FR. ALBERIONE AND THE INSTITUTES OF
CONSECRATED SECULAR LIFE (AGGREGATED INSTITUTES)
FR. Juan Manuel Galaviz, ssp
Attentive
to the signs of the times and docile to the inspiration of the
Spirit, Blessed Fr. Alberione greeted with joy the birth of the
Secular Institutes in the Church, immediately catching sight of the
opportunity to complete the Pauline Family with Institutes of that
kind.
His first article
on the matter appeared in San Paolo of April 1958. In that
text he makes an exact reference to the Apostolic Constitution
Provida Mater Ecclesia and to the motu proprio Primo
Feliciter, and on those bases presents the Institutes “Saint
Gabriel the Archangel” and “Mary of the Annunciation”. The essential
condition in order to join such Institutes will be vocation
implying the will and the effective capacity to bring to the world a
life of sanctification and apostolate. It is, in fact, a special
call from God with regard to a new and precious Christian ferment in
contemporary society.
“The Pauline
Family – the Founder writes – in its special aim, through
similar help would find its apostolate much strengthened and its
influence intensified when using one of the most modern, efficacious
and fruitful means”.
Fr. Alberione sees
many other advantages, whether for those called to such Institutes
or for the evangelizing work of the Church: a means of consecration
and apostolate that opens itself to so many persons, offering them
the possibility to live it while remaining with their family and in
society; an apostolic action that extends to many environments,
professions and organizations of Christians usually not reachable by
priests or religious; the possibility of continuing to sow the
Christian seed even in adverse circumstances or those openly
persecuting the faith...
As for all his
foundations, Blessed Fr. Alberione followed a precise process of
discernment: much prayer, serious reflections and various operative
proposals.
It is noteworthy,
for example, that in his first reflections, he saw the members of
the Institutes which he intended to start as committed cooperators
with vows according to their secular condition and cooperating more
intensely with the Pauline Family.
It is also
noteworthy that notwithstanding that he has always talked of
“secular institutes”, in asking and obtaining approval from the Holy
See (8 April 1960), he accepted that they be officially recognized
as proper associations (opera propria) of the Pious Society of St.
Paul, hence “aggregated” to her. His conformity regarding this is
absolute; thus he said in the same April 1960: “They are parts of
the Pious Society of St. Paul; they depend according to their rules
on the Society’s Superior General. They enjoy papal and definitive
approval ” (UPS III,185).
It is also
understandable that in many writings the Founder applied to the
Aggregated Institutes categories or terms proper to religious life.
Only after Vatican II, use of the expressions “consecrated life” or
“consecration” will spread and become common.
But what really
counts are not these specifications that are easy to understand in
following the historical evolution of these Institutes. It is
important, instead, to see in their rising a will of God faithfully
executed by Blessed Fr. Alberione to give to the Church new ranks of
consecrated people who in the midst of the realities of the world
and according to the needs of the times continued to be light, salt
and cities placed on high.
Even moving is the
act of acceptance that Fr. Alberione, through Mary, makes of the
divine will regarding the Institutes. Thus he wrote in one of his
personal notebooks dating back to March 1958: “I, your unworthy
son, accept with my heart the will of your Jesus: to complete the
Pauline Family. To initiate the three institutes: ‘Jesus Priest’,
‘Mary of the Annunciation’, ‘Saint Gabriel the Archangel’. They will
be souls that ‘burn for love of God and convert their whole life
into apostleship’…”.
At the end of his life Fr.
Alberione will still receive from God the grace to give his go-
ahead with blessing to the effective start of the ‘Holy Family
Institute’.
| 
