Blessed James Alberione

Blessed Alberione: Mass Communicator

By María Ruiz Scaperlanda

A 16-year-old seminarian in Alba, Italy, knelt in adoration before the Eucharist on Dec. 31, 1900. He was blessed with a specific vision for evangelizing the newborn century.

A "particular enlightenment" came to him from the Host, Father James Alberione described years later, aware he was given the gift to feel "deeply obliged to prepare himself to do something for the women and men of the new century" through communications.

Within 15 years, Father Alberione had founded communities of men and women Religious to embrace all communication technologies as tools of evangelization for the Church.

During his 64 years as a priest, Father Alberione founded 10 international religious congregations, known as the Pauline Family, including the Daughters of St. Paul, four other religious congregations, four secular institutes and an association of lay faithful.

On April 27, Father Alberione was beatified in Rome at a ceremony attended by many of the 10,000 men and women around the globe living his vision. Referring to his explicit media apostolate, Pope John Paul II referred to Father Alberione as "the first apostle of the new evangelization."

Members of the Pauline family agree. That’s why they believe Blessed Alberione makes a prime candidate for the job of patron saint of the Internet. And thanks to the Daughters of St. Paul, their founder and new saint already has his own website, www.alberione.com.

As Father Alberione said to his communities in 1960: "The press, motion pictures, radio and television today constitute the most urgent, most rapid, and most efficacious means of Catholic apostolate. It could be that the future reserves other, better, means. But, for the present, it seems that the heart of the apostle can desire no better instruments for giving God to souls and souls to God."

Father Alberione "was the first in the Church to understand the importance of global communication," explained Sister Kathryn James Hermes, director of electronic publishing for the Daughters of St. Paul. Because Father Alberione believed that every form of communication "needed to be put at the service of evangelization, he would be the first to say that evangelization with the Internet is not primarily about transmitting information. One must live the message, be a witness, offer testimony to what he or she has seen of the face of Christ."

Father Alberione emphasized to the members of the Pauline Family that "the pulpits from which they would preach the Word of God would be the pressrooms and editorial offices and recording studios," Sister Hermes said. The preaching of the Paulines would "reach beyond the churches and schools and touch the countless people who would never think of entering a church or seeking out a priest or Religious for advice [by] reaching into the homes, automobiles, computers and marketplaces of the world, inviting people to know Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life."

James Alberione was born in 1883 in San Lorenzo di Fossano, in northern Italy. At age 16, Alberione entered the seminary in Alba. After the mystical night where he received the prophetic intuition for his ministry, he completed his studies and, on June 29, 1907, was ordained a priest.

Seven years later, Father Alberione was granted permission by the bishop of Alba to begin a group of religious men (the Society of St. Paul) and, the following year, a group of religious women (the Daughters of St. Paul). From the onset, the congregations were given identical spirituality and mission statements. He loved to remind the members of the Pauline Family that they "were born of the Eucharist, from the Tabernacle!"

Father Alberione died on Nov. 27, 1971, at the age of 87.

"Our founder loved to say, ‘What would St. Paul do if he were alive today? He would use the media to spread the good news of Jesus Christ in the fastest way and to the most people possible’," Sister Hermes said.

"If [Blessed] Alberione were alive today, he would be using the Internet. We’re simply continuing his legacy, as apostles of Christ in the culture of communications."

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