EUROPE/ITALY - In time of Coronavirus, the commitment of the Blessed Scalabrini is always present, at the forefront of calamities

Tuesday, 2 June 2020 coronavirus   migrants   missionary institutes  

Rome (Agenzia Fides) - "Today more than ever, in times of pandemic, the commitment of Blessed Giovanni Battista Scalabrini, who was at the forefront of those calamities, remembered as the protagonist of a daily, generous and hidden charity to many people in need, to the point that he was called 'prince of charity'. Today we celebrate him because he is a sign of a man capable of perceiving the greatest needs of his time, with the missionary's passion, hopes, dramas and contradictions of his time". This was underlined by Sister Neusa de Fatima Mariano, Superior General of the Missionary Sisters of St. Charles Borromeo/Scalabrinians, in a note sent to Agenzia Fides on the occasion of the Feast of Blessed Giovanni Battista Scalabrini, founder of the Congregation, on 1st June.
"His celebration this year falls at a particular time, when the whole world is on its knees due to the Covid-19 pandemic - adds Sister Neusa - It is also the year of the 125th anniversary of the foundation of our Congregation, which leads us to remember the faithful donation of every Scalabrinian missionary". The Superior General speaks of the founder as a man with a "strong and lovable, concrete and creative character", with "organizational skills" that led him to support Italian migrants who went with hope to Latin America. "In Scalabrini we find a renewed stimulus to continue and grow in our charismatic identification with him, which feeds the journey and the daily vocational response - she adds - To have a Scalabrinian style, with a female face of the charism, we repeat what Blessed Scalabrini did with the migrants of his time, but inspired by his evangelical testimony we have a mission to be preserved, a legacy to be transmitted, frontiers to be inhabited as places of interrelation". To the Scalabrinian nuns, to the laity, the superior asked to "make this celebration an opportunity to make known Blessed Giovanni Battista Scalabrini and his always current work, to awaken his devotion". (SL) (Agenzia Fides, 2/6/2020)


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