest upon it without effort. To my great satisfaction, this has gotten many in the old family circle to follow my indications and a prodigious number of industrial distilleries has begun to grow in the countryside.
It would only be good news if not for the one from Rome. I assume that the blasphemous Lisi put these ideas into the Pope's head, but it seems that Callixtus believes the Lombard situation to be dangerously unstable and he has bent under this unseen pressure. I simply heard the grumbling of some malcontents who whine to make up for the irrelevance of their lives but it appears that the magnitude of the threat has swollen with each kilometer from here to Rome. And so, the pope has decided to not only allow for worker-led unions but even to allow them to be explicitly socialist in nature. Imagine that. Not just allowing, but protecting the spread of seditious ideas that threaten the Church itself. I did not much mind Callixtus at first but ever since the Vatican Council I lose confidence in his faith with each passing day. The simple fact that the Bible, the divinely mandated word of God, could be reinterpreted based on information of dubious provenance is absolutely inconceivable to me and I am outraged that there was not deeper resistance during deliberations. This situation is all Lisi's fault, of course, he accosts every opponent with honeyed words and dulls his antagonist's mind to the point that they can no longer think with enough clarity to repel this heresy. This arch-puppeteer even tried his tricks on me once, compliments and praise and friendly gestures while he concocted the most bitter of poisons. Thankfully, the Lord instilled me with ample faith to resist such subterfuge and I stood firm in my resistance. Unfortunately, that was not enough to alter the course of the council but at least the Lord will know his own.
These are the thoughts that plagued me this day and I felt the strongest need to write them down as if to exorcise the wrathful sin that had begun to build up within me. With this exercise, I can feel the calm of virtue return to me and my soul. I must not indulge in rage but plan and struggle so that the object of my fury shall be no more and justice be re-established. The Lord, in His wisdom, will give me the patience for the task.
Friday 15th of December 1871
I have taken my time with this pope and given him the benefit of the doubt regarding the policies he has enacted but today is the last straw. In the past, he made some changes to resist real or perceived threats from the population and, while I do not condone this sort of behavior, it was a misguided attempt to fix a problematic situation, but he has begun to upend the social order without any real need for the modification or thought of its consequences. For example, he recently prohibited children from doing physically demanding labor which may sound like a compassionate idea in theory but will surely result in greater suffering for families since their sons and daughters will not be allowed to earn their keep but be a drain on resources until they reach an arbitrary age at which they can finally give back to their struggling parents. He then goes on to try and fix his blunder with the forced introduction of a minimum wage upon employers who are punished for their investments by having to support those parasites who can do work of abysmal quality and still be paid as if they had done well. The Lord himself tells us in the parable of the barren fig tree that those who do not bear fruit should be cut down and not simply allowed to be a burden on their productive neighbors.
I have been raging against these reforms for quite a while, first with a private display of disapproval and recently in public so that I may ensure that the Church's resources are not squandered but put towards its betterment. However, my pleas to those in power have fallen upon deaf ears and it is time that I find alternative means to do my work. I have sent out feelers to find cardinals or potential cardinals that are equally as worried about the current situation as I am. As I expected, there is no lack of resentment for Callixtus' changes and I have managed to form a small bloc for myself with the aim of making our voice heard in case of new proposals.
I think that the group is of a good size for the time being but I am interested in swaying Cardinal Andreano to my side, he has expressed concerns with the Vatican Council and, though he has not committed to my cause yet, he seems both influential and malleable enough to carry other cardinals with him. On the future cardinal front, I have met with a young theologian called Vincenzo Fatta who has intrigued me significantly. His Sardinian birth has hardened him sufficiently to the government in Turin which is a safe political position and, in the meantime, his religious studies have brought him to my same conclusion in terms of the pope's heterodoxy. As such, I have decided to sponsor this rising star and ensure in one way or another that he will grow to aid me in the fight for proper interpretation of the scriptures.
A new chapter is opening and I can feel that my prayers will soon be answered.