“Catechetical work: the first and basic
apostolic work”
(Fr. Alberione)
Sr M. Agnes Quaglini, fsp
We read this
expression in Eco di Casa Madre, the internal circular
of the Daughters of St. Paul, of January 1934. In it the Founder
urged the sisters who were committed in editorial work to multiply
catechetical texts and aids as “principal works of charity” aimed at
children, but not only to them, as he will strongly emphasize on
various occasions.
The roots of Fr.
Alberione’s catechetical vocation are to be searched back in time.
As a young priest he had dedicated himself with passion to the
formation of catechists in the diocese of Alba and surrounding
areas. And already in 1922 he had given life to a periodical titled
“Dottrina e fatti” (Doctrine and facts) with typically
catechetical aims. In December 1931 “Famiglia Cristiana” was
born, directed and run by the Daughters of St. Paul until 1937 when
the direction passed to Fr. Luigi Zanoni. And starting from the
first issues, through explicit will of the Founder, there was space
in this glorious weekly for “Nota catechistica e liturgica”
(Catechetical and liturgical information) handled by Maestra
Filippina Badanelli, fsp. Another initiative of not indifferent
apostolic-catechetical influence was that of “Seme” (Seed), a
small monthly periodical of few pages printed with other print runs
and distributed by the propagandists during their visits to
families. It dealt with contemporary themes from the
catechetical-pastoral standpoint.
A decisive turning
point in the catechetical area will happen at the start of the
1950’s with the establishment at Grottaferrata of the House of
Writers that became almost immediately the House of Catechism. This
gathered the first writer-editors that the war had dispersed. The
Founder, calling them and entrusting to them the promotion of
catechesis as their specific work, said: “I have always had big
plans regarding you... Or, better, not I, but the Lord. Because of
this, I wanted this house from which real progress in the editing
part of the apostolate is awaited”.
In October 1952
“Via Verità e Vita” is born, the magazine that Fr. Alberione wanted
so intensely and for which he outlined the principles, clearly
indicating contents, method and recipients, as we read in the
editorial written by himself for the first issue. From it emerges
the centrality of Christ the Master, Way, Truth and Life,
attention to the human person in his integrity and in the
various conditions of his life and the method that refers to
discipleship and involving the whole man: his thought, will and
heart, to make everything converge toward an ever more perfect
Christian life. Fr. Alberione was always very precise and decisive
when transmitting his intuitions and orientations in the frequent
visits that he made to Grottaferrata to the group of the Daughters
of St. Paul, to whom he had entrusted the catechetical mission. They
have tried to follow these lines expressed in such an essential way
by the Founder, who has tried to choose the most suitable ways to
respond to the requirements of catechesis in Italy and to other
recipients. The magazine has undergone in the following years
various structural changes, but it developed constantly, just like
the catechetical production, always attentive to seize the
intuitions and dynamics of the Church and to be on the lookout for
strategies, in order to deepen them and translate them in the field
of catechetics.
The space granted
to us does not allow us to document the various developments that
have been, whether in Italy or abroad. The Founder has been truly
tireless in promoting, stimulating, encouraging, correcting, and
pushing towards more and more vast horizons. Because in the first
editorial of the magazine, he had written: “we are debtors to
everybody because of the nature of our vocation and
according to the example of Saint Paul and the heart of Jesus
Christ, the divine Master”.
His apostolic
dynamism did not have limits and with the openness that was
congenial to him and that he tried to transmit, not only did he want
to strengthen the traditional ways of catechesis that normally is
given in the Parishes, in the schools (where it is possible), and in
the Christian families, but he considered it indispensable to assume
as vehicles of catechesis all the instruments of communication
capable of extending almost infinitely the field listening to God,
and to let the good news reach millions of men, thus becoming a
modern and efficacious version of the pulpit (cf EN 45).
The original
contribution of Fr. Alberione to catechesis that in some way has
anticipated the orientations of the official catechesis, seems to us
to have been his intuition that afterwards has characterized the
spirit instilled among the Paulines: that is, the strong connection
of the message to be lived and transmitted of the Word of God with
Liturgy. He wanted a catechism full doctrine, of the Bible, and
of Liturgy. A message therefore substantiated and illuminated by
the Word, that leads to prayer and to communion with God, to become
Christian life in solidarity with all. A catechesis centered on the
person of Christ that leads to listening, encounter and life-giving
experience. It is a matter definitively of communicating not only a
doctrine and a Christological spirituality, but of making Jesus
known, loved and followed; making him to be lived in the life of
all, in order to bring “the whole man and
all men to God in Christ, the Master, Way Truth and Life”.
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