FOREWORD
The motive justifying the present edition of the Appunti di Teologia Pastorale [Notes in Pastoral Theology] (ATP) is found in the intention of giving a single setup to the writings of Don Giacomo Alberione, and thus to more easily put together the essential components of his charism.
Chronologically preceded by a booklet entitled La Beata Vergine delle Grazie,1 (The Blessed Virgin of Graces), this book marks the beginning of Don Alberione's editorial production. The book, of which extant are three editions (that of 1912, 1915 and 1960 respectively),2 seems to us as one of the more meaningful fruits of the first phase of Don Alberione's life characterized by a parish apostolate in direct contact with the faithful. It is, in fact, after his first pastoral experiences in some areas of the Alba environment and as a formator of clerics in the seminary that this young priest decides to write ATP.
This direct bond with pastoral work, lived in person, would not be so visibly found in the institute of the Society of St. Paul which he would found in 1914 and whose apostolate, centered at first on the Good Press, would eventually be theorized and undertaken through the different means of social communication. To point out how Don Alberione had brought to maturity the passage from a direct and traditional ministry to one that is more indirect and modern is not the task of this foreword.3 There is, however, a basic unity between the two orientations that deserves noticing: the will to reach better and more fully the souls, by
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embracing as many of them as possible. This unity can be synthesized in the expression that is classic for the entire Pauline Family: pastoral charism.
The pastoral spirit is hence the criterion that allows us to read and understand the thought, the work and the choices of Don Alberione, first as a priest in direct pastoral experience, then as an educator in the formation of seminarians, and finally as the founder of the Pauline Family.
I. Formation of the text of ATP
1. First pastoral experiences. The Alba diocese had, among its pastors, personalities eminent in holiness and strong pastoral commitment. Reared in the school of the Piedmontese saints of the end of the 1700's (Giuseppe Benedetto Cottolengo, 1786-1842; Giuseppe Cafasso, 1811-1860; Giovanni Bosco, 1815-1888, and others), they established, amidst the clergy and the faithful, a climate of special attention to the problems of the people. Among them, let us remember Msgr. E. Galletti, who, in Alba, distinguished himself for his work in pastoral visitations, in the synod (1873), for the devotion to the Eucharist, for the formation of the clergy and for catechesis; Msgr. Lorenzo Pampirio, who introduced Neo-scholasticism in its most rigorous form in the seminary of Alba, followed in this by Msgr. Francesco Re, who, in his turn, was noted among the Piedmont clergy for his intransigent defense of orthodoxy and his opposition to modernism, though probably not on modernity.4
The bishops of Alba are remembered for the promotion of the Catholic Movement in the diocese, which, in 1911, after a period of decadence, sprang in the most intense propaganda for the Popular Union.5
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In this climate of strong ecclesial and social involvement, the young Don Alberione had his first pastoral experiences. He exercised the ministry in some parishes, among which San Bernardo in Narzole (Cuneo).6 Here he had his first responsibility in the role of vice parish priest, giving proof of his resourcefulness and limitless good will.7 Here, in the end, he further clarified his vocation to a ministry other than direct pastoral care,8 while understanding the need to commit himself to something else new because the usual schemes of pastoral care did not meet the new demands.
2. How the book ATP was born. Called by the bishop to the seminary, with the qualification of spiritual director and teacher of civil and ecclesiastical history, Don Alberione assumed the responsibility over the formation of clerics and the newly-ordained priests. In order to assure for them a guide that, with all simplicity, direct their first steps in public life; but which is a practical and secure guide,9 he decided to write the ATP.
Other than a mere passing on of dry concepts, his lessons on the ministry were marked for dialogue, sharing and experimentation. Explaining the notes he felt the need of a more realistic knowledge of the diocese's situation. Hence, contemporaneously with theoretical teaching, he undertook a research on pastoral practice. He proposed questionnaires relative to the pastoral being done in the diocese and sent them to some parish priests. Among them emerge Fr. Bartolomeo Dallorto, Fr. Luigi Sibona, Fr. Augusto Vigolungo.10 Furthermore,
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he consulted treatises, short works and magazines. He sought the help of other priests in gathering notes and reflections, choose them, arrange and correct them.
Then came the drafting of the book and its publication.11
Don Alberione would later write, speaking of himself in the third person: Over a two-year period, in weekly conferences with a dozen priests, he studied methods for the good and up-to-date care of souls. He asked questions and received written suggestions from about fifteen Vicars Forane. (These he shared with the student clerics and young priests).12
Aside from direct pastoral experience of pastoral choices tested in reality, ATP is hence born of a gradual theoretical deepening and of reflection over experiences done by others. Already at the start, Don Alberione had excluded a theoretical-scientific treatment of the subject matter. I know very well, he said, that doing so I will not meet the expectations of many [persons]; but I also know that they can find what they are looking for in other authors.13
His objective was to help the young priests face serenely the first years in the ministry. In the ATP, they were supposed to find a constant and secure point of reference inasmuch as such notes
- were born out of experience and out of the competent contribution of pastors already dedicated for sometime to the care of souls;
- they respected the cultural roots of the diocesan population;
- they were enriched by a substantial bibliography that had references to other specific aids.
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3. Reception and spread of the ATP. As it shows from researches done in different libraries,14 the book was soon known and well received by the Italian clergy.
Already in 1912, the monthly magazine for the clergy Difesa ed azione (Defense and action) of the Archdiocese of Turin, published a flattering review of the book (published still in mimeograph edition): There are still but a few treatises that neatly distinguish the pastoral point of view from other related points of view and these few almost always do not get down to practice truly adapted to the particular circumstances where we live. Then, a beautiful book came to our hands... which book, with surprising perfection, comes to satisfy our desire... Its content is rich and broad, its style, simple and clear, the ointment, where it has penetrated, everything contributes for it to deserve every praise.15 Not wanting is an expression of gratitude to the Author for his service rendered to the clergy.
In 1913, preparing the preface to the book for printing, Cardinal Richelmy underlined how fruitful it was to insist especially on the practical ways of zealously and fruitfully exercising the pastoral ministry; blessed therefore are the dear Notes in pastoral theology of the good Theologian Alberione, wherein sound doctrine and practical sense shine together, through which qualities the exercise of true pastor of souls comes easy and secure.16
From these short reviews, let it be noted that pastoral theology (TP) was considered a practical synthesis of teachings for the use of those caring for souls. It was a typical idea of the time, held also by the La Civiltà Cattolica, which, reviewing the ATP placed Don Alberione among the egregious scholars of this science, while underlining how in the book one could find
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a true treasure of practical norms and suitable counsels, especially for the young member of the clergy.17
Some years after its publication, the book was still quoted by pastoral theologians as G. Stocchiero, who, in 1921, published his Pratica Pastorale and by E. Naddeo, who in the same year published Il vero Pastore di anime.18
Here comes the legitimate question: Why did Don Alberione, seeing the favorable acceptance of his book, not attend or had someone attend to other editions until 1960? The answer perhaps is to be sought in the chronology of those years. After 1914, he, in fact, gets absorbed almost totally by his emerging congregations: the Pious Society of St. Paul (1914), the Daughters of St. Paul (1915), the Pious Disciples of the Divine Master (1924), the Sisters of Jesus Good Shepherd (1938), the Sisters of Mary, Queen of Apostles (1957) and finally the institutes of lay consecration (1958-1960). The founder felt constrained to channel his interests, his energies and time to their development.
Nonetheless, he did not abandon the subject of pastoral.
In fact, between 1912 and 1916, started the publication of Vita Pastorale,19 a magazine for the exercise of the priestly
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ministry, personally directed by Don Alberione. Along the line of the charismatic orientation of his institutions, Don Alberione believed it more effective to let his written reflection reach periodically the pastors. Among the first yearly collections of the magazine, we find an issue dated January 1921, where a passage of the ATP, regarding the Relationship between Parish Priests - To encourage harmony. To avoid disagreements20 was published.
Regarding the need of an updating or a revision of ATP, we find a trace of it in a sermon of Don Alberione to the young members of the starting congregation of the Sisters of Jesus Good Shepherd, the Pastorelle, dating back to 1939: It would be good [that] you see to a treatise of pastoral theology and also my Appunti di Teologia Pastorale, bearing in mind that in some points, things are dated and no longer right. You can cover these gaps with Stocchiero.21
The effective updating of ATP was done in the third edition, by Msgr. Giuseppe Pistoni in 1960. From the documentation of the exchanged letters22 that took place between Don Alberione and Msgr. Pistoni, we come to know that this priest, about to assume the teaching of Pastoral Theology in the seminary of Modena, thought precisely to adopt the book as the text for his students. Inasmuch as the book was already out of print for long, Don Alberione proposed that he assumed the responsibility of coming up with a new edition. The reply was positive.
The third edition, readied in a short time, was printed in 1960.
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In 1965, at the end of the Vatican Council II, Msgr. Pistoni re-proposes a re-edition of the book by the Author himself in order to adapt it to the new Ecumenical Council views. On 12 December 1965, Don Alberione replied by expressing his gratitude for the suggestion of revising and conforming to the Vatican Council II the book of Appunti di Teologia Pastorale, and then explained, Enormous has been the progress... We are more perfectly in the Pastoral of Jesus Good Shepherd... many things [are] to be taken away from the book and many things to introduce. This time, however, although convinced of the proposal's value, Don Alberione, by now advanced in age, did not concretize his thought. Today's reader can therefore learn to historicize and contextualize what he reads in this dated book.
II. The three different editions of ATP
As already mentioned, ATP had had different stages of composition.
1. The first draft dates back to 1912 and it is the conclusion of a laborious but enriching experience of research.23 The book, typewritten and photocopied, is published with the title, Appunti di Teologia Pastorale, Torino, lit. A. Viretto, 1912.
The dedication is To my dear friends, the M.M. R.R. (Most Reverend) Alumni of the conferences on morals at the Seminary of Alba
The text is introduced by a foreword of the Author that reveals the motivations of the work. It bears the date of 1 August 1912. A NB invites the readers: For anything, get in touch with Theol. Alberione G[iacomo], Spiritual Director of the Seminary of Alba.
The book is made up of three parts:
- the first, entitled Dei fondamenti dello zelo (Some foundations of zeal), is articulated in three chapters: Piety and study; Study; The administration of the material goods;
- the second, Della cura pastorale e delle opere in generale da compirsi dal Sacerdote (Regarding pastoral care and of the
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activities in general that the Priest has to do), is made up of six chapters: I. On pastoral action in general; II. On the pastoral action of the Parish Priest; III. Some initiatives through the pastoral action of Vicars Forane; IV. Norms for Chaplains; V. Norms for Priest-teachers; VI. Relationship of Priests;
- the third, Di alcune opere particolari proprie dello zelo sacerdotale (On some particular works proper to the priestly zeal), is made up of ten chapters. The reflection now passes from the specifically sacramental sphere: Confession, Communion, Liturgical Celebrations, to that of Preaching and of Catechism. Finally, the principal devotions are presented, as well as all the works regarding Catholic Action. The three last chapters deal with Religious Vocations, the Organization of feasts and on the Construction of Churches.
This is the content of the first edition, typewritten and photocopied.
2. The 1915 edition. With some trepidation24 and following the request of some parish priests, Don Alberione publishes in printed form the II Edition - revised - corrected - broadened, Turin, cav. Pietro Marietti editore, 1915.
On the frontispiece, added to the title Appunti di Teologia Pastorale, was a subtitle between parentheses: (Pratica del ministero sacerdotale per il giovane clero) (Practice of the priestly ministry for the young cleric), and a motto with two short verses from the First Letter of Peter: Pascite, qui in vobis est, gregem Dei... et cum apparuerit princeps pastorum, percipietis immarcescibilem gloriae coronam (I Petr. V, 2-4), an invitation to his young readers to tend to the sheep of God not by constraint but willingly, as God would have it, not for shameful profit but eagerly... (I Pt. 5:3) in order to participate together with the Lord in the glory he promised.25
The dedication follows, modified in comparison with the
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first edition in the following terms: To my very dear friends - the Most Reverend young priests - and the Venerable Clerics - of the Diocese of Alba.
The short Foreword of Cardinal Richelmy, archbishop of Turin, who blesses the work and encourages the Author, is dated 2 February 1913. It is then the first edition of the book, as is confirmed by the index.26
In the new edition, two prefaces appear, both by Don Alberione: the first was written for the 1912 edition, the other, more concise, for the current edition, which reiterates the motivations of the preceding edition.
In comparison with the 1912 edition, in this of 1915, some sections of the text are better structured. The book is still subdivided into three parts. The first deals with Dei fondamenti dello zelo (Some foundations of zeal), identified as profound piety, held as a priority for an effective action of the priest amidst the people. The list of practices is followed by the description of the virtues, by the invitation for continuing study, or studiousness, because the priest should be the man of today, and not of the times past.27 Some pieces of information regard the elementary rules for the administration of material goods conclude this part.
Della cura pastorale e dei suoi mezzi generali (On pastoral care and its means in general) is the title of the second, wherein attempt is made to define either the pastoral action (as it would be called afterwards), or some of the principles that ought to regulate its practice. With the usual concern, the Author notes: Only practical things shall be mentioned and among them one is to choose those that today seem most adequate in the needs of the present.28
The third part, Di alcune opere particolari proprie dello zelo sacerdotale (On some particular activities proper to the priestly zeal), presents norms for a more effective intervention in some specific moments of the pastoral life: liturgy, catechesis, charity-assistance presence. Not set aside are the multiform associations,
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ecclesial and not, that the young priest-pastor can promote in his pastoral activity.
Some final paragraphs are dedicated to the building and builders of churches. Among the suggestions and varied affirmations, Don Alberione writes: It is said: with great projects what is most wanting is money. As a rule, this is not true: what is wanting instead are men who know how to think of great things, who have the courage to start them off, who are equipped with good sense, who will work with perseverance and great spirit of sacrifice.29
In the preface to the second edition, Don Alberione writes that it is not his intention to demand a book that is somehow complete, almost scientific, at least well ordered, with a more lofty style.30 That would have blocked, or almost, according to him, the desired fruit.
Actually, from the comparison between the two editions, a qualitative leap immediately emerges on the linguistic or structural level. Except for the second part of the book, very much retouched, almost all the material of the first edition is present in the second. Short additions are noticeable, with ulterior reflections and explanations, either in the first or on the third part. The entire work is notably renewed in language that becomes more appropriate and fluid.
The second part, as it has been said, undergoes the greater changes, either in the titles or in the structure. The title: Della cura pastorale e delle opere in generale da compirsi dal sacerdote (Regarding pastoral care and works in general the priest has to do) of the first edition, is changed into Della cura pastorale e dei suoi mezzi generali (On pastoral care and its general means). The chapters, six at first, are reduced to four, distributed differently, attentive to another logic: from a general reflection, On Pastoral action in general (Chap. I), and Norms to the clergy in general (Chap. II), to a particular one, Relationships of the priest. (Chap. III) and On pastoral action of some priests (Chap. IV).
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The 1915 edition is then structured in a more harmonious manner than the preceding. The added material is in view of a greater precision.
At the start of the book, a new section has been inserted, Dei fondamenti dello zelo (On the foundations of zeal), that introduces the whole of the first part. Furthermore, paragraphs 7-8-9, concise in the first edition, now find a more organic development.
Short introductions have been inserted also in other parts of the text, often as a note to present the chapter that follows;31 new titles are added to improve the arrangement of the material;32 new pieces of information regarding pastoral are inserted.33 Short portions of the text of 1912 are omitted or shortened.34 In general, every change is complemented with text, more than a modification of the thought.
3. Third edition, 1960. The title is Appunti di Teologia Pastorale, per la scuola e il ministero (Notes in Pastoral Theology, for school and ministry). The book is published in the Collana Pastorale-Regimen of the Edizioni Paoline. The text has been completely reworked by Canon Msgr. Giuseppe Pistoni, under agreement with Don Alberione.
In September 1957, Don Alberione wrote the Canon telling him he is grateful and happy that he accepted to redo (or do?) the book of pastoral and invited him to make of it a real treatise, of summary practical and updated value.
In nine points, Don Alberione synthesized what in the revision should not be neglected, preoccupation for the training of the clergy: feel living in the Mystical Body as minister - dispensator -
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forma gregis... and draw from the sources of life: the Gospel, the Eucharist, the Vicar of Christ.35 The greater attention is addressed to the apostolic life of the priest which ought to begin from an affective and effective union with confreres; to be ready and attentive to every person, of every social class, to be open to the socio-political and cultural problems of the environment. Don Alberione closed his pointers by exhorting the curator to integrate the text with a good updating, according to the recent pontifical documents, the latest congresses and the more recent pastoral publications.
Canon Pistoni prepared the new edition by subdividing the material in two parts. In the first, he groups together the reflection on Pastoral Theology and on the figure of the pastor. Without neglecting the knowledge of the fold and the norms that regulate pastoral action. In the second, he illustrates the different means of action deduced from the tasks or powers of the Church and lead back to the triple office: magisterial-priestly-kingly.
The material of the preceding editions is now redistributed in a new arrangement, while two new chapters are introduced by the curator. The first, La teologia pastorale, develops a general reflections on Pastoral Theology by illustrating the duties and the means therein; the second La conoscenza della parrocchia, emphasizes the importance of having a good orientation, by utilizing also the psycho-sociological sciences as means of pastoral intervention.
The changed socio-cultural conditions and above all the new orientations of Pastoral Theology36 would lead differently the
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new publication, which instead seems to detach itself from the old schemes of the start of 1900.
The comparison of the different editions of the ATP, just drawn, explains why in the present publication, we adopt as basic text that of the second edition (1915), which, to our judgment, better translates the original thought of the Author and the structure of his treatise; that which, furthermore, better allows us to identify his style: sober, essential, at times unadorned, but nonetheless clear.
4. Authenticity: an author or more authors? The question, apparently gratuitous, is born of an attentive reading of the prefaces at the varied editions of the ATP, all drawn personally by Don Alberione. A confrontation among them raises some problematic affirmations. In the first preface, the Author considers the book his work, although admitting having had suggestions from 18 among the most zealous and elderly parish priests of the diocese and for having made use of treatises, short works, and various magazines.
The preface to the second edition confirms such an assumption. On the third, however, as in a passage of the Abundantes divitiae gratiae suae,37 the Author affirms: It would please the Rev. Priests... to know that the first edition was prepared by a dozen priests, [italics ours], among the experts, among whom the material was distributed, which material was then coordinated and organized in many conferences among other priests.38
These last affirmations seem to contradict the preceding ones. To make sure of their authenticity, we raised a question if the preface of the third edition were truly by Don Alberione, Fr. A. Speciale, then the personal secretary of Don Alberione, answered
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affirmatively as he wrote in his journal as follows: On 12 November 1958, Don Alberione prepared the preface of the third edition of the Appunti di Teologia Pastorale. The answers of other persons, among whom Fr. G. Roatta, and the interview with Msgr. Natale Bussi on 17 August 1982, did not allow any different conclusion.
Hence the most recent affirmations of Don Alberione regarding the drafting of ATP are authentic. But how can we reconcile them with the first affirmations?
The most tenable hypothesis is to hold that the text was progressively drafted:
- the consultation with the eighteen priest-pastors seems to be the earliest, that which furnished the first suggestions, then broadened by Don Alberione himself through readings and various references;
- the twelve priests referred to in AD and in the third preface of the text seem to be those who, in the weekly pastoral conferences, collaborated with Don Alberione in the choice and in the drafting of the materials gathered through research and questionnaires, for the drafting of the first edition.
Such an hypothesis seems to be the most likely although AD and the third preface of ATP date back to 1954 and 1958 respectively. The possible lack of precision in remembering could make it less credible, but not to the degree of putting into question the book's being the work of Don Alberione. Besides, if the consulted priests were considered co-authors, they would have certainly revindicated their rights on the declared Author.
Hence, Don Alberione can then be considered as the book's Author inasmuch as he is the inspirer of the initiative and the compiler of the gathered material.
It is a well-known habit of the Founder to eliminate what he considered no longer necessary after the publication of his work. Probably the same lot fell on all the preparatory materials for the ATP. The fact that neither the manuscripts nor the eventual original typewritten drafts of both the first editions are extant, we hence cannot perform any work of critical analysis that would
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furnish us information on the drafting, the writing (probably by hand) and on the origin of the utilized contributions.39
III. The ATP in the pastoral theology of the time
1. The general context.40 For a more adequate understanding and location of the ATP, it seems suitable for us to further draw some features of the pastoral-theological reflection at the close of the 1800's that had some influence on Don Alberione. The span of time that covered the second half of the 1800's is characterized by an abundance of manuals in pastoral theology.
In them we find a common vision of the Church, inherited from the post-Tridentine tradition and from Vatican Council I, which intends to build the Church around the Pope, the principle of authority and of unity and the last guarantee of her authenticity.41 It is obvious that, in this interpretative setup, the faithful remain to be objects and not subjects of the Church's pastoral action.
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The pneumatological dimension is as well set on the sides while the Christological one is significantly present. Christ establishes the Church and confers on her his authority and his threefold power: Magisterium, Jurisdiction and Order.
This concept of the Church, strongly juridical and hierarchical, marks the seminary formation of generations of priests and pastors and it consequently characterizes the manuals of Pastoral Theology. The qualifying features of such a theology may be thus briefly mentioned:
- Pastoral activity is essentially the care for souls, that is, the composite of church ministries that lead individual souls, more than concrete persons, to salvation.42 Underneath this definition lies a dualist anthropological vision and a reductive conception of salvation that seems to ignore the physical element in favor almost exclusively of the soul.
- Pastoral care is specified in view of souls individually considered, while the community is conceived as a sum of individuals.43 The dual precept of the love of God and neighbor, that is the world, is not evident.
- The beneficiary of this caring is fallen man, who needs to know God and himself, who needs grace and needs to be able to have access to all the saving benefits.44 The reply to these three needs comes specifically from the preaching of the word alone and the administration of the sacraments, both assured by Church norms.
- The figure of the pastoral worker, in the typical vision presented thus far, is established and defined exclusively in relation to the priest, bound, that is, to his priestly consecration and mission, if not on his holiness and personal training. This figure of the priest-pastor45 is characterized by the triple dimension of teacher-priest-king, proper only to ecclesiastical powers.
- The adopted methodology by the majority of the manuals is rather approximative, with scientific pretensions, considering the
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subject as but a mere introduction to the concrete practice, for use by the pastor and his fold.46 The few manuals that claim a precise scientific intention define pastoral as the science that applies the principles of dogma and morals to the practice of the ministry.47
- The sources of Pastoral Theology are made up of the Scriptures, often dogmatically quoted, taken out of its historical-literary context, of the conciliar and synodal acts, of canonical books and, not rarely, drawn out of experiences of Saints and great Pastors of souls. It is only in the application that recourse is taken to positive sciences regarding concrete situations: psychology, pedagogy and at times also medicine as regards the status of the subject; statistics and sociology for the knowledge of socio-economic and cultural factors.48
2. The Italian context. At the time when Don Alberione wrote his Appunti, there did not exist in Italy a strong pastoral theory. There circulated instead short manuals that were more or less successful and whose contents were conservative. The historical context, characterized by the politics of a state that defends at all costs its being secular and by the reaction of an ecclesial community that is not yet free from a logic of defense from the temporal powers, requires a special notice. In this context pastoral reflection is located outside the academic sphere, in contrast with what was contemporaneously happening in countries of German language where religious sciences reside well in state universities. In Italy, pastoral is oriented on two directions: the ascetic-spiritual and the juridical.
A book symbolic to it is the Manuale pratico del parroco novello,49 (Practical manual of the novice parish priest) written
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by Giuseppe Frassinetti, prior of St. Sabina in Genoa and founder of the Sons of Mary Immaculate, also the author of different ascetical works. The book, published in 1863, reached, in 1964, the twelfth edition.50 Born of experience of thirty years in pastoral ministry, the book is introduced to the new parish priests with the freedom of an older brother who can tell them: you, who are fresh out of studies, shall be ahead of me as regards theoretical knowledge, but in practice, I have an advantage over you.51
During the first decades of the 20th century, E. Berardi, who in 1902 published Theologia Pastoralis, and A. Micheletti, with his De Pastore animarum, published in 191252 distinguished themselves. Drafted in Latin, the two manuals are addressed to the clergy caring for souls and described the characteristics of caring and their fundamental duties.
Other authors, like Giuseppe Calandruccio, Giuseppe Bartolotti and Giuseppe Corazzini,53 offer reflections more strictly
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juridical-canonical in nature. In 1917, there appeared the book of Msgr. Fortunato De Santa, bishop of Sessa Aurunca: Spunti di teologia pastorale, which, in 1926, already reached its IV expanded and corrected edition.54 After the publication of the Code of Canon Law (1917), other pastoral scholars updated the reflection on the pastoral practices after the new set of norms. Let us remember E. Naddeo, who in 1922 published Il vero pastore di anime, in two volumes, and above all G. Stocchiero, with his Pratica Pastorale.55 Published in 1921, this book was welcomed very favorably by the Italian clergy, as the numerous editions and their adoption in seminaries until Vatican Council II show it.
Finally, two German pastoral scholars, C. Krieg and H. Swoboda,56 finally began influencing also Italy. Their books were already
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translated during the first two decades of the 20th century. Krieg distinguished himself for the scientific rigor with which he dealt with the subject matter and for the arguments suitable as foundation for a true pastoral science: Swoboda, distinguished himself for his openness to the socio-pastoral problems of the parish, especially those in the city, by now marked by the phenomenon of industrialization and by the means of mass communication.
To Don Alberione, a young priest then, Swoboda's book seemed a brilliant treatise.57 Thus he introduced the author: A professor at the University of Vienna, he had under his care a considerable reference material he could carry in all the principal cities of Europe, in order to study the status of the care of souls.58 With him, Alberione shared the need for real knowledge of situations before coming up with whatever plan. Don Alberione agreed with Swoboda above all on the application of the new human sciences in view of precise, effective intervention on actual situations.59
Better still, C. Krieg is indicated to the readers of ATP as an author capable of satisfying the more demanding spirits, desirous for scientific treatment: I do not want to wait any longer to point out the best book that we currently possess on pastoral: Krieg, Scienza Pastorale....60
Nonetheless, Don Alberione does non stop on the two German pastoral scholars. According to him, every pastoral worker must find his own most convincing teachers among the pastor-saints of the past, like St. Alphonsus,61 St. Charles Borromeo,
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St. Francis di Sales, St. John Bosco, the Cottolengo and the Curè of Ars. Furthermore, the pastor of souls ought to nourish himself on the spiritual writings of St. Julien Eymard, St. Ignatius of Loyola and Faber. Obviously, the Sacred Scriptures and the Fathers of the Church, as well as the great Pastors, though spoken of without any preoccupation for historical and geographical contextualization are not ignored.
3. Ferments of renewal and church movements. While the Italian literary production on the level of pastoral reflections remains mostly bound to the schemes of neo-scholasticism and to the ecclesiology of Vatican I, in the sphere of pastoral practice, however, interesting initiatives and a new reflection of pastoral praxis are born. These would be a kind of preparation for Vatican Council II.
Generally, theory and practice are bound to the spirit of initiative and pastoral zeal of individual bishops and priests, attentive to the cultural movements beyond the Alps and to the innovative ferments of the respective communities located in a historical situation that is evolving.
They are activities that complete each other and interact with the Church movements that precede and indirectly prepare for Vatican Council II: catechetical, liturgical, charitable and social.
The rebirth of the Italian catechetical movement is connected with the names of Msgr. G. Bonomelli, G.B. Scalabrini, A. Capecelatro, L. Pavanelli, etc., who, together with the members of different religious institutes promoted study congresses and conventions, as well as the magazine Il Catechista Cattolico (The Catholic Catechist). This renewal is confirmed by the action and the Magisterium of Pius X through the encyclical Acerbo Nimis and the new Catechismo.62
The liturgical movement, already started in Belgium and then moved on to Germany and Italy, is principally bound to the birth of the Rivista Liturgica [Liturgical Magazine] (1914), promoted
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by Abbot B. Bolognani, a Benedictine from Finalpia, and entrusted to the directorship of Dom E. Caronti. The collaboration of bishops like Msgr. Marini of Norcia and Msgr. Filippello of Ivrea, and the contribution of scholars like Abbot Schuster, later Archbishop of Milan, saw to it that the people were made aware of the pastoral and sanctifying value of liturgy.63
A particular chapter in the history of the Italian pastoral is made up of the sum total ideas and of ecclesial-social initiatives, known as movimento sociale cattolico (Catholic social movement). Highly complex in its genesis and its articulation, it responds substantially to the association movement and to all those initiatives that developed from 1848 onwards in order to meet a political context dominated by forces adverse to Catholicism.64
Strong at the start with a notable and articulated patrimony of aid and charitable works, the movement is enriched, towards the last decade of the 1800, with the birth of the first Societies of Mutual Help, the constitution of Credit Cooperatives in the form of Rural Banks, and the Patronages in defense of emigrants.65
During this period promising trends of initiatives for the assistance and promotion of the more defenseless classes, of youth and of women,66 mainly in the field of instruction, also was becoming widespread.
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First, in the order of time, were the works for the professional instruction of the youth: Opera degli Artigianelli (Association of Young Craftsmen), Fratelli delle Scuole Cristiane (La Salle Brothers), Giuseppini del Murialdo (Josephines of Murialdo) and the Salesians of Don Bosco. All these organizations were geared to training the youth for employment in the various sectors of socio-economic life; above all, they built solid bonds of association through a good spiritual formation.67
Another trend, less institutionalized, is made up of the patient work of a clergy passionately interested in pastoral care as well as in rural life,68 which, in many ways, diffused information and teachings useful in the modernization of farming methods and techniques for the land worker.
Finally, not less important is the contribution of local Catholic press, bound especially with the phenomenon of diocesan periodicals and of parish bulletins, wherein, side by side with catechesis, and news on the life of the diocese, information is given as regards the offered opportunities of technical and professional instruction. Along this line one would note that Don Alberione locates the good press from among the objects of charity that deserve the special attention of the faithful.69
Since 1875 the major organization, intended to inspire the Italian Catholics for about three decades, was the Opera dei Congressi, whose luminaries would include Msgr. Radini-Tedeschi, G.B. Paganuzzi, N. Rezzara.70 Notable impulse for reflection and for operational propositions would also come from the Settimane Sociali dei Cattolici Italiani (Social Weeks of Italian Catholics), celebrated annually from 1907 and animated by eminent personalities as Card. Maffi, Professors G. Toniolo, A. Boggiano-Pico, A. Caldana and others, where current burning issues were dealt with, such as the family, schools,
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the condition of workers, labor unions, in a word, modern pastoral problems.
4. Pius X and Modernism Don Alberione, in ATP, draws inspiration substantially from the vision of Church during his time and above all from the Magisterium of Pius X, of whose motto he embraced as his own: Instaurare omnia in Christo.71
Pope Sarto's pontificate, grounded on significant experiences as parish priest and bishop, immediately manifested itself having a clearly pastoral program, aimed at the restoration of an ecclesial life in its most traditional components: the deposit of the faith, moral and canonical discipline, sacramental life. From here came his documents for the promotion of catechesis, of Christian and of priestly formation, and on liturgy.72
A phenomenon of historical relevance that, however, marked ambiguously and painfully that pontificate, was the Modernist crisis which wounded numerous consciences among Catholics and their pastors. Even at the end of the 1800's, humanity found itself face to face with an outburst of unprecedented scientific and cultural discoveries. Within the Church, in the sphere of thought, metaphysics and traditional philosophy, displaced by the more modern dialectics of Hegel and Kant's subjectivism, were put into crisis. The most revolutionary idea of the 19th century, Fergus Kerr wrote, is that thought and truth are relative
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to society and to the historical perspective in which they are affirmed and presumed.73
Modernism therefore had its reasons, but the accent was on the individualistic experience, also religious, other than on the objective doctrinal corpus.74 Religious thinkers were seeking God in the psychological aspiration of the human spirit rather than in the dogmas of the Church. The Sacred Scriptures were dealt with by Modernism not as a dogmatic corpus but rather like any other ancient literary corpus and they were studied with the sophisticated tools of historical analysis, philology, rhetoric, archeology... What today is accepted by more people, also in the Catholic Church as a scientific method of investigation, was by then considered as in contrast with the traditional reading of the Bible accepted in the Church, along the line of the counter Reformation and hence with the anti-Protestant key. In such a traditionalist and conservative vision, the role of the Pope's Magisterium was underlined as the only norm in the control of the faith.
Pius X's encyclical letter, Pascendi dominici gregis (8 September 1907), preceded by a syllabus75 of errors, marked the official condemnation precisely of Modernism, considered merely as an agnostic and relativist ideology, and therefore a heresy that violated revealed truth.
In fact, in Europe, there existed a certain number of scholars who, today, would be called progressive but at that time they were called surrenderees to the spirit of the times. Among
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these were the French Bible scholar Alfred Loisy (1857-1940) and the Irish theologian George Tyrrell, a former Calvinist Jesuit (1861-1909). From different positions, they accused the Church of medievalism and they underlined the relative-historical character of the Biblical and ecclesiastical pronouncements on the revealed truth.
In Italy, however, priests and lay persons, more attentive to what was going on in the centers of research, cautiously solicited the participation of Catholic persons in the cultural and political life. The Barnabite, Giovanni Semeria, longed for a new approach in apologetics that would take into consideration modern psychology; the exegetist Giovanni Genocchi promoted regular meetings among the progressives in his house in Rome; Umberto Fracassini, a protégé of Pope Leo XIII and rector of the Seminary of Perugia, was distinguished as an innovator for his ideas on the history of the Church and on exegesis; Salvatore Minocchi, who complained about the evident incapacity of the Church to establish contact with the contemporary lay culture, abandoned the priesthood, as would Fr. Romolo Murri and Fr. Ernesto Buonaiuti.76
In his elderly memories, Don Alberione would summarize the modernist crisis in this short synthesis: From 1895 to 1915 there had been so many deviations in social, theological and ascetical matters as to undermine the foundations of every truth and of the Church; indeed to bring about its downfall. As an impressive example, he referred to the case of Il Santo by Antonio Fogazzaro.77 According to him, many were the harmful consequences of those deviations: division among the clergy into currents of thought as against the advancement of socialism and against
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the yoke of dominant Freemasonry; the serious disturbance and disorientation of the spirits;78 state of social and political concept; the sectarian (that is, non-dogmatic) use of the new means of information and of scholastic education.79
After so much confusion, so Don Alberione noted, pastoral assumed an orientation in conformity with the example and the work of Pius X, by following constructive paths inasmuch as (notice the original appreciation) Pius X appeared and presented himself in a fascinating light: Jesus Christ anew, visible among the crowds.80
From the Modernist crisis Don Alberione nonetheless drew a practical lesson for his future ministry. Safe from every polemical discussion, he tried to identify the positive ferments of the questioned movement and to translate into pastoral practice many of the instances proposed by the innovators.81 As a programmed direction for the editorial activity of his own foundations, he established that they first of all, give the teaching that saves. Imbue all thought and human knowledge with the Gospel. Don't talk only about religion but talk about everything in a Christian way; in a way similar to a Catholic University which, if it is complete, has Theology, Philosophy, Arts, Medicine, Political Economics, Natural Sciences and so on, but everything [is] given in a Christian way and in view of Catholicism. Likewise Sociology, Pedagogy, Geology, Statistics, Art, Hygiene, Geography, History, all human advancement, and so on, in accordance with reason subordinate to faith...82
Is this perhaps not the pastoral mission of the Pauline Family?
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IV. The more important themes of ATP
The book falls in the Church context of its time, bearing with it its fundamental characteristics, its shadows and above all its lights.
1. First of all, there is fidelity to the Church, expressed by Don Alberione in his continuing reference to the Church laws, to the theological and ascetical-moral doctrine proper of his time, and above all through the continuing reference to the pontifical Magisterium, of Pius X in particular, that greatly influenced his training and whom we find constantly mentioned in the key points of his treatise. As was already seen, the Founder took as his own the pastoral program of the new Pope, which proposed:
- a general renewal of Christian life;
- a return to the Gospel and to the Church, the community of hope and the place of salvation;
- the formation of priests for holiness and for the ministry: a double commitment that is unified in sacerdotal charity, that is in the care of souls.
The ATP starts with a quote from Pius X's exhortation to the clergy, Haerent animo, whose tone, to Don Alberione, sounds as a kind of manifesto: The priest cannot be a priest who lives for himself: he cannot have as a motto the words I-God. It is an absolute must that he worked for the salvation of others, that he wrote on his flag I-God-People.83 Such an idea is emphasized in a following book, La donna associata allo zelo sacerdotale: the priest who reduces his priestly life to the mass and the breviary, or rather, who writes on his own flag these words alone: I-God, he should not be a priest: better for him if he belonged to the cloister... Therefore, let one have as a motto these words: I-God-Souls-People.84
The ATP is as well endowed with other references to Pius X's documents; references to the decree Sacra Tridentina
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Synodus and to the motu proprio Inter plurimas pastoralis officii sollicitudines.85 Special attention is given to the encyclicals Acerbo nimis and Fermo Proposito. The first offers passages for a rethinking of the diocesan catechetical activity, which locates Don Alberione among the protagonists of the catechetical commission willed by the bishop for the drafting of programs and of catechetical texts and programs.86 The second suggests the orientation for social action among Catholics in a decisive and conflicting moment. The document is introduced as a renewal teaching of a Pope who does not destroy but guides.87
2. Another evident dimension of the ATP is fidelity to man, considered in his condition as a fallen being and hence in need of salvation. Such fidelity is proposed through the typical description of manuals: a general description of the juridical-moral norms and of suggestions from spiritual masters regarding the administration of the sacraments and the proclamation of the Word through preaching and catechesis.
While remaining bound to the setup born within a clericalized ecclesiology, Don Alberione moves into new perspectives. The study of Swoboda and of Krieg, as was already seen, integrated and updated the classic models drawn from the great pastors, either of the patristic age or of the post-Tridentine season.
3. Specific themes. As regards the dominant themes in ATP, we must recognize that the dependences, the bonds, the very limitations shown in these pages cannot darken the contribution that Don Alberione tried to give to the pastoral reflection in the Church of his pre-Vatican II era.
The author reveals points of reflection bound to his experience since his youth (not excluding a personal crisis that took
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place when he was a seminarian), and related to his sensibility, as well as his courage to face and to find responses to the emerging challenges of progress. In ATP one gathers the ability of the Author to continually adjust himself to ongoing evolution.
In this sense, Don Alberione takes as his own the definition of pastoral enunciated by Swoboda as the action of Jesus Christ and of the Church, exercised by the priesthood for the salvation of souls;88 however, he, as if to explain the short definition, immediately adds: It is the ministry itself that Jesus Christ wanted to exercise in Palestine: Veni ut vitam habeant et abundatius habeant, and now wants to let it be accomplished by those to whom he said: Sicut misit me Pater et ego mitto vos.89 In this manner he places the pastoral ministry of the Church with that of Christ, motivated by a single anxiety, to transmit Life, and founded on a single mission originating from the saving will of the Father.
Don Alberione's perspective is therefore not merely juridical and institutional, but manifestly evangelical, missionary, moved by the pastoral anxiety of an apostle who draws inspiration from St. Paul.
The objective of pastoral, which is presented as an iter of progressive approach of the faithful to Christ, rather to their insertion in him, deserves special attention: to let man become Christian in his mind, in his heart, in his deeds90 till his total personal and social Christification...
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This formulation, which the Author would eventually develop in the succeeding other writings,91 is but mentioned in passing here, but already it reveals the adoption of the way-truth-life method, destined to sustain the spirituality and formation of the members of the Pauline Family, if not their pastoral activity.92
Another characteristic element of the ATP is its insistence on the fact that the recipients of pastoral are all the members of the People of God, with a special attention on the male component, men, who are often those most distant from the Church. The priest-pastor must direct himself to the mass of the people. In so many places... the parish priest is not concerned only of a small group of devote souls... The parish priest is pastor of all: he must as well leave the ninety-nine secure sheep in order to trace the only one lost: more so if the secure sheep are a pusillus grex and those lost are the more numerous.93
The pastor, sent to the whole population, must therefore work for a dual conversion:
- with respect for the recipients: no longer identifiable with the small groups that already habitually go to church, but with all the inhabitants of the parish;
- with respect for his role: no longer just to preside in acts of worship wherein the devote ones participate, but to venture into the search of those far away and to give preference to meeting them.
Don Alberione perceives the urgent need of overcoming the narrow spaces of certain parishes.94 He tries to maintain balanced
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the relationship mass-individual and while he is preoccupied with letting the word that saves reach every person, he raises the question: How can preaching be made fruitful also for those who do not come to listen to it? In the care of souls in many cities, to aim only at the group of those already converted and not at others who need it much more is a serious inconvenience. Now, for these especially... one can let a good paper reach.95 The press is therefore a valid pastoral tool.
Indeed, Swoboda already dealt with this problem and invited that the two terms of the relationship be kept in balance through a special action on the different social classes.96 The individual is recognized and reached within the sphere of his social class. Don Alberione emphasizes in turn this argument and shares the proposal to overcome easy absolutization through an attentive setting up of various social classes.97 At the same time, however, he gathers from the context a new instance, the possibility that is of attending to the mass through means different from the traditional ones: to let a good paper reach.
4. New methods. Our Author in fact respects the traditional forms of proposing the Word, as preaching and catechesis, but he proposes various possibilities, with the declared assumption of the good press98 and of eventual modern means, as instruments of evangelization, those capable of introducing the word of God and the voice of the Church also in those environments that are not strictly ecclesial.
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Another short passage of the ATP deserves attention: He (the parish priest) ought not proceed with an a priori method: he should not enter into a village with a program well-defined in all its parts: his program is to do good: the activities and the manner he shall choose on the place after having known the population.99 More, with a reference to the Divine Master: the priest must have a precise awareness of the miseries and the needs, [an awareness] acquired directly from the people; in fact, how can doing good be possible to those whom one does not know? How can they be sought if they are not known? Did Jesus act this way?100
Hence the need of knowing the people, the souls, in view of working constructively among them, is underlined.
5. Concreteness and globality. All these elements are unified, or as if polarized by a great pastoral anxiety and by a strong social sensitivity. Thanks to the training received in the dynamic diocese of Alba,101 Don Alberione is decided in the pursuit of evangelization and the Christification of society, and in excluding everything that is not aimed at them.
The clergy's social action and the Catholic action are justified only in this perspective: Under such title [the social... Catholic action] one can immediately believe that one ought to only speak of rural banks, of winegrowers' cooperatives, of banks. No: these things could be included, and the clergy must moderately participate in them, but they do not make up pastoral care.102
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While writing these pages, Don Alberione was committed with Can. Francesco Chiesa to the spread of the Unione Popolare103 in various parishes of the diocese of Alba. His orientation is clear: the presence of the priest-pastor must not be marked by compromise; he says no to pure spiritualism and no also to sociologism and fundamentalism. Parish priests must not be men only of the presbytery or only of the streets. He must know how to wisely be involved in social events so that every reality may be Christified, even agriculture and emerging industry in the parish level.
At this point, moving from the fundamental elements of the text, it is possible to identify in the term totality the core idea of the pastoral concept of Don Alberione. It expresses the need of reaching the entire human reality in its globality, all men, of whatever social condition, with all the means that human progress gradually places under the disposition of the pastoral worker, for achieving the goal of Christifying the whole man and entire history.104
His contribution to novelty consists then not only in the assumption of the new media instruments, but above all in his numerous foundations, that, in their historical evolution, are called to bring to reality the new pastoral either in its content or in the means.
Conclusion
Don Alberione has written a book that certainly one cannot call revolutionary. It is rather a testimony of how to put together tradition and novelty. Without creating useless fractures, he sows over traditional pastoral new seeds that, once applied, guarantee a notable change on the level of reflection and practice.
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This characteristic, meanwhile, would distinguish Don Alberione during his whole life as pastor-founder: a quality that has to be doubtless inherited for him who works in the Church of God and at the service of the kingdom.
* * *We wish to thank those who have collaborated with the present work, especially Sr. Lucia Varo, SGBP and the Paulines: Fr. Andrea Damino and Fr. Giancarlo Rocca who extended us precious contributions; Fr. Antonio F. da Silva and Fr. Eliseo Sgarbossa for their suggestions and collaboration in this introduction; Fr. Luigi Giovannini for the revision of the work; and Bro. Maurizio Tirapelle for the entire technical part.
VIRGINIA ODORIZZI SJBP
ANGELO COLACRAI SSP
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1 G. ALBERIONE, La Beata Vergine delle Grazie in Cherasco, Tip. Albese di N. Durando, Alba 1910.
2 A. DAMINO, Bibliografia di don Giacomo Alberione, Edizioni dell'Archivio Storico Generale della Famiglia Paolina, Roma 1994
3 , pp. 25-28.
3 On the passage from direct pastoral apostolate to the indirect, while awaiting more in-depth studies, consult L. ROLFO, Don Alberione, appunti per una biografia, San Paolo, Cinisello Balsamo (MI) 1998
3 , p. 75; R. F. ESPOSITO, La teologia della pubblicistica (The theology of publishing), EP, Roma 1970, p. 71ff; E. SGARBOSSA, “La formazione presbiterale e il sacerdozio di Don Alberione”, in Palestra del Clero, March-April 1996, pp. 661-684.
4 L. ROLFO, Il buon soldato di Cristo, EP, Alba 1978, p. 106.
5 G. MAGGI, “Temi politici e sociali nell'azione dei cattolici albesi del primo novecento”, in Alba Pompeia, Nuova Serie IV (1983) I, pp. 5-18; P. REGGIO, “Alba: L'ambiente socioreligioso nella città e dintorni” in Conoscere Don Alberione, Ed. Centro di Spiritualità Paolina, Roma 1994, pp. 79ff.
6 Cf. G. BARBERO, Il sacerdote Giacomo Alberione, Un uomo - un'idea, Società San Paolo, Roma 1991
2 , pp. 155-158; D. RANZATO-G. ROCCA, 50 Anni di una presenza pastorale, Roma 1988, p. 17ff.
7 L. ROLFO, Don Alberione..., op. cit., p. 71.
8 G. ALBERIONE, Abundantes divitiae gratiae suae. Charismatic history of the Pauline Family (AD), Rome 1998, no. 82 and 86.
9 G. ALBERIONE, Appunti di Teologia Pastorale, II ed., Pietro Marietti editore, Torino 1915, p. XI. - All the quotes of ATP, when it is not mentioned otherwise, refer to this edition.
10 Msgr. Natale Bussi (1907-1988) professor at the seminary of Alba, in an interview done on 17/08/1982, spoke of this methodology used by Don Alberione. The questionnaires asked “how to perform pastoral - what were the duties of the parish priest.” He then identified some priests to whom he surely sent the questionnaire: Msgr. Bartolomeo Dallorto (1886-1953), parish priest of Monforte; Msgr. Luigi Sibona (1874-1947), parish priest of Canale-Castellinaldo; Msgr. Augusto Vigolungo (1869-1941), parish priest of Vezza.
11 Cf. ATP, p. IX.
12 AD, no. 83.
13 ATP, p. XI.
14 The 1915 text was found in the major Italian libraries, e. g., Turin, Rome, Naples, aside from the Benedictine library of Cava de' Tirreni (Salerno).
15 Difesa ed azione, Monthly magazine of the Association of the Clergy of the Archdiocese of Turin. (1912) p. 135.
16 A. RICHELMY, Presentazione, in ATP, p. VII, 2 febbraio 1913.
17 A. TAVERNA, Rassegna di Teologia Pastorale, in La Civiltà Cattolica, 67 (1916) IV, p. 456. In the same review, however, Don Alberione received some criticisms regarding the confessors' conduct as regards scrupulous penitents (cf. no. 185-201). Furthermore, with particular firmness, complaint is made for an affirmation regarding the revelation of the so-called “mysteries of life” to young people. Don Alberione, in fact, holds that this revelation “must be made... for the sake of educating better...” (cf. no. 192). La Civiltà Cattolica rebuts that this “method of education, far from obtaining the goal of sparing the young people from vice, opens wide the doors to corruption” (cf. p. 459). We do not know the Author's reaction to this review. In the 1960 edition, what was written was nonetheless published without any modification, except for a point in matters of moral theology.” (cf. ATP, III ed. p. 254).
18 G. STOCCHIERO, Pratica pastorale a norma del Codice di Diritto Canonico e in rapporto alla legislazione ecclesiastica italiana, Marietti, Torino 1921. Don Alberione's book is quoted on page VII. - E. NADDEO, Il vero pastore di anime, Norme Pratiche di Teologia Pastorale dei Parroci Italiani, voll. 2, Ferrari, Roma 1922. Don Alberione's book is quoted on page IX.
19 Cf. A. DAMINO, Bibliografia..., op. cit., p. 148-150.
20 Vita Pastorale. Rivista per la pratica del Ministero Sacerdotale, IV (1921), pp. 4-6. Cf. ATP, no. 104ss.
21 G. ALBERIONE, Prediche alle Suore Pastorelle (Sermons to the Pastorelle Sisters), vol. 1, EP, Albano Laziale (Roma) 1961, p. 35.
22 The documentation, kindly furnished by Fr. Antonio Speciale, is composed of a report by Msgr. Giuseppe Pistoni to the same Fr. Speciale, and from the attachments A, B, C, D, E, F. In the report dated 16 October 1959, Msgr. Pistoni briefly reveals his exchange of letters with Don Alberione. The attachments are the replies to the request of the book editor, except attachment B, which is the preface of the III edition of the volume.
23 ATP, Preface to the 1
st edition, p. IX; p. 55 of the present edition.
24 ATP, Preface to the 2
nd edition, p. XI; p. 57 of the present edition.
25 For further studies on the theme cf. E. BOSETTI, Il Pastore. Cristo e la Chiesa nella I lettera di Pietro (The pastor. Christ and the Church in the I letter of Peter), EDB, Bologna 1990.
26 In the index of the II edition, on p. 373, one reads: “Evaluation of His Eminence Card. Richelmy on the I edition”
27 ATP, no. 52.
28 ATP, no. 79.
29 ATP, no. 363.
30 ATP, Preface to the 2
nd edition, p. XI; p. 57 of the present edition.
31 Cf. no. 36 of the present edition. The first edition omits Chap. III and “the fruits of piety, priestly virtues” continuing the discussion without any solution of continuity.
32 Cf. no. 70 of the present edition.
33 Cf. no. 37, where the Lega Sacerdotale Pro Pontifice et Ecclesia (League of Priests Pro Pontifice et Ecclesia), originated in 1913 and constituted in Piedmont in 1915, is described.
34 Cf. no. 45: bits of information regarding the Missionari Gratuiti are omitted. In no. 204 a very short phrase concerning them reappears: “by making use also of the preachers of the league among the Missionari Gratuiti”.
35 Attachment A of the documentation related to the exchange of letters between Don Alberione and Can. Pistoni. Cf. note 22 of this foreword.
36 Between the years '20 - '30 many pastoral scholars have set aside the format of manuals on pastoral as they were too heavy and inadequate to meet rigorously and speedily the problems emerging from new pastoral demands. At this period appears also a new presence in the pastoral activity, the presence of lay persons, more specifically of women. With F. X. Arnold, a famous scholar in pastoral in Tubingen, pastoral theology acquires a new location and a precise definition within the theological framework. From the time after second world war until the sixties, a complex movement known in the Catholic circle as “Holistic pastoral” imposed itself. Cf. M. MIDALI, Teologia Pastorale o pratica, LAS, Roma 1985, pp. 61-83.
37 AD, no. 83: “Over a two-year period, in weekly conferences with a dozen priests, he studied methods for the good and up-to-date care of souls. He asked questions and received written suggestion from about 15 Vicars Forane. (These he shared with the student clerics and young priests). The outcome was his (1913) book Appunti di Teologia pastorale...”.
38 ATP, III ed., p. 7.
39 Actually in the Quaderno 60 the manuscript of pages 9-31 of the first edition of ATP are preserved. The case deserves a brief consideration. In fact, Quaderno 60 makes available pages 7-128. But pages 7-41, corresponding to the aforementioned pages of the ATP, are not handwritten by Don Alberione. Probably it is the work of one of his collaborators to whom Don Alberione had entrusted a manuscript so to have a copy in a more readable writing. Two reasons, however, lead nonetheless to holding that Don Alberione is the author of these pages: the fact that he numbered them by his own hand, considering them as of equal footing with the rest of Quaderno 60, as well as in the difficulty of the person handwriting the material to interpret the text in front of him, considering that he left some blank spaces to be filled in some other time. For example on page 39, after the word “adorano” there follows a white space and then followed two exclamation points. It is a sign that he could not quite interpret the word “tremanti” from the original manuscript.
40 For this point, cf. F. ARNOLD, Storia moderna della Teologia Pastorale, Città Nuova, Roma 1970, pp. 172-182; C. FLORISTAN e M. USEROS, Teologia dell'azione pastorale, EP, Roma 1970, pp. 119-121; M. MIDALI, Teologia..., op. cit., pp. 18-83; S. LANZA, Introduzione alla Teologia pastorale, Queriniana, Brescia 1989, pp. 36-67.
41 S. DIANICH, L'ecclesiologia in Italia dal Vaticano I al Vaticano II, in Dizionario Storico del Movimento Cattolico, vol. II, Marietti, Torino 1981, p. 164.
42 Cf. C. KRIEG, Cura d'anime speciale, Marietti, Torino 1913, pp. 5, 16-24.
43 Cf. Ibid, pp. 9-15.
44 Cf. Ibid, pp. 1-41.
45 Cf. Ibid, pp. 65-95.
46 Cf. notes 52-53 in the following pages.
47 Cf. C. KRIEG, Cura d'anime..., op. cit., pp. 61-63.
48 Idem, p. 61; H. SWOBODA, La cura d'anime nelle grandi città, Pustet, Roma 1912, pp. 9-15.
49 Cf. G. FRASSINETTI, Manuale pratico del parroco novello, I ed., Tip. Miglio, Novara 1863. The book is characterized as a collection of pieces of practical advice, born out of a daily experience in the ministry. More than the preoccupation for the juridical aspect of pastoral, is prevalent the attention to the pastoral duties of the parish priest in relation with the needs of the time and to priestly asceticism that should give its form. The book, divided into three parts, speaks: On the duties of the parish priest; On the Sacraments; On the practice of some of the virtues most required of parish priests. Translated into the principal European languages, the book was highly praised. The Italian bishops welcomed it warmly and proposed it to priests for their meditation. Msgr. Gentile, bishop of Novara, with an accompanying pastoral letter, sent a copy of the book to each of the parish priests of the diocese, (cf. Introduction to the XI ed., p. 7).
50 Both the XI (1928) and the XII (1964) were published by the Edizioni Paoline according to Don Alberione's wishes.
51 G. FRASSINETTI, Manuale..., op. cit., Introduzione, p. 9.
52 Cf. E. BERARDI, Theologia Pastoralis, Typ. Novelli-Castellani, Faventiae [Favenza] 1912. Cf. A. MICHELETTI, De Pastore Animarum, Pustet, Roma 1912. In this book, the subject is divided into two large parts. In the first, “De Boni Pastoris persona et obligationibus”, describes the figure of the priest-pastor, while enumerating his characteristic virtues and his principal duties. In the second part, “De Pastoris opera eiusque peculiaribus obligationibus”, tackles the topic of relationships of the priests with the different persons of the diocese and of the parish. The chapters concerning the administration of the sacraments and the various works to promote in the parish follow. Finally, the book deals with the norms that ought to regulate the administration of temporal goods. The publication, nonetheless, is not to be listed among the works of speculation.
53 Cf. G. CALANDRUCCIO, Vademecum del parroco italiano, ossia manuale teorico-pratico di leggi ecclesiastico-civili riguardanti i parroci, (Vademecum of the Italian parish priest or a theoretical-practical manual of Church and civil laws concerning parish priests) Tip. dell'Àncora, Napoli 1901. - G. BARTOLOTTI, Il parroco italiano ne' suoi rapporti con le leggi dello stato. Manuale teorico-pratico contenente dottrina, legislazione, giurisprudenza intorno alle leggi civili, penali, amministrative e finanziarie concernenti il regime parrocchiale (The Italian parish priest in his relationships with the laws of the state, a Theoretical-practical manual containing doctrine, legislation, jurisprudence based on the civil, penal, administrative and financial laws concerning the parish regimen), Pustet, Roma 1910
3 . - G. CORAZZINI, Il parroco. Cenni storici, diritto, legislazione (The parish priest, historical, canonical, legal references), G. C. Sansoni, Firenze 1913.
54 Cf. F. DE SANTA, Spunti di teologia pastorale (Pointers for pastoral theology), Marietti, Torino 1926
4 .
55 Cf. E. NADDEO, Il vero Pastore di anime, norme pratiche di teologia pastorale per parroci italiani (The true Pastor of souls, practical norms of pastoral theology for the Italian parish priests), 2 vol., Ferrari, Roma 1922. - G. STOCCHIERO, Pratica pastorale, a norma del CIC in rapporto alla legislazione ecclesiastica italiana, (Pastoral practice, according to the norms of the CJC in relation with the Italian legislation) Marietti, Torino 1921.
56 Cf. C. KRIEG, Scienza Pastorale, Teologia Pastorale (Pastoral Science, pastoral theology), in 4 books, an authorized version based on the German edition by the Archpriest A. Boni Marietti, Torino. Truly, the book remained incomplete due to the author's death. Vol 1. was published: Cura d'anime speciale (Special care of souls) (German edition: 1904), Marietti, Torino 1913; Vol. II.: Catechetica, ossia scienza del catecumenato ecclesiastico (Catechetics, or the science of ecclesiastica catechumenate) (German edition 1907), Marietti, Torino 1915; III vol.: Omiletica o scienza dell'evangelizzazione della parola di Dio (Homilitics or the science of evangelization of God's word), of which the author left behind the manuscript, published posthumously. It appeared in Italy in 1920. - H. SWOBODA, La cura d'anime nelle grandi città (The care of souls in big cities), op. cit.
57 ATP, no. 268.
58 ATP, no. 299. Swoboda's book used by Don Alberione is kept in the historical Archives of the General House of the SSP. All through the book, his notes and underlinings, that show the passages and the arguments used for the ATP, are clearly visible.
59 Don Alberione gathers in the work of Swoboda above all the reflections on the nature of pastoral action and its principles. Cf. ATP, nos. 81-87. For the new organizational propositions of pastoral, cf. ATP, nos. 154, 156, 158, 299.
60 ATP, Preface to the 2
nd edition, p. XI; p. 57 of the present edition
61 Cf. Index of Authors at the end of the book. In the editorial activity of the Pauline Family, different books by St. Alphonsus have been published under the urging of Don Alberione.
62 Cf. L. NORDERA, Il catechismo di Pio X. For a history of catechesis, LAS, Roma 1988, pp. 221-290.
63 Cf. S. MARSILI, Storia del movimento liturgico italiano, in O. ROUSSEAU, Storia del movimento liturgico, EP, Roma 1961, pp. 263-269.
64 M. BELARDINELLI, Per una storia della definizione del movimento cattolico, in Dizionario storico del Movimento Cattolico in Italia (DSMCI), vol. I, Marietti, Roma 1981, p. 2.
65 Cf. S. ZANINELLI, La situazione economica e l'azione sociale dei cattolici, DSMCI, vol. I, pp. 323-327.
66 Don Alberione did not remain insensitive regarding the theme of the promotion of women, so much discussed after the 1900's, and he saw to demonstrating how much it could do in the pastoral sphere, in his book La donna associata allo zelo sacerdotale (Women associated with priestly zeal), Scuola Tip. “Piccolo Operaio”, Alba 1915. The book addresses itself directly to the priest engaged in the “care of souls,” and advices him to count on the collaboration of women in achieving pastoral goals, in the sphere of the family, of the parish and of society. - New edition, San Paolo, Cinisello Balsamo (MI) 2001 (English translation available).
67 S. ZANINELLI, La situazione..., op. cit., pp. 331-332.
68 Idem, p. 332.
69 Cf. ATP, no. 71.
70 Cf. S. TRAMONTIN, Un secolo di storia della Chiesa. Da Leone XIII al Concilio Vaticano II, Studium, Roma 1980, p. 5.
71 Cf. PIO X, E supremi apostolatus cathedra, Litterae Encyclicae, 4.10.1903, CC, 1903, IV, pp. 129-149.
72 An enthusiastic promoter of International Eucharistic Congresses, of which the 25
th was celebrated in Rome in 1905, Pius X encouraged “the active participation of believers with the divine mysteries”; he promoted singing and sacred music. In such an undertaking, he was supported by Lorenzo Perosi (Tortona 1872-Roma 1956), priest and inspired composer, - well known in the Pauline Family -, who was called to Rome to direct the Sistine Chapel. Pius X was active above all in the catechetical field, already dedicating on the theme the encyclical letter Acerbo Nimis (15 April 1905), which touched on regular religious instruction of children and promoted the work of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine. For the diocese of the ecclesiastical province of Rome, he promulgated in 1912 a Catechism distinguished for its didactic character.
73 F. KERR, O.P., “Rahner Retrospective II: The Historicity of Theology”, in New Blackfriars, 61 (1980), 339.
74 Publications that date back to 1854 like l'Enchiridion symbolorum, definitionum et declarationum by H. Denzinger, were the guarantee of the Roman pronouncements for those scholars who, hostile to the general philosophical feeling of the times, ignored the progresses in the study of the Scriptures and of historiography.
75 Lamentabili Sane Exitu, of 4 July 1907. - Syllabus (collection) is the name of the list of the 80 propositions condemned by Pius IX on 8 December 1864. The title was Syllabus complectens praecipuos nostrae aetatis errores, and it was published as an appendix to the encyclical letter Quanta cura. As a whole, the Syllabus denied that the Church should and could come in to terms with modern ideologies.
76 Regarding this subject, see the following studies: P. SCOPPOLA, Crisi modernista e rinnovamento cattolico in Italia, Il Mulino, Bologna 1961; M. GUASCO, Modernismo: i fatti, le idee, i personaggi, San Paolo, Cinisello Balsamo (MI) 1995; L. BEDESCHI, Il Modernismo italiano: voci e volti, San Paolo, Cinisello Balsamo (MI) 1995. - Cf. Also Conoscere Don Alberione, Strumenti per una biografia, Centro di Spiritualità Paolina, Roma 1994, pp. 39-127.
77 Cf. AD, no. 89. - Regarding the case of Fogazzaro and his novel (published in 1905), see L. CARONTI, Fogazzaro, Subiaco e “Il Santo”, EP, Alba 1989.
78 “Because of the rapid spread of Modernism there was serious upheaval and disorientation in literature, in art, in Church discipline, in journalism, theology, philosophy, history, Scripture... Many, especially among the young clergy, went astray...” (AD 51).
79 “... the school was becoming the arena where non-believers and Catholics contended for souls...” (AD 54). - On this theme, cf. AD 49-55.
80 AD, no. 50.
81 Cf. Gesù, il Maestro, ieri, oggi e sempre, Atti del Seminario internazionale su “Gesù, il Maestro”, Società San Paolo, Roma 1997, pp. 45-63 (p. 56).
82 AD, nos. 87-88.
83 ATP, no. 1.
84 G. ALBERIONE, La donna associata..., op. cit., nos. 16-17.
85 ATP, nos. 198, 202 e 234.
86 Cf. AD, no. 80. Cf. G. PRIERO, “A year's work in Alba”, in Il Catechista Cattolico (1915), p. 267.
87 ATP, no. 324.
88 ATP, no. 81; H. SWOBODA, La cura d'anime..., op. cit., p. 11.
89 Jn 10:10: “I came so that they may have life and have it more abundantly”; Jn 20:21: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” What Don Alberione mentions here shall be eventually developed in all its wealth during the thirty years in which he guided the young congregation of the Sisters of Jesus Good Shepherd towards a greater awareness of its own apostolic identity, that is founded on three biblical passage that are typically pastoral: Jn 10:1-18; 21:15ff. and 1Pt 5:1-5. Cf. E. BOSETTI, Un commento di Giacomo Alberione sul Buon Pastore, in Un carisma pastorale, Atti del Seminario sul carisma, Roma 1985, pp. 141-199.
90 ATP, no. 81.
91 Cf. G. ALBERIONE, Donec formetur Christus in vobis, Pia Società San Paolo, Alba-Roma 1932. Cf. Introduction in the new edition, Rome 2001, nos. 49ss; AA.VV., L'eredità cristocentrica di Don Alberione, EP 1989, pp. 241ff.
92 Cf. A. F. DA SILVA, Il cammino degli esercizi spirituali nel pensiero di don Giacomo Alberione, Centro Spiritualità Paolina, Ariccia 1981.
93 ATP, nos. 86, 132, 139, 140, 141.
94 This orientation of Don Alberione would assume greater consistency during the years 1936-38 inasmuch as he brings to maturity the idea of giving life to a “Pastoral Institute” as he loved to define it, together with other initiatives such as: the magazine Pastor Bonus (1936-39), the Course of Pastoral Theology, the running of a parish in Rome that he wanted dedicated to Jesus Good Shepherd. Cf. R. F. ESPOSITO, Lo specifico paolino delle suore di Gesù Buon Pastore, in AA.VV., Un Carisma Pastorale, op. cit., pp. 54-79; cf. D. RANZATO-G. ROCCA, 50 anni di una presenza..., op. cit., pp. 43ff.
95 ATP, no. 277.
96 H. SWOBODA, La cura d'anime..., op. cit., p. 281.
97 Cf. ATP, no. 87.
98 ATP, no. 277. For an exhaustive presentation of the initiatives in favor the press during the first decades of the century, cf. G. ROCCA, “La formazione della Pia Società San Paolo (1914-1927)”, in Claretianum, XXI-XXII (1981-1982), 477-482.
99 ATP, no. 327.
100 ATP, no. 84; cf. ATP, 145-146.
101 Regarding the socio-religious situation of the diocese of Alba, cf. G. MAGGI, “Temi politici e sociali nell'azione dei cattolici albesi del primo novecento”, in Alba Pompeia, op. cit., pp. 5-18. The author makes an explicit reference to the work undertaken by Can. Francesco Chiesa and Don Alberione, sent by the bishop to the parishes to let known the pontifical document “Il fermo proposito” and to activate the Unione Popolare as an alternative need to socialism. They had notable success: at the end of the 1811 in fact, the Unione Popolare was present in 91 parishes with 2352 listed members, 800 more than the preceding year.
102 ATP, no. 323.
103 AD, no. 61.
104 Cf. ATP, nos. 81-82, 86-87.