xt76ww76x435 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt76ww76x435/data/mets.xml  Thomas Merton 1966-08-12 This letter is from collection 75m28 Thomas Merton papers. archival material 75m28 English  Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Thomas Merton correspondence Letter from Thomas Merton to Vittorio Emmanuele, August 12, 1966 text Letter from Thomas Merton to Vittorio Emmanuele, August 12, 1966 1966 1966-08-12 2023 true xt76ww76x435 section xt76ww76x435 *ear Vittorio Emmanuele:

alir, txoigh J Jo not orJinarilgr do thj.s in such cases.
necess1ry to reply personaliy to try to explain a misv.nder~

12v e y ur elocuent letter of August 5 and I wis:1 to re; 31y

2 all 3.et me sa.y thet I have the vt'iee'festO vener2tion for
the nooilityc of Italian cultire an: tradition or” es cially for
Sicily, one of the most ancient redl2s of .25‘211 ClVT_ liza tion.

Tow: flue to a nisunde:standing of my use of certain injurious
words, you aoouse :ne of mime calling. what is meant by name calling?
The use of injurious names with the intention to injure. Everything
dewends on the intention aha not on the names used. You do not
~~~ a: be; me put it this may. When men were liberatefi from the concen-

;ion camps and returned home, sometimes they would meet together
celebration of their freedom and wonlfl wear their prison clothes.
prison clothes were garments of sh shame. But when they were worn
with the intention *o celebrite, they becewe garments of honor.
The injtrions names which have been used as insults in the past
130 be used iionically onfl defiantly in orior to honor and not to
fly intention in using those names was to say this: ”You Americans
scorned other nations and races, but you do not realize that you
the same as they and tint you are on the s=w2 ol-2ne 2.3 all the rest
the hnmnn race therefore y~u have fiishonored the :2 unjustly."

Fe2dinf the poems vou sent, I believe it was probably the intention
of t:*1e authors to use th 52 mar .es in tn‘s way. Now here is the problem:
it may be tlfit you 2re so sensitive on the point that you just can't
stsnd to see those names used in any way whatever. Ch the other hand
there is such a thing as irony enfi I used the unnes in irony, in order
to honor th.ose who had been insulted. That is my explanation.

In other words, man, I am on your side.I am for you and not
against you. I e rtainly regret all the shame and dis.‘1onor that Italian

en le have had to suffer and I have no intention or 2.ning to it. On
the contrary it was my intention to protest against it. You did not
understand this. i hope it is CL “r now.
{ad bless you end mey you have prosperity and peace
and all joy in ‘hrist )ur Lord,