Don Camillo

I loved the Don Camillo books after a friend handed them to me in the 70s.  It was at the same time as I was working at Pine Haven Boys Center for boys with uh,  problems. In those days it was for boys who some social worker, judge, or parent hoped they could keep out of reform school (YDC/SIS/Sununu Center) by getting him into this program run by the Somascan order of Italian priests. It was my second job out of college, by the way, and I learned a great deal, most of it uncomfortable. For example, I learned that I lost my temper easily and was not such a nice person after all.

The fathers and brothers all loved Don Camillo, but most of them knew him from the movies, not the books. One of them in particular, Brother John, understood the part that somehow I had learned about Don Camillo, but never could grasp that this American boy had not seen any of the movies. "David, it is like when Don Camillo was in mountains, do you remember, and he says to a woman from village..." Ach, they were good for me. I had Protestant prejudices from my upbringing, and many of the Jesus People I hung with were resentful ex-Catholics (NH has a significant French-Canadian population) and influenced by the anti-Catholic bias of old-line fundamentalists from other parts of the country. I should have stayed and learned more.  It was only a raise from $3.20 to $3.40/hr at my new job.

Don Camillo did me some good from his Alpine Italian village, talking to the Christ on the crucifix - and getting answers in return.

From the Wiki:

Don Camillo is constantly at odds with the Communist mayor, Giuseppe Bottazzi, better known as Peppone (meaning, roughly, 'Big Joe') and is also on very close terms with the crucifix in his town church. Through the crucifix he hears the voice of Christ. The Christ in the crucifix often has far greater understanding than Don Camillo of the troubles of the people, and has to constantly but gently reprimand the priest for his impatience. 

Quite often, the priest with a temper would complain to that Jesus that he was trying to fight the good fight for Him, but was not getting much support in return, only to find that Jesus was not bothered by quite the same things, and was remarkably tolerant of these frustrating others.

One of the repeated humorous bits is that both Don Camillo and Peppone have enormous physical strength and courage (both proved in WWII) and compete with each other in subtle ways, both knowing that this is childish and ineffective but unable to stop doing it anyway. There is a memorable scene where he bursts into a communist meeting late at night just before an election of threatened violence, pulls out the portable altar he would bring to secret meetings of the partisans during the war, says Mass, and leaves without a word. Several of them slink away, and there is no violence the next day - but Peppone wins anyway. Don Camillo complains to the Jesus on the crucifix about the unfairness of this. Jesus shrugs.