On 15 January 1926 the first community of Paulines, led by Blessed Don Timoteo Giaccardo, arrived in Rome with some boys, followed in the following days by a group of Paulines. That event exactly 100 years ago marked a decisive turning point in the history of the Society of Saint Paul – founded in 1914 by Blessed Don Giacomo Alberione and today publisher, among other things, of Famiglia Cristiana – and of the entire Pauline Family in the project of evangelization through the means of social communication.
It was discussed at a conference held in the historic headquarters of the Paolini in Rome, in via Alessandro Severo, on 17 January, in which it was presented a book with the correspondence between Don Alberione and Don Giaccardo on the development of the Roman foundation over several years, a sequence of unpublished images of the time and a new room of the Museum dedicated to Don Alberione.
The reports from Don Giancarlo Roccaon the pontifical approval of the Society of St. Paul, and of Andrea Riccardifounder of the Community of Sant’Egidio and historian. The latter retraced the Roman Pauline foundation, underlining that Don Alberione clearly perceived the need to place his new religious reality in the heart of the Catholic Church, next to the Holy See, to draw directly from its doctrine and its spirit and from there, then, be sent to the whole world. «The choice of Rome responds to a clear vision of Alberione», said Riccardi. «He admired the “Romanness” of the Eternal City, that is, its being the center of Catholicism. But it was not only the seat of the Pope”, he explained, “but also the center of radiation of the universality of the Church, from which it then started to reach all nations”. From here, in fact, many Paulines, full of faith and missionary spirit, will be sent in the following years to many countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas.
But the settlement in the capital, characterized at the beginning by great poverty, «it was immediately dotted with concrete works of evangelization: new bookshops, the printing house, the weekly press of La Voce di Roma», Riccardi recalled. Who added: «A significant relationship with the local Church was also immediately built by taking over a parish near Via Laurentina, site of a firefight between partisans and Germans on 10 September 1943».
Finally, in his report Riccardi outlined the figure of Don Alberione. «Lover of history and passionate about the Word of Godtried to introduce the Gospel into every family at a time when it was not given to the people. In a world that was developing at the time, he was not afraid to enter the market of goods and services, to take on an entrepreneurial spirit that was out of place for the Church of the time, but necessary to follow his great dream: to change people and open them to the values of spirituality”.
Finally, the methods of granting the land on which the new Roman headquarters were built are interesting, after an initial settlement on the Via Ostiense. «It was Cardinal Ildefonso Schuster, abbot of San Paolo and now blessed, who with great magnanimity granted land, the so-called “vineyard of San Paolo”. He looked with sympathy at these boys and girls who followed in the footsteps of their founder with such fervor and a spirit of sacrifice.” It is still here that the Paulines still have their headquarters and where, immediately after the war, the Sanctuary of Mary Queen of the Apostles arose, the result of a 1943 vow made by Don Alberione to the Madonna.
Finally, the intervention of the Vatican expert Salvatore Cernunzio highlighted the communication methods of Pope Francis and Pope Leo, underlining their, although different but equally strong, load of humanity.
