Giuseppe
Garibaldi
Unknown aspects of the life of a hero of two worlds:
He loved animals, transported slaves and hated priests:
he would have happily sentenced them to hard labour.
Professor Angela Pellicciari
Il
Timone - n. 15
September/October 2001
A tender heart. Well yes; Giuseppe Garibaldi was tender-hearted. In the way that those who are unscrupulous with men often are (Adolf Hitler comes to mind!). The heart of the General beat with paternal tenderness - for animals. And to think that today hardly anyone remembers this.
Why was the destiny of animals so dear to this hero of two worlds? In his view, their situation in Catholic countries, in primis, Catholic Italy, of course, was literally to be pitied, subjected as these creatures were to all sorts of brutality by the followers of the Roman Catholic Church, who did not beleive they were descended from the animal kingdom.
Always attentive to the world of women, the heart of the General was captivated by the unpleasant fate that befell the animals belonging to an English noblewoman, who, traveling through Italy, personally witnessed grave mistreatment on animals inflicted by superstitious and ignorant Catholics! As a result of this, in 1871, on a wave of indignation, the tender-hearted General founded the Society for the Protection of Animals.
Were
Catholics in the 19th century really so callous towards animals?
Reading the documents of that time, one would say no. It would seem, in fact,
that it was precisely the Catholics who were the champions of animals that had
fallen under the rationalist scalpel of expert humanitarian scientists! A group of foreign scientists had, in fact,
begun the practice of vivisection in Florence "to surprise the mysteries
of life at its depth." It was precisely a press campaign supported by the
"Catholic Party" that prevented similar experiments from continuing
in Italy. And so those who did them continued their work in the more hospitable,
Calvinist and Puritan - Geneva.
Garibaldi, in
addition to being tender-hearted, was also an imaginative story writer. This aspect of the multi-talented General has
also remained practically unknown as his literary production could scarcely be
defined as successful. Interesting yes. It
testifies, as if there were any need, to the hatred that this “noble” father of
our country preserved for the Church in general, its ministers in particular,
and the Jesuits in a very special way.
Indeed, if
the priest is "the actual agent of wickedness and shame, suited to corruption and betrayal more than the most disgusting and creeping
inhabitant of swamps", the Jesuit is "the sublimated priest".
"When will this grim, wicked, abominable sect, which prostitutes,
disfigures, and brutalizes the human being, disappear from the face of the
earth?", Garibaldi asks, distraught.
The General
was so repulsed by everything that recalled Roman Catholicism and its
representatives, that he even managed to envision a remedy for priests which
was implemented about a century later, by the sick mind of another great
man in history: Mao Tse-Tung.
The China
of the Sixties witnessed, shocked and amazed, an extraordinary experimentation: how the
hated "bourgeois", in this case, the conceited intellectuals -
doctors, engineers, professors - could learn the precious art of living from
peasants. The "cultural revolution", (who knows when its millions of dead will be counted), destroyed the cultural life, and thus the
economic as well as family life of the Chinese nation.
Well,
Garibaldi had anticipated these measures, albeit only in his intentions. But
instead of the bourgeois, he wanted to send Catholic priests to the fields. In
his mind, "priests at the hoe" would have accomplished a superb
restoration of the Pontine Marshes.
This
benefactor of Humanity (with a capital H as the Freemasons - of which Garibaldi was a very influential exponent - write) in addition to being tender-hearted and
a story writer was also a slave trader. And even this aspect of the life of the Liberator of Italy from the Papal Yoke is scarcely known.
Garibaldi exercised
his activity as a slave trader during his heroic years spent fighting for the
liberation of Latin America. Convinced that he was living a remarkable life,
Garibaldi himself wrote an account of his actions in a long autobiography.
Nevertheless,
in this regard, his Memoirs are restrained and must be combined with other
sources on his life. Garibaldi does not mention the trade in human flesh. He
simply specifies that on January 10, 1852, as commander of the Carmen, he left
the port of Callao, in Peru, bound for China. The ship was carrying a load of guano,
a very costly type of manure. The General is normally very precise in the
account of his exploits, which he describes in detail; so, we know practically
everything about the Callao-Canton-Lima voyage: the days of crossing, the loads
transported and the hardships. Only one detail is left out: it is not specified
what type of merchandise Garibaldi returned to Peru with, after having sold the
guano with great profit. Fortunately, this oversight was rectified by
the Ligurian shipowner Pietro Denegri, who, wanting to praise the captain of
the Carmen, told the missing detail to a certain Vecchi, the General’s friend
and biographer: Garibaldi "always brought me the Chinese in the number boarded, all fat and in good
health, because he treated them like men and not like beasts".
Protector
of animals, story writer and slave trader?
Garibaldi
has not gone down in history described as such.
He is known
as a fearless “hero of two worlds”, a liberator, a selfless leader, in chosen
exile, a pure man, free of compromises. Garibaldi is known and respected
throughout the world as all of these.
Suffice to
say that in George Washington Square, New York, capital of the New World, the
statue of Garibaldi is one of the two alongside the statue on horseback
of General Washington, father of the American homeland: of less splendour for
sure, and of much smaller dimensions, but of great symbolic value.
Truly great and universal is the hatred for the Holy Roman Church.
It has been prophesied.
Source: http://www.unavox.it/ArtDiversi/div036.htm
Translation: Contributor, Francesca Romana
