On 25 November 2021, the eve of the 50th anniversary of the eternal Easter of Blessed Alberione, in the Clementine Hall, Vatican City, Pope Francis, with a big paternal smile, welcomed the Pauline Family. A representation of the members of the five religious Congregations, of the four Institutes of consecrated secular life and of the Association of Pauline Cooperators were present. The Superior General of the Society of Saint Paul, at the beginning of the audience, “became the interpreter of all” of us of the Pauline Family, presenting to the Pope our gratitude and the request for a special blessing.
At the beginning of his address, the Holy Father highlighted that: “This anniversary is for the Church, and particularly for you, a propitious occasion to commemorate the great things done by the Holy Spirit in Blessed Alberione”. The emphasis that this anniversary is “for the Church” becomes a further confirmation, by the highest authority of the Church, of the validity of the person and monumental work of Blessed Alberione. “For the Church”, recalls a previous similar affirmation of St. Paul VI, which the current Pope has quoted: “Our Don Alberione has given the Church new tools to express himself, new means to give vigor and breadth to his apostolate, new capacity and new awareness of the validity and possibility of its mission in the modern world and with modern means”1.
“For the Church” presupposes on the part of the Pauline Family to be a living and integral part of the Church, to walk with the Church, to always seek the good of the Church, with our specific mission, as consecrated persons and on the way to holiness through the process of “Christification”. We are called to be “in ecclesia” and “in Christo”: how many times our blessed Founder used this expression in his many meditations to the members of our Family! Speaking, for example, of our specific mission, Don Alberione said: “The words ‘in Christo et in Ecclesia’ are particularly appropriate. We must teach neither more nor less than what the Church teaches... Take everything from the teaching of the Church...”2.
In addition to “for the Church”, the Holy Father said that this anniversary is also “particularly for you”, the Pauline Family. Describing who our blessed Founder is and what he has done for the Church, he again recalled the words of St. Paul VI: “humble, silent, tireless, always vigilant, always collected in his thoughts, which run from prayer to work, always intent on scrutinizing the ‘signs of the times’”. “These expressions... – Pope Francis said – concern you individually and as a religious family”. Having united the two expressions: “this anniversary” is “for the Church” and also “especially for you”, becomes an invitation for us from the Holy Father to be “Alberione alive today”. The virtuous life and apostolic zeal of the Founder, the Pope continued: “they challenge you in the concreteness of your existence as consecrated persons, who from prayer receive the ability to scrutinize the ‘signs of the times’ to adapt apostolic projects to the situations and needs of people of today”.
The Pope recalled the strong admiration and devotion that Blessed Alberione had for the apostle Paul, so much so that he considered him as our true founder: “he always showed you as the inspirer and the father, as the model to imitate in the total donation to the Lord Jesus Christ and his Gospel”. We have, in fact, close ties with Saint Paul, as our blessed Founder presented him to us: “Everyone must consider only St. Paul the Apostle as father, teacher, exemplar, founder... [The Pauline Family] was born through him, it was he who nourished it and raised it, its spirit is from him”3.
He also underlined the particular ardor with which the Apostle carried out his mission, a mission that is now ours. “Passion for the Gospel”: the Pope repeated these words five times! This is also the way of our mission, the Pope reminded us, at “the service of our brothers and sisters who thirst... for the light and joy of the Gospel”. Our passion for the Gospel will bring “innumerable apostolic initiatives”, as was of Paul’s. We are called to be “St. Paul alive today”. “Full-pledged ‘Paulines’”, as the Pope reiterated to us, because “it is always St. Paul who suggests to your Founder the way in which the apostolate of your religious family, while being diversified, can be considered ‘unique’”, having “a single spiritual tension towards Jesus Christ, the Master, the Way, the Truth and the Life”. To reinforce the words of the Pope, Don Alberione wanted that “every apostle”, that is us, too, should imitate Saint Paul, the Saint of universality: “… admiration and devotion began chiefly with the study of the Letter to the Romans and meditation on it… his personality, his holiness, his heart, his intimacy with Jesus, his contribution to dogmatic and moral teaching, his impact on Church organization and his zeal for all peoples – all became topics for meditation. [Paul] came across to him indeed as the Apostle, and thus every apostle and every apostolate could draw from Him”4.
After having enumerated the specific mission of each Institute of the Pauline Family, the Pope asked us “not to miss your contribution”, in the spirit of synodality, encouraging us “to work together, in networking, each contributing his or her ‘own’ part”. The celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Founder’s birth into heaven becomes for us “the opportunity to recognize even better the prophetic value of his testimony”, in which, through “his example and with his intercession” we continue to use as our “pulpit” the means of today so that “Jesus Christ may be made known to the men of our time”. The Pope insisted a lot on prayer. Referring to the “Pact”, the Pope recommended to us: “Do not forget prayer. It is the most important means of communication... If I communicate with the whole world and not with the Lord, go home instead: the thing is wrong. Work and prayer... Seeking ‘in everything and with full heart, in life and in the apostolate, only and always, the glory of God and the peace of men’”. This invitation from the Pope is what Don Alberione himself affirmed: “Prayer for man, Christian, religious, priest is the first and greatest duty. We can make no greater contribution to the Congregation than prayer; no work more useful to us than prayer; no work more profitable for the Church in a priest than prayer. Prayer is, therefore, first of all, above all, the life of everyone”5.
The Holy Father concluded this historic audience, entrusting us to Mary, Queen of the Apostles, to accompany us “on the roads of the world as apostles of the Gospel”.
In preparation for the Feast of the Incarnation 2021 and valuing the great devotion of our blessed Founder to Mary as our Mother, Teacher and Queen, allow me to remind us of the “particular” apostolate of Mary, the “Editor of the incarnated Word”6, which our blessed Founder himself imitated and lived in his life: as an apostle of the new evangelization, as a modern “editor” of God, making the Word to spread quickly using all the means and languages of today’s communication. Thus, “by the name of edition we do not mean only a book... ‘Edidit nobis Salvatorem’ says the liturgy. The Holy Virgin gave us the Savior. It uses the verb ‘edidit’”7. The Pauline Family, made up of lay and consecrated persons, and ordained ministers, is called to be “Editor” of the living Gospel, Jesus Master Way, Truth and Life. To be an “editor”: not only to create thoughts in order to change mentalities but to “give birth to the Savior” and share Him to all by the testimony of one’s life, anywhere, at any time, according to one’s state of Pauline consecration.
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1Paul VI, Address to the Pauline Family, June 28, 1969.
2James Alberione, To the Daughters of St. Paul, 1946-1949, FSP Casa Generalizia, 2000, p. 467.
3AD 2; 4AD 64; 5CISP, p. 98; 6Vademecum, no. 919; 7Vademecum, no. 1051.
