Field Experience
OVERCOMING CLERICAL OPPOSITION IN ITALY
The public meeting campaign is having splendid results in Italy, and the following experience well illustrates how the people are glad to hear the Kingdom message, packing out a public gathering with an audience of about 40 strangers to 1 publisher.
It was decided to hold the circuit assembly in the city of C——, which has a population of about 14,000 inhabitants, a city buried in the picturesque mountains of southern Italy. To reach the place we had to take a train on a secondary line which looked more like the “Toonerville trolley” than a railroad train. After winding about in the mountains for three hours we reached our destination. It was only by Jehovah’s marvelous power that the truth came to this isolated spot in Italy. An Italian prisoner of war, interned in California, U.S.A., received the truth while there and symbolized his consecration to the Lord before returning to Italy. His immersion in a bathtub at the home of brethren in California has already been mentioned by The Watchtower in one of its “Field Experiences” several years ago. This brother’s faithful activity in the service has Jehovah’s blessings, and now a youthful, healthy organization is springing up in this town in Italy. It was felt that holding the assembly there would strengthen the new company. And it did.
There are a little more than 150 publishers associated with this circuit, but, because of recent floods in the area and other very unfavorable conditions, only 30 brethren were able to assemble and participate in the advertising of the public discourse, “The Only Light.” We had 4,000 handbills and more than 100 wall signs printed. The handbills were practically all distributed on Saturday, while the wall signs had been pasted on the buildings of the main street several days in advance. Everybody in town knew that we were going to have a public lecture and we were quite sure that a fairly large audience would be on hand. The word was passed around that local priests would be present also, but with the intention of causing a controversy on the subject. First, let it be said that the clergy made attempts to put pressure on the local authorities so that our right to hold a public lecture might be denied; but to no avail. The local police officials were determined to stand fast for freedom, and it takes more than a little courage to refuse to take orders from the religious leaders in this clergy-dominated land. When this failed, the clergy laid plans to break up our assembly and turn the tables on Jehovah’s witnesses. Would their plans succeed?
Early Sunday morning a brief visit was made at the office of the local carabinieri by our brethren. Men in uniform would be on hand, we were assured, and would be ready to keep order and protect our right of free worship. The only movie house in the city had been rented for the occasion. It was a theater that would seat about 700 persons, and we felt that it would be a blessing if we could at least fill it. The lecture was due to begin at 10:30 in the morning, and at 10:15 the theater was already packed out. But still the crowd continued to pour into the building, until all standing room was taken up. Then the enthused people thronged into the lobby of the theater; others remained at the entrance under the large loudspeaker that was hung up outside the building for the benefit of those who wanted to listen to the lecture in the street. All in all we calculated a total audience of more than 1,200, and they stayed right to the very end of the talk. Jehovah’s blessings had far exceeded even what we had dared to hope for. As the chairman and the speaker came out on the stage, the audience began to clap their hands, and this alone should have convinced the religionists that interference on their part would not be tolerated by these honest, simple persons that comprised the audience. The speaker too made it clear that the people had come to hear the truth and hence invited would-be opposers to leave the theater. Only people who were not afraid of the truth should stay. But no one left his seat.
At the close of the hour’s discourse which Scripturally exposed false apostles who hated light, and made plain where the source of the true and only light could be found, an appreciative audience applauded loudly and with feeling. The good news of the only light had been enjoyed by almost all in the audience, but not all, because one of the half-dozen priests in the audience suddenly jumped up demanding a debate. Seminary students, that he had brought along with him and had scattered in the theater, cheered as their “father” and priestly director of the local seminary stood up in opposition to the truth that had badly offended his religious susceptibilities.
The chairman explained that Jehovah’s witnesses had paid all expenses connected with this public lecture and had done all their own advertising. Certainly then, it was out of the question that he permit those to speak who had opposed the public lecture from the beginning and who, not succeeding in having it banned, pretended that they wanted a debate. As if the religious priests had no places to do their preaching! Must they come uninvited to interfere with Christian assemblies? Would they permit questions or debates in their own religious temples? The chairman then showed that the people had come to hear a Bible lecture on “The Only Light” and not religious justification. This lecture the people had heard and were satisfied. There was nothing more to say and therefore, faithful to their promise to the people of good-will, Jehovah’s witnesses were closing the meeting and dismissing the audience. How the people cheered the brethren for the truth’s sake and booed and hissed the priest as he persisted in talking! What a miserable defeat for this proud religionist before the very people that he claims to serve spiritually! It was nothing more than a flat rejection of his services and shows well that honest people in Italy are not asleep as to what religion has done in this land. No, the honest people can no longer be fooled and religion is reaping just what she has sown. It is not difficult to see how the prophecy in Revelation 17:16-18 will be fulfilled.
The priests and their hirelings left in a hurry and the honest people made their way out orderly, accepting a free booklet that was offered them at the exits. Almost 50 bound books and 600 booklets were placed with the people, many of whom, asking to be visited, left their names with the ushers. A great witness was given to the name of Jehovah, and the new local company organized by our ex-prisoner of war received a real stimulus.