When I speak about the apostolate of example, about freedom and personal responsibility, about never being official Catholics, perhaps someone could think that to render this apostolic penetration more effective in all environments and give a Christian example more easily it would be best to keep secret the fact of belonging to the Work.

Naturalness: nothing to hide

No, that is not it. I detest secrecy. Many times it serves only to do evil or lessen people’s responsibility. The only secret I will admit is the secret of the confessional, and so I say to anyone who might come to me and want to tell me a secret.

Beginnings of the Work

Certainly at the moment, since we are at the beginning of this divine work, our Work of God, we must absolutely avoid the imprudence of disclosing our path, for few people are prepared to understand its novelty. This temporary attitude of ours, however, is most natural: it is the secret ofgestation.

All living creatures, before they come into the light, need a certain time of protection of greater or less duration. They need those specific conditions that allow for their first development and maturation. Nature does this with plants and with animals and with human beings. So it is perfectly natural that we should take the same care with the living organism that is the Work as it begins its activity. Moreover, this is how all apostolic institutions usually begin: without spectacle, without noise. Unfortunately or fortunately, we can already foresee that others will make it their business to make noise about the Work of God.