Don Giulio Neroni, a Pauline priest who passed away in Rome on 3 October at the age of ninety, was a unique figure in the panorama of communication and religious music. For over sixty years he has combined his passion for the Gospel and the art of sounds, transforming music into an instrument of evangelization, according to the charism of Blessed Giacomo Alberione.
Roman, simple and direct, gifted with irony and tireless apostolic enthusiasm, Don Neroni was an animator, trainer, superior, but above all creator of musical projects of international scope, including Abbà Pater with the voice of Saint John Paul II, Alma Mater with Benedict XVI and Wake Up! with Pope Francis. Through these works he made the voice of the Popes resonate throughout the world, making their words prayer, meditation and dialogue through music.
His most original intuition was to bring the Word into contemporary language, combining the depth of the Christian message with the sonic sensitivity of our time. For him, music was not a simple liturgical ornament, but a “meeting space” between God and man, capable of opening the hearts even of those who are far from faith. In music Don Giulio recognized a “sacrament of beauty”, a way to evangelize through art and communication, in creative fidelity to the Pauline charism of “bringing Christ with today’s means”.
After a long period in the headquarters of the Pauline record company in Albano Laziale, he also lived in Milan, where he collaborated with the audiovisual sector of Multimedia San Paolo, continuing to give life to innovative projects, collaborating with artists, technicians and musicians in a laboratory of faith and culture open to the world.
In recent years he had returned to Albano Laziale, to the Casa Don Alberione, home of the international novitiate of the Society of Saint Paul. There he was a beloved and luminous presence: close to the young novices, who saw in him a happy and passionate witness to the Pauline vocation, and to the communities of the local Pauline Family, whom he accompanied with prayer and his inexhaustible cordiality.
Those who knew him remember him as a serene, frank man, full of humor and apostolic zeal. Until his last days he continued to devise new projects, still dreaming of a musical work inspired by the pontificate of Leo XIV. In his life the synthesis between faith, art and communication that Don Alberione dreamed of was achieved. Don Giulio did it with the power of music, which for him was a universal language of beauty and announcement. Today, as he himself wrote, “he sings his Te Deum before the loving smile of God”.
