The removal of Don Aurelio from the curacy at Lago di Velo is presented as both an abrupt institutional decision and a personal dispossession: he must leave the small community he serves and find somewhere else to live, while refusing to turn his misfortune into an accusation. The order gives him fifteen days to vacate the parish house, which must be cleared for the incoming priest and his family.

The Order and Its Practical Terms

The news arrived in a message from the archpriest containing a letter from the Vicenza Diocese. Its tone was dry and administrative: Don Aurelio was to be dismissed from the curacy within fifteen days. The archpriest’s accompanying note asked him to ensure that the house was empty of both furniture and people by the deadline, because his successor would bring his mother and sister. The requirement made the removal concrete not only as a loss of office but as an immediate loss of shelter.

The order does not establish that Don Aurelio was formally punished for the violence against Ismaele Pestagran. He briefly wonders whether, in the circumstances, the instruction to clear the house of people carries a further meaning, but recognizes that the stated need to accommodate the successor’s family offers an ordinary practical explanation. The narrative leaves that unease present without turning suspicion into proof.

Don Aurelio’s Response

At first, the prospect of being driven from his peaceful home and separated from his small, beloved flock is bitter. He also faces the uncertain question of where he will find a roof and bread. Yet after the first shock and grief, he experiences a quiet consolation, as though Christ’s loving hands had rested upon his head. His attention shifts away from his own predicament: he is thinking instead of finding the Bible seller and of a grave, delicate conversation Marcello Trento had held with him in the sacristy after Mass.

When Massimo Alberti and Marcello ask him about the report, Don Aurelio confirms that he must leave within fifteen days but is quick to say that no one should be blamed. He calls Ismaele Pestagran a poor, visionary man whose beating in Posina has made him see persecutors everywhere. As for the new appointment, he suggests that the incoming priest may simply need a livelihood for his mother and sister; he presents his own search for a livelihood as though it were a small matter. Instead of dwelling on his removal, he recounts Carnesecca’s ordeal and his arrival at the Rose Villa, where he has been given a room, although his many aches have returned.

The News Reaches Marcello

Massimo tells Marcello of the dismissal before Don Aurelio arrives, although he does not yet know the details. Marcello receives the news with greater sorrow and astonishment than anger. The scene places the official notice beside the personal ties it disrupts: Don Aurelio’s removal troubles Marcello, while Don Aurelio himself declines to treat the decision as a grievance against named individuals.

Significance of the Departure

The episode’s force lies in the gap between the order’s administrative brevity and its human consequences. A fifteen-day deadline and a request to clear a house unsettle Don Aurelio’s place in the community, yet his response is marked by restraint rather than retaliation. His refusal to accuse anyone does not erase the pain of losing his home and congregation; instead, the narrative sets that pain beside his instinct to attend to other people and to matters he considers more urgent.