Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Agenzia Fides) – Monsignor Enzo Serenelli died yesterday, September 8, at the age of 78, of an incurable disease. He had served as National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Italy from 1983-1998. The funeral services will be held today, September 9, at 4pm in the Cathedral of Saint Ciriaco in Ancona, his home diocese.
Ordained a priest on June 29, Msgr. Serenelli became Diocesan Missionary Office Director in 1962 and from 1971, Regional Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS), later becoming member of the PMS National Council. On April 25, 1983, the then Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Cardinal Angelo Rossi, appointed him National Director of the PMS in Italy, and his appointment was confirmed for two more terms by Cardinal Jozef Tomko, successor of Cardinal Rossi, until April 25, 1998.
In the course of his term as National Director of the PMS in Italy, he promoted countless initiatives for study and formation for leaders of diocesan missionary centers, missionary animators, and catechists. He made every effort for the renewal of the PMS and worked on the “Mission Project” published in 1990, fruit of a combined effort on his part along with other mission workers in Italy.
It was also thanks to him that the monthly publication “Popoli e Missione” (Peoples and Mission) began. The publication presented documents from the Magisterium and the Italian Episcopate on the missions. He also helped organize an important Theological-Pastoral Symposium on “The Church, Mystery of Communion for the Mission,” which was also included the then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. During the years of his mandate, he was also praised for the first “Day of prayer and fasting for missionary martyrs,” promoted with his support of the Youth Movement of the PMS.
“He was a priest with a great sense of belonging to the Church,” Vice-Director of the PMS in Italy, Tommaso Galizia, told Fides. Galizia had worked side-by-side with him. “He had special gifts for dialogue and collaboration. The missionary Church also remembers him for his constant drive towards a greater unity in pastoral intent and action among the missionary organizations and a greater responsibility in the missionary effort on the part of individual dioceses.”
A professor of Missionary Pastoral Ministry at the Ecclesia Mater Institute of the Pontifical Lateran University, member of the Missionary Commission of the Central Committee of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, Msgr. Serenelli also published two important texts for missionary animation: ““Tu per la Missione” (EMI) e “La Missione, un nuovo inizio” (Urbaniana University Press).
In an interview with Agenzia Fides on October 2, 1996, for the World Day for Missions, he affirmed: “Above all, before asking 'what we should do' we should rediscover 'who we are or who we should be.' Before we help the missions, therefore, we need to realize that we are sent, we are missionaries. We need to be the first to restore that missionary calling that come with the anointing at Baptism and Confirmation. Every Christian should be a missionary and rejoice that he has found the Lord in his life as his own 'private property.' Christ is not only a gift to be accepted, but to be given, also. The mission depends on us all, it is not something to be delegated to others, as the Pope himself says in Redemptoris Missio, there is always a need for 'special envoys' sent out to preach the Gospel to peoples who still do not believe in Christ. Thus, not only the Christian as individual should be a missionary, but every community should be a missionary community. It should live its 'missionari-ness' as an ordinary and normal part of its pastoral labor. Thus, the mission is not just a personal affair, but an event, a community affair. No one on the missions, as Paul VI said, should be a 'solitary navigator,' but should live out his right and duty with a universal mindset within his own community.”
As for the missionary commitment of the Church in Italy, in the same interview, he said: “There is a strong missionary awareness and tradition in our country that makes it stand out among other nations for the number of missionaries it has sent and the generosity it has shown in material aid...On this point, however, I would like to make a consideration that could be a bit bitter. It is easier to raise funds, donate aid to a single church or a single missionary that we might know personally, than it is to contribute to the 'unknown' Church, in support of over 1,000 missionary bishops, over 76,000 seminarians, numerous catechists, retreat houses, and over 50,000 foreign priests. The World Solidarity Fund run by the Pontifical Mission Societies exists precisely for that: in a universal vision, with real and significant aid, face problems that are both great and urgent that no local Church would ever be able to meet on its own. In this sense it is necessary that there be a unified effort on the part of the entire Church and every baptized person.” (SL) (Agenzia Fides 9/9/2009)
