List of points

In governing, after considering the common good, one must realise that both in spiritual and in civil affairs it will be very rare for a law to displease nobody.

—There is a popular saying: The rain never pleases everybody! Yet you can be sure, that is not a defect of the law, but an unjustified rebelliousness of pride and selfishness by a few.

Order, authority, discipline… They listen, if they do at all, with cynical smiles, claiming that they — both men and women — are defending their freedom.

They are the very people who later pretend that we should respect their erring ways or adapt to them; with their scurrilous protests, they do not understand that their behaviour is not — it cannot be — accepted by the authentic freedom of the rest.

Those who direct spiritual tasks have to be concerned with all things human, so as to raise them to the supernatural order and make them godlike.

If they cannot be made godlike, do not be deceived: such “human” things are not human, they are “brutish”, inappropriate for a rational creature.

Authority. This does not consist in the one above yelling at the one below, and he in turn to the one further down.

In such a way of behaving — a caricature of authority — apart from an evident lack of charity and of decent human standards, all that is achieved is that the one at the top becomes isolated from those who are governed, because he does not serve them. Rather it could be said that he uses them!

Don’t be one of those who let their own homes be badly managed but attempt to meddle in the management of other people’s.

But… do you really think you know it all just because you have been placed in authority?

—Listen carefully: the good ruler knows that he can, that he should, learn from others.

Freedom of conscience: no! How many evils this lamentable error, which permits actions against the dictates that lie deepest in oneself, has brought about in nations and individuals.

Freedom “of consciences”, yes: for it means the duty to follow that interior command… ah, but after receiving a serious formation!

To govern is not to mortify others.

Occupying as you do a post of government, would you meditate on this: the strongest and most effective instruments, if they are not properly used, become dented, worn out and useless.

Decisions of governance taken lightly or by someone on his own are always, or nearly always, influenced by a one-sided view of the problems.

—However good your training or talents might be, you must listen to those who share with you that task of direction.

Never listen to anonymous accusations: it is the way villains behave.

A principle of good governance: take human material as it is and help it to improve while never despising it.

When you are dealing with problems, try not to exaggerate justice to the point of forgetting charity.

The strength of a chain is the strength of its weakest link.

Never say of anybody under you: he is no good.

—It is you who are no good, for you cannot find a place where he will be of use.

Reject any ambition for honours. Think instead about your duties, how to do them well and the instruments you need to accomplish them. —In this way, you will not hanker for position, and if one comes you will see it just as it is: a burden to bear in the service of souls.