1. VINCENT PALLOTTI

FOUNDER OF THE UNION OF CATHOLIC APOSTOLATE

 

  1. [Life and Activities] – Vincent Pallotti, son of Peter Paul and Maddalena de Rossi, was born in Rome on April 21st 1795. In his youth he was sustained and nourished by the religious spirit of his parents. Following his ordination to the priesthood on May 16th, 1818, because of his multiple and intense apostolic works, he formed friendships with clergy and laity committed to keeping faith alive in the people of Rome. His pastoral activity on so many fronts led him to urge collaboration among priests, religious and laity.

The city of Rome offered a vast range of options for his apostolic and priestly activities. His pastoral concerns embraced all aspects of ecclesial life: he was open to the poor and despised, the sick and the marginalised; he was attentive to the soldiers, workers, students, and prisoners; he was an untiring minister of reconciliation; he gave conferences to religious and preached popular missions in the parishes; he organised Christian formation for the youth, for adults, and for the clergy; he instituted and assisted orphanages; he promoted the Christian press, encouraged the missions, and was sensitive to the problems of the Christian East; he initiated the celebration of the Octave of the Epiphany to give witness to the unity and universality of the Church. Above all, he was preoccupied with the glory of God and the salvation of God’s people. The motivating force of all this apostolate directed to the rekindling of faith was love, lived in its twofold dimension: spiritual and temporal.

In the life and apostolic activity of St. Vincent the dominant objective, the leaven that inspired all else, was his daily and continuous striving for holiness. Every moment of his life was aimed at God, the infinitely Holy. St. Vincent felt drawn to God, and thus he declared that God, Holiness in essence, with His own infinite Holiness, “destroys all my wickedness, and when I am completely negated, there remains in me only God infinite sanctity, immense, eternal, incomprehensible” (OOCC X, 459).

He died in Rome, at San Salvatore in Onda, on the 22nd of January, 1850. On the 22nd of January, 1950, he was proclaimed “blessed” by Pope Pius XII. On the 20th of January, 1963, he was canonised by Pope Blessed John XXIII, who said of the Saint: “St. Vincent Pallotti is one of the more eminent figures of apostolic activity of the 19th century . . . He was not satisfied by ordinary ministry. He was an innovator of new ways whereby people could come to know and love God” (Acta SAC V, 367).

 

  1. [Spirituality] – The dynamic principle on which the multi-faceted apostolic activities of St. Vincent Pallotti was founded was his personal faith experience. God gave him, as a gift of the Spirit, a profound experience of His infinite love and mercy. According to Vincent Pallotti, the most profound motivation of God’s activity is infinite love. For this reason men and women, created in the image and likeness of God, reach the full understanding of the meaning of life when they continually exercise the love of God and love of neighbour (cf. 1 Jn 4,16).

This experience permits men and women to know Christ as the Apostle of the Eternal Father. All that Jesus achieved during his life on earth derives from his love of the Father and from his saving love of all people (cf. OOCC III, 175ff). The secret of the apostolic efficacy of every Christian consists of the imitation of Christ’s love for God the Father and for all people. For Vincent Pallotti, therefore, love is the driving motive for anyone who wishes to collaborate in the apostolate. The following of Christ and participation in His mission to save all people are inseparable. All people, since called to be his disciples have an apostolic obligation.  (cf. OOCC III, 142).

Mary, Queen of Apostles, is, “after Jesus Christ, the most perfect model of true Catholic zeal and perfect charity, because she was so committed to the greater glory of God and the good of souls … that she surpassed the Apostles in merit” (OOCC I, 7). This title of Mary, Queen of Apostles, is for St. Vincent a symbol, a programme, Mary is the most efficacious example and the more perfect model for the apostolate of the faithful.

 

  1. [Foundation] – The experience of the God of love and mercy opened the eyes of St. Vincent Pallotti to the needs of the Church of his day and prompted him to respond. In the signs of the times he was able to read the will of God. His response to the inspiration he received on the 9th of January, 1835, was the foundation of the Union of Catholic Apostolate (cf. OOCC X, 198-199).

The Holy Spirit blessed him with the intuition of a foundation in which the baptised participate in the mission of the Church. He realised that their success depends on the extent to which they unite for the realization of a common aim. Vincent Pallotti expressed this intuition in these words: “The Catholic Apostolate, that is, universal since it is common to all classes of persons, consists in doing all that one must and can do for the greater glory of God and for one’s own salvation and that of one’s neighbour” (OOCC III, 143).

The official date of the birth of the foundation of St. Vincent Pallotti is the 4th of April 1835. On that day, the Cardinal Vicar of Rome, Carlo Odescalchi, gave “every blessing to the pious Union of Catholic Apostolate” (cf. OOCC IV, 1-3). In May of 1835, Vincent Pallotti launched his first appeal to the people of Rome, in which he presented the idea and the aim of this “Pious Association of the Catholic Apostolate,” inviting priests, religious and lay faithful to participate (cf. OOCC IV, 119-141). On the 11th of July of the same year the approval of Pope Gregory XVI followed (cf. OOCC, IV 8-9). On the 25th of March 1838 the Union of Catholic Apostolate was erected as an association with public juridic personality in the Diocese of Rome, (cf. OOCC IV, 24-26), and existed in the universal Church constituted as a Union composed of communities and individuals and recognised by the Holy See (cf. Law of the SAC, Rome, 1980, 1,4,202-205; Constitutions, Rome 1980, 6c; Unsere Lebensform, Rome 1985, 6-7, 179c, 202, 223).

During the lifetime of the Founder, the Union of Catholic Apostolate experienced a constant, even if turbulent, development. The multiplicity of the members of the Union impelled Vincent Pallotti to think of diverse forms of belonging and of diverse organizational structures (cf. OOCC I, II). With his Union the Founder was not so much seeking to create new structures in the Church, but rather to revive the existing ones and to render their apostolate more effective (cf. OOCC III, 1-3). With untiring charity and wherever possible, he sought to work together with others in the apostolate, thus promoting unity. According to Vincent Pallotti, the unity of the Union was founded on the promise made to live charity and apostolic zeal. Therefore, the bond of the Union was, above all else, reciprocal love with a minimum of organization.

The Union of Catholic Apostolate, as constituted in that first group of lay faithful, religious and priests, experienced in the following years a more systematic and harmonious development which expressed itself in the Community of the Priests and Brothers, in the Communities of the Sisters, and in a vast Community of the lay faithful of every state of life and condition. Today, the Union of Catholic Apostolate substantially conserves the same features and remains open to all the members of the People of God. Throughout the world, the Union brings together those who are inspired by the apostolic ideals of the Founder: the members of the Institutes founded by St. Vincent Pallotti or which were founded subsequently at different times, as well as the growing number of lay faithful, committed as individuals, or organised in groups and communities. All form one spiritual family united by the same spirit and are dedicated to responding together to the modern challenges of the Universal Apostolate. On the 28th of October 2003 the Union of Catholic Apostolate received, from the Pontifical Council for the Laity, the institutional form of a “public international association” (Newsletter of the Pontifical Council for the Laity 8/2003, 13).

In order to bring to full realization the original vision of St. Vincent Pallotti and to render this vision relevant to the needs of our time, the Union of Catholic Apostolate is committed to living the General Statutes. Thus she intends to foster the unity of the entire Pallottine Foundation and to reveal its prophetic expression.