When Deborah and Barek celebrated their victory, they had some things to say against the inhabitants of Meroz ‘because they came not to the help of the Lord against the mighty.’ ‘Zabulon and Naphtali,’ however, ‘were a people that jeoparded their lives unto the death in the high places of the field.’ (Judges 5: 18, 23).
That Franco Maggiotto is among those who in modern times have ‘jeoparded their lives’ for the cause of God was indicated in the last article. The brother of Franco’s wife, a communist, will not set foot in Franco’s car because he expects it one day to blow up. It has already been tampered with twice.
The work of this converted priest has two aspects. First of all he ministers to about fifteen people where he lives; they come together for meetings in one or other of their houses.
The other aspect of his work is more far-reaching. It brings home forcibly the great potential for usefulness which he has. In order to appreciate this let us hear him tell the background to it himself, though I have adapted his words to some extent.
‘I would like to give you the situation in Italy. On the one side you have Catholicism, which is always following the spirit of the religious natural man. On the other side you have Protestantism. After the second world war, Italians were sick and tired of the authority of the Pope, and so they were looking for new things. They were looking for God, but they did not have the possibility of going from the authority of the Pope to the authority of the Bible, because Protestants coming here were preaching Arminianism. And what an Arminian preaches, we already know by thousands of years of Popery. Because Popery is Arminianism, or Semi-Pelagianism: it isn’t anything else. The Arminians didn’t want to say anything, for example, about effectual calling. Why? Not because it was not written in the Bible, but because they would hurt human reason, human feeling. So now they are without bones, they are without doctrine inside. And on the other side we have the Catholic Church. The priests are very disillusioned with the Church. They are going towards communism and atheism. Many of them are really desiring to find out God and what the Scripture says. And they don’t have any chance. There is no clear explanation of the pure gospel, of the reformed faith.’
What does Franco himself do in this situation? In the office which one of his congregation helps him run, he has the addresses of about two thousand people from different parts of the country to whom he has sent at least something in the way of reformed literature. Perhaps they have only received one duplicated sheet entitled ‘Have you ever thought of this?’, or ‘Salvation by grace in Jesus Christ.’ Or perhaps they have been sent a leaflet of thirty pages called ‘Justification by faith alone,’ or the ‘Canons of the Synod of Dort’ in Italian with an explanatory introduction.
Such leaflets have been written or translated by Franco, and duplicated in his study. It is remarkable that he has so many contacts, and that they have an appetite for such literature. But as Franco asks, ‘Think what I feel like when someone writes to me for literature and I have to say I cannot send him any more for a year.’
I could hardly believe that about half of those writing for literature were priests, and asked if he had personal contact with these men.
‘Yes, I have plenty of this. In my house I see priests from many places. A few weeks ago I received two parish priests from Naples. I received a Jesuit, teaching in Sardinia, and so on. I received other priests coming from Carbonne. They are coming and sleeping in the corridor, or two and three in a small room. I have a group of perhaps ten priests who study the Bible. But we don’t have much literature. They ask, but what can I give them? Not many speak English, you know.’
‘Where are these then?’
‘In Imperia.’
‘Do they study among themselves?’
‘No. I go when I can. When I have money to go to them, I go. And there are twenty teachers in another place, where they gather together to study the Bible. You feel this feeling everywhere. They desire authority, but they don’t want the authority of the Pope.’
‘So what I would like to see in Italy is a Centre, a Reformed Centre, where the people could come for a few months, for a few weeks. If we could give them a basic understanding of the gospel, I think they could bring this to their own people. I would like to be helped once for all (because the people must have their own responsibility) to buy some premises. A farm, for example, where we could put these priests to work. And with the money that we would receive from this work, perhaps we could support men and send them to study in England or in Holland where there is sound doctrine, and support them in preaching when they come back. Perhaps we could even support a school, a Reformed School, with several teachers. Also it could help to buy paper, and to produce literature. We need paper desperately, to print hundreds and hundreds. People are asking for our literature and I can’t send it because I don’t have paper to print.’
J.T.